We’ve seen and heard a lot about Wisconsin golf in recent years. Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run were always more about Pete Dye’s ingenuity than they were a Wisconsin thing, but the opening of Coore & Crenshaw’s Sand Valley in May 2017 followed by the U.S. Open at Erin Hills a month later seemed to open the floodgates for “Best Public Golf in the U.S.” articles. David McLay Kidd’s epic Mammoth Dunes was added in May 2018, SentryWorld’s 2014 renovation has seen it gain significant traction, and, after 85 years of relative obscurity, William Langford and Theodore Moreau’s extraordinary Lawsonia Links has become the cult classic it was always destined to be.

The geometric shapes and steep, angular slopes of Lawsonia's massive green pads and deep bunkers have led many to conclude it's a Seth Raynor design, which it is not. Langford and Moreau built the course using steamshovels, which resulted in most of those distinctive landforms.

For nearly four decades, GOLF’s esteemed course rankings have guided golfers where to play, which explains their immense and enduring popularity. Yet, in the United States, access to many top-rated courses is problematic for a majority of golfers, as is cost — a concern readers have raised with us.

The Badger State is booming for traveling golfers, and a great trip doesn't even require a stay at the high-end resorts.

Describe it as a sleeper and you’re bound to draw an eye-roll from design enthusiasts, especially those in the Midwest. In those circles, Lawsonia long ago ceased being a secret, if it ever was one. Among the broader golf-loving public, though, it’s fair to say that Wisconsin’s low-key darling is having a moment. Or, better yet, a fine few years.

The rediscovery in recent years of the Links Course at The Golf Courses of Lawsonia by architecture buffs and bloggers is reflected in its climb up the magazine ranking lists, and has pegged the 90-year-old Langford-Moreau design as a must-play.

“With its fairway cross bunkers, massive push-up greens and cavernous greenside bunkers, Lawsonia had us awestruck on every tee box. We’d grown up on Milwaukee County’s municipal courses and had never been exposed to this kind of golf. The names William Langford and Theodore Moreau meant nothing to us and we had no idea we were playing their inland links masterpiece.

We just knew it was a ton of fun.”

87. Lawsonia (Links)*

Golden Age masters Langford & Moreau spent nearly $4 million in 2020 dollars to build this literally ground-breaking Wisconsin layout. Steam shovels shaped its most spectacular features, including some of the boldest putting complexes on the planet. Rumor has it a boxcar was buried under the 7th green to create the dramatic 20-foot drop-off. The result of all this mechanical wizardry? Possibly the most underrated course in America and its greatest golfing value. We almost feel guilty finally sharing the secret. (Photo: Patrick Koenig) (*Tied for 87th with Wolf Point)

“There are also plenty of great Golden Age courses in the region that showcase the diversity of the land and styles of golf. Chicago Golf Club somehow imbues a flat piece of prairie land with an unforgettable golf experience, while Crystal Downs, in Michigan, provides an artistic, roller-coaster ride of MacKenzie and Maxwell’s genius. The public-access Lawsonia, in Wisconsin, with its bold design and ingenious greens, created by a long forgotten Midwesterner William Langford, may be the perfect example of Heartland golf.”

66. Lawsonia (Links) (62) Green Lake, Wisconsin
William B. Langford, Theodore J. Moreau
Year Opened: 1930
Avg. Rating: 7.30

“The longest drive of the trip, 75 miles southeast, is worth it to discover the Golf Courses of Lawsonia in tiny Green Lake. The William Langford and Theodore J. Moreau Links course lives up to its name with back-to-back blind tee shots to start. The Woodlands, cut through hills and trees, adds contrast.”

“How’s this for a turnabout? Instead of telling golfers what it will cost to play a round of golf, which is the normal course of business, The Golf Courses of Lawsonia have flipped the script.

They are letting golfers say what they will pay to play, and even if the answer is a mere dollar, or maybe $5, to play two of the state’s most highly rated courses, the answer is yes.”

5. Sand Valley / Green Lake, Wis.

Sand Valley, the latest chapter in Mike Keiser’s destination golf opus, features three stunning options cut from sandy pine forests in central Wisconsin—the original Sand Valley course, Mammoth Dunes and the quirky Sandbox. A side-trip to the Links Course at Lawsonia, a playground of 1920s architecture, is a no-brainer.

Wisconsin

As a Minnesotan (you’ll read more about that below), it pains me to say something nice about Wisconsin, but the public golf there is just spectacular. Obviously for this heading I made it quite vague, because I think the key is to fly into Milwaukee, hop in a rental car and pick the direction of your choosing. There’s expensive major venues like Whistling Straits and Erin Hills, but there are tons of other great courses scattered across the state like Blackwolf Run, Sand Valley, SentryWorld and Lawsonia. Find the courses you want to play, plan your route and pick your hotels — like I did for this Wisconsin golf trip — and it’s worth every penny.

One course to play: Lawsonia Links

“Below, in alphabetical order, is a nod to the courses that just missed the cut in our Top 100 Courses in the World ranking — in some cases, by a razor-thin margin.”

“Because of the impressive external shaping of L&M’s greens, these subtle contours sometimes go unnoticed. Consider the 18th at Lawsonia, where the immense green is flanked by deep, punishing bunkers. But the most compelling feature of the green is the central spine, which differentiates precise from slightly imprecise approaches. If you find yourself on the wrong side of this ridge, you will do well to two-putt.”

“A good first hole embodies the spirit of the entire golf course, and that’s the case with the opener at The Links course at Lawsonia, an affordable gem (59th on Golf Digest’s 2017-18 ranking of America’s best public courses) that will host the WSGA Amateur championship in July.”

“It’s hard for the general public to play the crown jewels of one of America’s Golden Age architects. Most people – even golf fanatics – aren’t going to Alister MacKenzie‘s Cypress Point, C.B. Macdonald‘s National Golf Links of America, A.W. Tillinghast‘s Winged Foot or William Flynn‘s Shinnecock Hills. There is, however, one accessible, brilliant, fun, public option any golfer can go play for less than $100: Lawsonia Links in Green Lake, Wisconsin.”

“As he considers the future, Haltom said the goal is to make sure that Langford’s Pub continues to be successful, and not only because of what it will mean for the operation’s bottom line. It would also honor the man who by and large made it happen. Nick Lueptow, who as general manager at Lawsonia oversaw the upgrade in food and beverage offerings, died of cancer on Sept. 12 at his home in Ripon.”

“Wisconsin is also home to No. 9 Erin Hills, site of this year's U.S. Open. Two of its three designers, Mike Hurdzan and Dana Fry, were also responsible, with Tom Lehman, for Troy Burne Golf Club in Hudson on the west edge of the state, new to the list at No. 69. Another newcomer is No. 34 SentryWorld in Stevens Point, a 35-year-old Robert Trent Jones Jr. design recently updated.

And don't forget the Links at Lawsonia, a marvelous layout by Bill Langford and Theodore Moreau.”