The snow and ice are about to arrive in earnest in Wisconsin, but its golf courses are getting some prestigious recognition, especially those in central Wisconsin.
Golf Magazine has put out its list of the best 100 public golf courses in the country, and nine of them are in Wisconsin.
California ranked first for most courses on the list with 11, including Pebble Beach, which came in at number one overall. But Wisconsin had the second-most courses on the list, tied with golf-centric Florida and North Carolina. In all, 29 states are represented.
Golfers, seen here in 2019, approach the final hole on the Mammoth Dunes course at Sand Valley Golf Resort in Adams County. The course came in 26th among Golf Magazine’s top 100 public golf courses in the country. The resort now has four other courses and is drawing golfers from around the world.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
And while Whistling Straits in the Sheboygan County farming community of Haven, one of Wisconsin’s best-known courses, comes in at number 10 overall, four of the five courses at Sand Valley Golf Resort south of Wisconsin Rapids made the list, including The Lido which came in at number four. The course, which opened in 2023 and was designed by Tom Doak and Brian Schneider, is designed to replicate a course by the same name that opened in 1917 on Long Island, New York, but closed after the U.S. Navy purchased the property for use as a military base during World War II.
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“The scale of the course, the depth of its hazards and the size of the greens, which average over 12,000 square feet, is dazzling,” Golf Magazine writers said in the assessment of The Lido. “Almost all of the great template holes are represented, from the Alps 10th to the Redan 16th, making this course a strategic marvel.”
Sand Valley’s namesake course that opened in 2017 was ranked 20th on the list, while the resort’s Sedge Valley, which opened this year, was ranked 22nd overall. Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley, which opened in 2018, was ranked 26th, according to Golf Magazine.
Sand Valley’s namesake course, seen here in 2017, was ranked 20th on Golf Magazine’s list of the top 100 public courses in the country. Overall, nine courses from Wisconsin made the list, tying it for second for most courses on the list along with Florida and North Carolina. California was first with 11 courses.
Barry Adams | Wisconsin State Journal
Sand Valley is the brainchild of Mike Keiser, one of the country’s most accomplished golf course developers, who used the unique geology of an ancient bed of sand to transform nearly 2,000 acres into a golf destination that is drawing players from around the world. The project, which began in 2013, also includes the restoration of an adjacent 7,200 acres for public use in an effort to bring it back to its natural state with jack pine, hill oak and prickly pear cactus that would improve the habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly and Kirtland’s warbler.
“The people of central Wisconsin do not have a sniff about how uniquely aware the rest of the country is about Sand Valley,” Rick Bakovka, president of the Regional Economic Growth Initiative of Central Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2017. “It’s the biggest economic opportunity for our area in the last 50 years.”
A golf cart rolls path winds through some of the 33,000 flowers planted on the 16th hole of SentryWorld Golf Course. It took 15 workers three days to plant the flowers, and the hole is one of the most recognized in the state.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Other courses from Wisconsin on the Golf Magazine list are Lawsonia Links in Green Lake, which ranked 16th overall and opened in 1930, and Erin Hills near Hartford, which came in at 21st and opened in 2006. The course hosted the 2017 U.S. Open and in 2025 will host the U.S. Women’s Open. Blackwolf Run’s River Course, which opened in 1988 in Kohler, was ranked 29th, while Sentry World in Stevens Point, which hosted the U.S. Senior open in 2023, came in number 81 on the list.
Photos: Stevens Point gears up for the U.S. Senior Open
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
A replica of the championship trophy for the U.S. Senior Open is on display in the Sports Center at SentryWorld.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
PJ’s is one of three restaurants at SentryWorld and is located in the Sports Center.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Books with a Wisconsin theme line shelves at the Library Cafe in the Inn at SentryWorld.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The front desk at the Inn at SentryWolrd was made from a tree that had for years been in an elephant enclosure in an Arizona zoo. The wood still bears the rub marks from the elephants.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The three season porch at the Inn at SentryWorld in Stevens Point.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The lobby of the Inn at SentryWorld includes two 10-foot fireplaces while in the distance is a three-season room that overlooks the 18th hole of SentryWorld Golf Course. The hotel incorporates influences from Frank Lloyd Wright and Wisconsin’s north woods.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
One of the guest suites at the Inn at SentryWorld. The boutique hotel opened in 2022 and has 64 guest rooms.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Chad Bates, general manager of the Inn at SentryWorld, surveys the 18th hole from a third-floor balcony of the 64-room boutique hotel that opened in 2022. The Stevens Point area is expected to get up to 70,000 visitors for the U.S. Senior Open, which begins play Thursday.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
A golf cart rolls on a path that winds through some of the 33,000 flowers planted on the 16th hole of SentryWorld Golf Course. The hole is one of the most recognized in the state, but it took 15 workers three days to plant the flowers.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Workers prep the grandstand at the 18th hole of SentryWorld, home to the 2023 U.S. Senior Open.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The Inn at SentryWorld is seen in the background of the 18th hole. Most of its 64 rooms offer views of the course, which opened in 1982.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Work has been underway for two years to prepare SentryWorld for the U.S. Senior Open. The course has not opened for play this season due to the tournament but will reopen July 4th.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
A greens keeper mows the seventh hole at SentryWorld in Stevens Point.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The fourth hole at SentryWorld, which opened in 1982.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Rick LaFrombois, a public relations specialist at Sentry Insurance, shows off the 51,000 square-foot Sports Center at SentryWorld. During the U.S. Senior Open the facility will be used as a media center.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Stevens Point is known for its Polish heritage. A bust of Casimir Pulaski, who came to the U.S. in 1777 to serve in General George Washington’s army and helped form the American cavalry, is displayed in a city park just north of downtown Stevens Point.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
This mural in downtown Stevens Point pays homage to P.J. Jacobs, right, who in 1912 moved what would become Sentry Insurance to Stevens Point from the Green Lake County community of Berlin. John Joanis, left, is the former CEO and president of the company and who oversaw the development of SentryWorld Golf Course.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
Melissa Sabel, director of marketing for the Stevens Point Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, shows off a print from a painting by Kinden Vazquez of the “flower hole” at SentryWorld Golf Course. The prints are being sold in conjunction with the upcoming U.S. Senior Open.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
Stevens Point and the U.S. Senior Open
The Square in downtown Stevens Point is home to a number of bars and will likely be overrun with golf fans when the U.S. Senior Open comes to the city later this week.
BARRY ADAMS, STATE JOURNAL
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