Kohler Golf: Whistling Straits & Blackwolf Run

For a Chicago golfer, Kohler is the obvious first trip north. The village sits about an hour above Milwaukee and holds four Pete Dye courses at two venues: Whistling Straits on the Lake Michigan bluffs and Blackwolf Run in the Sheboygan River valley. Kohler puts Whistling Straits 142 miles from O'Hare and Blackwolf Run 134, so plan on at least one night, not a day out. This guide sorts the four, makes the case for Erin Hills as the fifth round, and explains how booking works. The rest of the region's overnight golf sits under Golf Trips from Chicago.

Whistling Straits

The two Whistling Straits courses share a property and a designer, and they play very differently.

The Straits

Dye liked to say his River course at Blackwolf Run was found rather than built. The Straits is the opposite case. Herb Kohler brought him in 1995 to a flat former airfield and Army training site on the lake and asked for Old World links, and Dye supplied them by truck: about 7,000 loads of sand shaped into three lines of dunes up to 70 feet high, and roughly 900 bunkers, many of them deep revetted pots. Eight holes run along the bluff, all four par 3s among them, across two miles of shoreline. The card stretches to 7,790 yards, rated 77.2 with a 152 slope, and Dye left room to run approaches onto the greens, which matters in a lake wind.

It opened in July 1998 and became the property's championship stage: PGA Championships in 2004, 2010 and 2015, the 2007 U.S. Senior Open, and the 2021 Ryder Cup, which the United States won 19-9. Golf Digest's 2025-26 rankings put it No. 26 on America's 100 Greatest, No. 4 on America's 100 Greatest Public and No. 1 in Wisconsin, and Golfweek's 2026 Best Courses You Can Play list for Wisconsin also has it first.

Two practical points. The Straits is walking only; caddies are recommended but not required, and Kohler asks golfers to bring a single-strap carry bag under 24 pounds or switch to one it provides. And although the course is listed as public, the resort says the Straits may carry booking restrictions for golfers who are not staying at the resort.

The Irish

The Irish opened to the public in August 2000 as Dye's fourth course at Kohler, laid around the western side of the property next to the Straits. Kohler calls it a mix of links and target golf, and the routing explains why: Seven Mile Creek criss-crosses it and the coastal dunes frame much of it. At its opening, Golf Course News counted four creeks in play on nine holes and five tee placements on every hole. The hole notes run through Dye's kit, from split fairways and an island green ringed with sand to deep pot bunkers and tiered greens with false fronts.

At 7,201 yards with a 146 slope, it is shorter and gentler than its neighbor on paper, and it carries no booking caveat. GPS carts are allowed and a forecaddie can be booked. Golf Digest ranks it No. 11 in Wisconsin and No. 65 on America's 100 Greatest Public (2025-26), and Golfweek's 2026 Wisconsin list has it No. 9. It makes a natural second round on a Straits day.

Blackwolf Run

Blackwolf Run is the older venue. Dye and Herb Kohler opened a single 18 there in June 1988; a nine added in 1989 and another finished in 1990 were combined with the originals to make the two courses played today, which share a clubhouse. The U.S. Women's Open came here twice, in 1998 and 2012, won by Se Ri Pak and Na Yeon Choi, on a composite of the River's nine original holes and the Meadow Valleys back nine.

River

The River course follows the Sheboygan River from the first tee to the last green, through what Kohler describes as five miles of valley and bluff carved by glacial runoff. Planet Golf describes spacious fairways leading to tight, sharply contoured greens, several pressed against the riverbank, with water, trees and mounding complicating the approaches. From the Black tees it is 7,404 yards with a 151 slope, one point short of the Straits.

On each list that ranks all four, it is second at Kohler only to the Straits: No. 5 in Golf Digest's 2025-26 Wisconsin ranking, No. 17 on America's 100 Greatest Public and No. 128 on the Second 100 Greatest, with Golfweek's 2026 Wisconsin list putting it No. 8. Carts can use the fairways when the weather allows, and forecaddies are optional. With room for only two Kohler rounds, make them the Straits and the River.

Meadow Valleys

Meadow Valleys changes character at the turn. The front nine crosses prairie, oak savannah and heathland; the back nine drops onto glacier-carved ground along Weeden's Creek and the Sheboygan River, where the 14th green sits 40 feet below its fairway. Kohler calls it subtly devilish, and the hole notes bear that out: a pot bunker and blind approach at the 4th, a forced carry at the 15th, a blind drive at the 16th. The finish is its best argument. The second shot at the 18th crosses the Sheboygan to a large double green below the clubhouse, the same green the River's closing hole uses.

It plays 7,314 yards from the Black tees, rated 75.3 with a 145 slope, with GPS carts allowed and forecaddies optional. Golf Digest has it No. 14 in Wisconsin and No. 92 on America's 100 Greatest Public (2025-26); Golfweek's 2026 Wisconsin list has it No. 13.

Add Erin Hills

Erin Hills is the round that turns a Kohler weekend into a Wisconsin trip, and on Golf Digest's 2025-26 Wisconsin list it sits No. 2, right behind the Straits. It is also No. 49 on America's 100 Greatest and No. 5 on Golfweek's 2026 Wisconsin list. Erin Hills puts itself about 80 minutes' drive southwest of Kohler and roughly two hours from O'Hare.

Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten laid it out on 652 acres of glacial ground in the Kettle Moraine, moving little earth, and it opened in 2006 as a public course with no memberships. It has since hosted the 2011 U.S. Amateur, the 2017 U.S. Open, won by Brooks Koepka, and the 2025 U.S. Women's Open, won by Maja Stark, with more USGA championships scheduled through 2039.

Play is on foot only, with a caddie or carrying your own bag; pull carts are not allowed. Expect blind tee shots, firm turf that plays shorter than the 7,772-yard card, and greens surrounded by short grass, where a slight miss can roll well away. The property has its own lodge rooms and cottages.

Planning the trip

The Wisconsin resort season runs roughly May through October, so check each course's dates before booking anything in the shoulder months. When to Golf in Chicago covers the calendar closer to home.

Playing all four Kohler courses takes two nights and one 36-hole day; a third night adds Erin Hills without the rush. Kohler sells golf packages that pair rounds with rooms at its hotels, The American Club among them, and Blackwolf Run also has The Baths, a 10-hole par-3 course with a two-acre putting course.

Choosing between destinations? Wisconsin Golf Trips from Chicago compares Kohler with Sand Valley and Erin Hills, and the Sand Valley trip guide covers the other big resort. For a shorter drive, Lake Geneva and Kenosha offers five resort courses. For where the Straits and Erin Hills sit on the national list, see Chicago's Courses on Golf Digest's 100 Greatest.

How to book

The course pages here link to each resort's own booking. At Kohler, book through the resort, Destination Kohler, by phone or online, either a tee time alone or a package with a room. All four courses are open to the public, but if the Straits is the reason for the trip, book it with a room, since the resort says non-resort guests may face booking restrictions there. Erin Hills books separately, through its own site. We don't sell tee times.