With one year to go before next U.S. Open, attention turns to Erin Hills

In 2010, the United States Golf Association took a calculated risk in awarding the 2017 United States Open to an up-and-coming course in the Wisconsin hamlet of Erin. With the 2016 U.S. Open now in the rear view mirror, the spotlight gets even brighter on Erin Hills, the next host of the big event June 18, 2017.

It's actually only a big piece of a larger puzzle. The Dairy State will get ample attention from the golf world in years to come, with the Ryder cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler in 2020, an LPGA event coming to Green Bay next year with the largest non-major purse on tour and a newly created Champions Tour event that played its inaugural event last weekend at University Ridge in Madison, a well-attended event hosted by celebrated Madison-area golf pro Steve Stricker.

The event at Erin Hills, naturally is the cornerstone of the upcoming schedule. It will be the first time a U.S. Open is held on Wisconsin soil.

'I think it's ready to go today,' said Gary D'Amato, sports columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and long-tenured golf writer with the paper. 'They need to get the green speeds up a little bit, but they can do that by not watering it and mowing them short. The course is closing a little early this year, Oct. 4, and not opening at all until two weeks after the U.S. open next year. It's the first time that's ever happened in U.S. Open history, where a course has just closed the whole spring before the Open. So, they're expecting the conditions to be just perfect.'

D'Amato said it was unusual for the USGA, which administers the annual U.S. Open, to choose an up-and-coming course that was still undergoing renovations to achieve the proper conditions.

'From the very beginning, the original owner, (Delafield resident) Bob Lang had a vision that he wanted to build a U.S. Open course,' D'Amato said. 'It's kind of a pipe dream, because a lot of people say, 'I want to build a U.S. open course,' but it's really hard to do. But he brought in the USGA from the very beginning. Some the officials flew out here and looked at the land and said, 'You have a great piece of land here, it's fantastic and if you do the right things — we're not promising you he U.S. Open, but let's see what you do here. We're interested.''

Every step of the way, Lang looped in the USGA. Andy Ziegler bought the course in 2009 and continued the improvements.

'(Ziegler) really has the best interest of the course at heart and has poured a lot of money into the course to get it up to U.S. Open conditions,' D'Amato said.

D'Amato said Whistling Straits, which has hosted a number of high-profile events over the years, wasn't a logical choice to host because owner Herb Kohler signed a decade-long agreement with the PGA of America (the course hosted the PGA Championship in 2010 and 2015), and the organization is competitive with the USGA. Thus, the course is thought of as a PGA property and unofficially off limits until the term expires.

But Erin Hills won't disappoint.

'It's like really nothing else around,' D'Amato said. 'It has some links characteristics, with firm fairways and fescue, which is really rare around here. Fescue grass doesn't grow great in the Midwest; it grows better on the coasts. There's not a single tree in play on the course, the greens will be fast and the fescue grass will be that wispy, tall blowing-in-the-wind brown stuff that you see. It's in its own category, really.'

D'Amato said the course's construction on a glacial territory will make for a unique viewing experience.

'The glaciers just moved the ground perfectly for a golf course,' he said. 'You couldn't do it any better with 100 bulldozers. What you have is these fairways going between these glacial ridges and mounds, so the people are going to be 20 feet above the action on these big mounds on bleachers. You'll be able to see multiple holes from several spots on the course.'

The remote location could create a traffic snarl, though USGA executive director Mike Davis pointed out to D'Amato that parking on-site hasn't really been a course of action in years at U.S. Opens.

'It's all remote parking and shuttles and then they can control the traffic,' D'Amato said. 'The big thing will be hotels. I think some people will stay in Chicago, obviously Milwaukee will be booked, Madison will be booked. If you draw a 100-mile radius around Erin Hills, all the hotels are going to be grabbed.'

Listen to a full interview with Gary D'Amato on the Initial Reaction podcast with JR Radcliffe and JP Cadorin, available at LakeCountryNow.com.

Pictured top: Three golfers hit from the sand traps on the 18th hole during the Lake Country boys golf invitational at Erin Hills on May 9 (photo by Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Below: USGA staffers Mary Lopuszynsi, Reg Jones, Leighton Schwob and Mimi Griffin are check out sites for corporate hospitality tents for the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills (Submitted photo).