Erin Hills Golf Club

Erin Hills Golf Course is the subject of a fascinating article in the most recent issue of Golf World. The course is located in Erin, Wisconsin, less than an hour’s drive from Milwaukee, and despite its young history, is scheduled to host the 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship. The article recaps the development of the course, culminating with the financial meltdown of its owner and resulting sale this past October. I think it will be very interesting to see how the course develops this year -- the article’s author claims that the new ownership will be putting significant amounts of money into the course in the maintenance department, apparently one of its big shortfalls under previous ownership.

I think you can clump Erin Hills into the category of Pebble Beach or perhaps some of the Bandon Dunes courses -- simply built on a magnificent piece of land. Just scan through some of the images on their website, or those featured in the countless news articles about the course, and it’s easy to see why the United States Golf Association (USGA) has a love affair with the course.

Erin Hills is likely to be a future host of the U.S. Open someday -- perhaps as early as 2017. It is rumored to be among a short list of finalists for the national championship, joining the likes of 2008 host Torrey Pines and my personal favorite, Cog Hill No. 4. The USGA has really developed a liking to discovering relative unknown courses and turning them into U.S. Open favorites. The best example of that is Bethpage Black, which hosted its second version of the even this past summer. I am a big fan of choosing public courses for the U.S. Open, allowing the average player a chance to tee it up on an “Open course,” hence why I want the 2017 event to be held at Cog Hill, a course I played this past summer. 

I think the re-development of Erin Hills will be one of the more interesting stories in 2010, and the USGA’s decision in February about the 2017 host will obviously play a big role in such a development.