Buddies Bucket list Golf Trip- Kohler, WI: Whistling Straits: The Irish Course

May 20, 2020 Off By BBF

My advice: don’t play this golf course if you only have 2 rounds to play in Kohler. This is a “package” golf course that is nice, but it’s best purpose seems to be to fill out “play and stay” vacation bundles at Destination Kohler. Use it as a warm up round if you must. Use it as a warm up round if you must. Like Whistling Straits, it’s also a links style golf course, an homage to the great Links courses of Ireland and the U.K.. The problem with this course is that it’s set inland from Lake Michigan, so you won’t get water holes and only occasional glimpses of water and interesting vistas.

It’s a perfectly fine golf course. In fact “fine” is an understatement as it’s been in Golf Weeks top 50 public golf courses the last 3 calendar years running. Anywhere else in the world this course would showcase much better. But it literally shares a border with a world class bucket list golf course 2 miles from another world class bucket list golf course. Playing The Irish Course on more than one occasion you will find your eye wandering over to the Straits course and if you’re not careful you will find your tongue wagging, wishing you were playing it instead. Unless you live in the area and play Kohler all the time, or have a solid 2 week Wisconsin golf vacation I would recommend you prioritize playing Whistling Straits and Black Wolf Run River multiple times as opposed to spending precious time on this course. Secretly, I would love to see them rip out part of this golf course and do a par 3 somewhat like the Preserve in Bandon Dunes.

Bucket list rank (from 1 to 5 buckets): 2 Buckets
Caddies: 8- you can use the same caddies across all 4 Kohler courses
Location: 6 so close.
Spectacle/ visual: 7
History: 4
New/ancient: Modern
Playability : 6
Memorability : 4
Service/etc: 8 (it’s in the Whistling complex)
Value: 3
Shopping: 8
Warm up facilities/Range: 8
Food & Drink: 8

CategoryTwo Buckets United States: Wisconsin

About The Author

BBF

BBF or “Big Ball First” comes from a golf saying for hitting a shot fat. Or hitting the “big ball first” in that you hit the ground (the big ball) before hitting the golf ball. In the BBF blog, it’s a metaphor for traveling the planet, soaking in exclusive experiences, and pointing people to the Awesome, the Great, the Good, and the not so good out there. We’re hitting the big ball running with tales from international golf courses, with fine wine, fine food, did I mention golf…well, especially the ‘buddies bucket list golf trips’. The hope is that like minded people will enjoy the stories, and hopefully use it as a reference point. If this blog helps people prioritize the experiences they want to have on our planet then we will have succeeded on our mission. We only have so many go’s at “bucket list” travel experiences. Especially the bucket list buddies golf experiences. My hope is you can refine your experience based upon my learning, and take your “big ball first” experiences to the next level.