Welcome! Should you have interest, you should absolutely sign up for the matchplay. There’s a fair number of people in the Milwaukee area playing and there’s spots up for grabs in the bigger Midwest event (The “Ope”-in).
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Put my info into the google sheets info request earlier today. Looks like a blast!
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+10000 to this
Hope y’all are taking advantage of this nice stretch we are having. Giving Lac la Belle a whirl tomorrow.
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Played LLB on Wednesday. Greens were a touch shaggy (especially the first 4 holes) but overall that course has come a long way this year. Quite impressive. But let’s be honest, any tee time in November is a bonus. Have fun!
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Played at the home course 3 times this week, plan to play tomorrow, and playing LLB Sunday. Figure I have to get it in before I’m stuck hitting balls in the simulator.
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Just got back from Lawsonia…it was fantastic. Perfect condition and I think I played 18 in roughly 2 hours.
Awesome day.
Geneva National (Palmer) tomorrow. Giddyup. 
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Snatched an early afternoon tee time at Hawks Landing on Friday. Somehow I had never played there. Really liked the place and course and will definitely try to play it more regularly next season. I would strongly consider joining there if I lived on the west side of Madison.
As for LLB, I am going to reserve judgement until next year when it is more fully grown. Service and facilities were really good. Greens were wild, fun, and look like they’ll roll true. Not sure if it will remain like this when it’s more lush, but I did enjoy the ability to putt from everywhere around the greens.
Routing seems a little busy and some of the holes are definitely shoehorned in there - not really a knock and I like it is a walker. Gonna have to keep your head on a swivel at times though.
Overall positive vibes and it is going to be a super fun track. Just needs a little more time in the oven for now.
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Was a member at Hawks for 10 years and know that place almost too well. In terms of value for membership, I’m not sure that you would find a whole lot better on the west side of Madison. Still get back to play quite a few times a year with all the guys that I know out there. Glad you enjoyed it.
I’m with you in terms of LLB. I’m hopeful that it grows in better than what I saw and kind of assume that it will be. Played the blacks and some of the back tees weren’t open when I was there, but certainly would have made for a much more interesting time after hitting a lot of driving irons off tees to stay short of trouble or give better yardages in.
It was a great round to finish the year for me in terms of both play, where I got to do it, and who I was able to do it with. I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s going to be another great option for us here in Wisconsin, but do worry that they are going to price themselves out of their target market before things grow all the way in.
That makes me curious, what do you/others think would be a fair price for a fully grown in LLB? (And what do you think they’ll end up trying to charge?)
My assumption is they’re going to look at charging $150, but I feel like it’s price point is more in the $100-120 range.
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The guy I was talking to outside said their plan was to get to $150, though I’m not sure what the timeline was for that and forgot what he said. Given the location, I would rather just go and play Lawsonia for the day for the extra $5, but that’s also comparing what I saw this past weekend and what I though it might be to what Lawsonia already is. I think the fair price would be the $100-120 range, as you said. Possibly give Wisconsin residents a small break like others do, as well.
We haven’t gotten much rain in the area for a while and it was still pretty soggy in spots, so hoping that they are able to get that figured out when we are actually getting some significant rain in the spring and summer months that it doesn’t make the experience suck.
It seemed like they were trying to make it so it was part of the rotation for people who were coming to play Erin, SV, and/or Kohler, but don’t see the price point of $150 being low enough to draw me away from there or, once again, just going to Lawsonia, Sentry World, or any of the other great options that Wisconsin has to offer now.
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I see LLB as a solid business entertainment option. $600 for a foursome, excellent amenities and not an absolute abusive course. 5 minutes outside of Oconomowoc, it’s perfect for that.
LLB excels where Lawsonia fails.
I hadn’t thought about that angle before, but you’re probably spot on for business entertaining. I generally pass over that option as a member of a club given the level of service I get as “Mr. Midwestgolfbum” vs some random schmuck off the street who has $600+ in an expense account, but 100% understand what you’re saying.
Looking at it in a pure golf standpoint, I’m not sure that I want to drive the 40ish minutes that it takes me to play there for $150 but know that, that isn’t going to be the case for everybody on this board. I will absolutely make the trip back over there next year and hope that everything I feel now changes and I can’t see how people would want to go anywhere else.
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I’ll second/third the $100-120 range. I am viewing it as a good Madison/MKE halfway point option since those are kind of lacking. That price might get me there once or twice a year. Anything more and I’m probably going elsewhere.
Unique offering? Yes. Will it be fun? Yes. Will it be of the caliber of the other WI golf household names? Tall task and probably comes up short in my opinion but I love the ambition.
Again, reserving full judgement until next year.
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Yes, this is where LLB shines. As someone who plays with MKE friends living in Sun Prairie, we all have 45 min to the course. I’m high on LLB due to its walkability and amenities.
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I agree. I think $150 is a tough ask for that course. I played it 3 times this summer and wasn’t mad about $75, even with the sub-optimal conditioning, but I won’t pay $150 for it, ever. At $100, I might play it once or twice per season. At $150, I’d rather play Washington County 3 times or drive the extra hour to Lawsonia for $50 less.
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Would agree that it is very walkable and given what some of their cart paths looked like and the fact that the 2 that did take a cart in my group were regularly complaining about the number of notifications on the screen, I’m glad that I walked even more. It seems like the kind of place that would do well with something like forecaddies, especially as the fescue grows in more and more. Not sure they are going to have that be something that is offered, but I would love to see it as an add on to the current amenities, which are well done enough.
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LLB focus group in this thread.
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Well, the weather has turned and I haven’t had human contact with anyone not on a computer since I dropped my kids off at daycare this morning…
What else should we do? Vote on the top 10 courses in Wisconsin?
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I always love hearing people’s list. There’s a lot of ways to chop up the top 10 in the state and most people can make a strong argument why they aren’t wrong.
I will always vote Minocqua CC as my top and most people look at me like I’m nuts, for example.
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