By Art Spander
Special to NewsdaySHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- With money one can do almost anything, including turning a shoreline along Lake Michigan into a bit of British links land.
Herb Kohler, 71, the plumbing fixtures magnate whose net worth is estimated at $4 billion and who became a golfer late in life, became enamored with the links courses in Scotland and England, several of which are used as venues for the British Open.
So he hired architect Pete Dye, purchased Camp Haven -- a former airfield used as an anti-aircraft center -- and with 17,000 dump-truck loads of quarried sand built mounds, dunes and traps. Voila, Whistling Straits, where for a second time, starting today, the PGA Championship will be held.
The course plays at more than 7,500 yards and is full of wild grass and dangerous slopes. When the 2004 PGA, won in a playoff by Vijay Singh, was held at the Straits, dozens of spectators suffered bruises and broken bones slipping as they attempted to follow play.
It's no less challenging for the golfers, although for the most part they walk along level but twisting fairways.
"I think it's fun,'' Phil Mickelson said of Whistling Straits. "What's interesting to me is that it's a Scottish-looking course that plays like an American course. It doesn't play like a course in Scotland, yet it has all the aesthetics of one.
"And so that actually takes a little bit getting used to, the fact you see fescues and the sand and the dunes and the pot bunkers and so forth. You think there are openings in front and think you can fun balls up. It just doesn't work. The ground is too soft, and the ball stops, so you have to fly the balls onto the greens. That takes getting used to, especially when we're just coming from the British Open.''
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