Hear, hear.
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I forgot they put those tees back about as far as they went, so never mind and disregard. Bill didnāt want to see fun had.
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Straits is an institution and a beautiful piece of land, but they have to do something about rates (they wonāt and all us locals will continue to bitch).
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I also donāt think it takes away from how good the course is. So in an exercise like this Iām not factoring in the costs to play these places, different conversation.
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Easy to do when youāve played it how many times??
Iām fortunate to have played it somewhere between 20-30 times. I would never pay the current full rate to play it now though but I know thatās a me thing. I essentially keep rankings of the greatest courses / holes Iāve ever played, and a list of if I had to spend my own money what would I want to play.
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I donāt think paying for it these days is just a you thing though. I wouldnāt pay for it, at least not out of my own pocket. If Iām able to do expense account golf, thatās a different story, but even then, I have a lot of other places I would rather take a client and will still spend less.
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Which I very much agree with, but I still think itās the best or at least top 2 - 3 in WI. If we go the entire way and not a single hole from the Straits makes it that would be wild.
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and thatās where you and I differ. I donāt think itās in the top 5. Particularly not now that Lido is open. But hey, thatās what makes this all so fun!
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Location - yes, course - no
My opinion - Maybe 5-10 years ago this was the case, but all of the SV courses and EH are better. It doesnāt fall in my top 5 in the state. Could it? Absolutely - but I think they need to tear out every fairway and green, replace with fescue, and stop watering so much to make it an actual strategic course
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I also respect this opinion and anyone else who shares it. In full disclosure as well I have not played Erin Hills or the Lido yet so this is subject to change and those two courses alone based on feedback Iāve received could change my opinion drastically.
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I will also say that EH has fallen a bit when they went away from fescue and lost some of the ground game due to the change.
My biggest gripe (with Dye, RTJ, etc.) courses are they lack strategic intrigue for me. Last time I played WS, it hit me that it is target golf and there arenāt a ton of ways that you could play each hole - some, yes, but not totally. This is very much a me opinion and respect otherwise - if offered to come play WS, I would certainly do so
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I like 12 at Straits, but we might as well skip voting on 12 and just give it to Erin Hills.
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Fair points, but one quick item the fairways and rough there are fescue currently. Itās some sort of UK / Irish fescue that doesnāt handle our Winters very well. Iād argue they should make the entire course bentgrass and I would agree firming everything up would help.
I asked once why they donāt, with it being a resort course with longer rounds already time wise they donāt want it playing even more difficult for resort guests.
I think this is a big factor in the voting as well and could lead to a Straits shutout. But how many people have actually played the holes in question has a huge impact on vote share (at least that is my hypothesis). And I think we are finding that a lot of folks on here get to Sand Valley and Lawsonia (maybe EH to a lesser extent) far more than we get to the Kohler properties. Same goes for all of the private course holes that have been nominated. Iām sure Blue Mound should have a hole on the list but Iāve never played there so hard for me to vote for them.
Long story shortā¦ would love to see a survey of the group and what % have played the top 10-15 courses in the state, both public and private.
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This is a pretty good take as Iām reflecting on it more.
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Agree - it is a combination of grass-type and watering and not making it too difficult for resort guests.
It would be amazing if the course ended up taking a page from Ireland/Scotland in terms of balancing location, strategy, and playabilityā¦ but then couldnāt be considered a major championship golf course by PGA standards
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Well unless the PGA moves back to August they wonāt be hosting one again so Iād love to see them get weird with it at this rate haha
Man, I must be on an island here today but again, agree to disagree. I donāt like this hole at all. Basically double blind shots. At the NLU Summer Festival we almost killed some people because of the blind tee shot and then for most of our group the 2nd shot was again blind. Meh.
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Spring Valley 12 is better.
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