Lawsonia Links - Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Lawsonia's two public courses, the Links and the Woodlands, are located in the town of Green Lake on what was once the country estate of Victor Lawson, publisher of the Chicago Daily News and cofounder of the Associated Press. In 1887, while boating on Green Lake, Lawson and his wife Jessie were forced to find shelter from an approaching storm at what they called "Lone Tree Point." Captivated by the beauty of the site, they acquired 10 acres that were eventually developed into a thousand-acre estate called Lone Tree Farm, which included Tarviatarred roads, white-enameled brick barns, and boulder-faced bridges, as well as a private nine-hole course for the use of the Lawsons' guests. In 1943, the estate was purchased by the Northern Baptist Convention, which developed it as a national religious center, and continues to own the property. The Links Course, designed by William B. Langford in 1930, is modeled after the classic holes of the great British links courses and has endured as an American original. Langford, who took up golf as part of his regimen to recover from childhood polio, played on three Yale championship golf teams from 1906 to 1908. He became a golf architect after studying mining engineering at Columbia University.

Blackwolf Run - Wisconsin, U.S.A.

The American Club is a resplendent golf resort founded by Herb Kohler, the paterfamilias of the Kohler Company, now featuring four remarkable, distinct, and challenging Pete Dye courses. Located an hour's drive north of Milwaukee, Kohler was a company town, and the American Club, which is now a hotel with deluxe bathroom fixtures, was originally built in 1918 as a sturdy red-brick and blue-slate dormitory for immigrant workers. In 1988, Dye created Blackwolf Run, named for a Winnebago Indian chief, with two pastoral 18-hole layouts consisting of the River Course, with the shallow silver and blue Sheboygan River curling through an ultra-demanding layout, and the Meadow Valleys Course, which is no pushover itself. The 1998 U.S. Women's Open, won by Se Ri Pak in a playoff over amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn, was played on a composite of the two courses.