| Erin Hills - The Making of a Legend |

"one of the best 5 properties I've ever seen"
Ron Whitten
Golf Digest architecture editor

ABOUT THE OWNER

Bob Lang

GOLF IS A JOURNEY.

In June of 1999, a friend of mine made me aware of a beautiful piece of land in the Town of Erin, Wisconsin. He said that it would make a spectacular golf course. Although I am not an avid golfer, I always had an interest in building a small course. I have always been drawn to the romantic majesty and subtle tranquility of some of the world's greatest golf courses. In August of that year, I accepted the responsibility to orchestrate the building of Erin Hills Golf Course. The journey began.

Within one year, June 2000, I invited Mike Hurdzan and Dana Fry of Hurdzan-Fry Architects and Ron Whitten, Architecture Editor of Golf Digest, to design the golf course. Their goal was to find the most natural and strategic routing amongst the hills, wetlands and glacial dunes that are found on this natural piece of hallowed ground. Once the routing plan was finalized, I asked Bill Kubly, of Landscapes Unlimited, to build the course. Construction commenced on September 15, 2004, with our collective goal of having Erin Hills open when it’s ready to play sometime during the summer of 2006.

Many knowledgeable people from the world of golf have consistently informed me that Erin Hills may become a special and unique golf course, as a result of the naturalness of the land in the Kettle Moraine area of Southeastern Wisconsin. Formed by glaciers, tens of thousands of years ago, this land that has now been adapted as a golf course, remains virtually intact and almost exactly as I first discovered it. The architects kept it that way. We moved so little dirt. Interestingly, even two years before construction began, we played a bit of impromptu golf over the undulated terrain, across the potted kettles and around the sloping glacial dunes.

When construction began, two lines of irrigation were laid into the natural green fescue on eight holes (#2-9). Our largest cut of earth was simply lowering the upper fairway of #1 by about twenty feet. (The moving of dirt was approximately eighty yards long on the par 5, 600-plus yards from the championship black tees, hole #1.) Erin Hills begins and ends with a par 5 (#1-Lone Oak and #18-Holy Hill). From the 18th tee, the view of the Holy Hill Shrine and Monastery in the distance is spectacular. Only a few small cuts and fills were made on a small number of the holes, with most of the holes being left literally untouched. The natural undulated topography, rolling and mounded, with its scenic wetlands, glacial dunes, selected specimen oaks, tamaracks and maples, and seas of wispy fescue…all rule the vistas of Erin Hills.

We simply have two goals at Erin Hills. First and foremost, to provide you with a most unique, natural and traditional golfing experience. Erin Hills is a place for you to escape from your busy world, a place of natural solitude where you and your friends can share your passion of golf. Erin Hills does not have a housing development. There will be no weddings, tennis courts, pools or spas. Erin Hills is about golf…and golf only.

Our second goal at Erin Hills is to provide a challenging links style course for tournaments and championship golf. In 2005, Erin Hills was honored to be selected as the host course for the 2008 USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. In fact, Erin Hills is the first course in the history of the USGA to be awarded a tournament prior to the course opening. We look forward to the possibility of hosting additional tournaments in the future.

The absence of continuous cart paths (we do, however, have a few small, old granite paths that wind their way through the fescue), fabricated modern buildings, manicured flower beds, protruding tall signs, structures made from metal, or lavish accommodations of any kind, are all noticeably absent at Erin Hills. Instead, you are left only with the rolling undulated fairways, naturally placed green tees and bunkers, seas of natural fescue, abundant wetlands, wildlife including deer, turkeys and sandhill cranes, magnificent views of the nearby Holy Hill Shrine and Monastery in the distance, and yes, those challenging westerly winds.

A rugged fieldstone (with stone taken right from the Erin Hills land) and a cedar-sided Wisconsin/Irish looking clubhouse will include our small pro-shop, pub and meeting room. In 2007, we will make seven guestrooms available in our clubhouse, in addition to the 38 rooms we are presently offering in the Delafield Hotel (delafieldhotel.com) in Delafield, WI. The guestrooms will offer you modest yet superior comfort during your visit to Erin Hills. In addition, two authentically restored 1880’s barns and three craggy looking halfway houses helps to create the unique environment of Erin Hills.

Spectacular and majestic beauty is descriptive of the natural looking golf vistas of Erin Hills. These stunning vistas stretch in all directions over the six hundred and fifty-one acres of this most natural golfing landscape.

We look forward to seeing you soon at Erin Hills, so that you can experience not only the natural beauty of its majestic landscape…but the simple journey that is the game of golf.

ERIN HILLS…”It is not for the faint of heart”.

Robert Lang
Steward/Owner