Highlights Archives
Golf in Wisconsin
While the breathtaking shores of Whistling Straits may have surprised some viewers of the 2004 PGA Championship, Wisconsin golfers have long known that Wisconsin is home to some of the country's best courses. Wisconsinites have played golf almost as long as the game has been played in the United States. Only five years after the first organized golf club opened in Yonkers, New York, in 1888, the nine-hole Sinissippi Golf Club opened in Janesville. Its owner, Alexander Galbraith, traveled regularly to Scotland, home to the prestigious St. Andrews Golf Course from which the modern game traces its roots. Galbraith and five friends laid out their Janesville course and began using the clubs and balls that Galbraith had brought back from Scotland. With this Janesville course, golf had staked its claim in Wisconsin — one year before the United States Golf Association, the governing body of golf, was founded.
By 1900 courses had opened around the state — in Milwaukee, Eagle, Kenosha, Appleton, La Crosse, Oconomowoc, Green Lake and Madison. The Wisconsin State Golf Association was organized in Janesville in 1901 and Hamilton Vose of Milwaukee became its first president. Most of these early golf courses were either private or located in resort areas for the entertainment of wealthy summer vacationers.
As golf became more popular, the game became more inclusive. Wisconsin had more than 70 public golf courses by the 1920s, a dramatic growth from the two that had allowed public play in 1900. Golf tournaments also became a regular part of high school sports. This inclusiveness did not extend to all Wisconsin citizens, however, as the Wisconsin State Golf Association continued to bar African Americans from its tournaments until the 1950s.
Today, Wisconsin is home to more than 500 courses, almost all of which are open to the public. Some boast some pretty unusual features. Train tracks run across the fairways at Forest Hills in La Crosse, for example, while at the New Richmond Country Club, golfers can play its nine-hole links in either direction. Land O' Lakes' Gateway Golf Course lives up to its "gateway" name: the third tee is in Wisconsin but the fairway is actually in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. And, at Hallie Golf Club near Eau Claire, tired golfers can hop a cable car from the ninth hole to the clubhouse.
Learn more about golf's glorious history in "Fore! Ward: The History of Wisconsin Golf" (PDF). You can also explore the role of sports in Wisconsin history or find a golf course near you — cable car not included — at travelwisconsin.com.
:: Posted May 10, 2006
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