Blackwolf Run: River Course
I played Blackwolf Run in 2005 with work buddies Bill and Bob. I only have the above picture of Bob and me on five and the one below of five without Bob and me. I only vaguely remember the course so can’t really give a good review on it. I couldn’t find the card so have no idea how I played and don’t know much about the Kohler and Milwaukee areas except that Milwaukee is home to Miller brewing so it can’t be too bad.
So the work trip that took me up here (to this day the only time I’ve been to the state of Wisconsin) took us to Madison, Milwaukee and Appleton and we stopped on the way back from Appleton at Kohler. My buddy Bill either didn’t want to play Whistling Straits because of the $$$ or we couldn’t get on so we played Blackwolf Run.
I remember on the trip the bar we were at in Madison sounded a tornado warning as one had touched down within the area. We never saw it. I know we went to Miller Park in Milwaukee and had eats at a TGI Fridays (I think) in the stadium. It’s now called Restaurant To Be Named Later (I’m not kidding) at American Family Field (I’m still not kidding).
In Appleton, I plugged the address of the store we were going to visit and I was directed to the middle of a corn field. I think we had to plug in downtown Appleton and get directions the old fashioned way.
Of course a bucket list item for any Eagles fan is a road trip for an Eagles game to Lambeau Field. In 2019, there was a September Eagles game there (perfect timing weather-wise). We would do a trip to Kohler to play Whistling Straits and maybe get out to Erin Hills. All good. Ah but there was also a road game in Miami in December. We all figured that we’ll play the Packers again more often than the Dolphins plus it would be an easy win, so let’s do Miami. Of course they lost that game to the one-win Dolphins. Our planned 2020 trip was Pittsburgh, but we all know how that turned out.
To the course, as noted I don’t remember much. I remember it was hard. I remember the silly par three that had trees smack in the middle between you and the hole. I think there was a short par four and long par five that ran along the river and had angles to the green on your approach or drive that were also blocked by trees. If you look in the scrapbook you’ll see a good shot of the silly par three of whence I speak (second picture down). Five is memorable with the elevation drop between the tee. The course hosted the LPGA Open in 2012 and 1988 and while I can’t remember it, I read that the waste area along the left of the 18th fairway got flooded out in 1988 and Se Ri Pak had to hit from there.
I have this in my top 100 but while I do want to get back to the area, I don’t feel a compelling need to play here again. I’m probably influenced by the golf magazine ratings that shower a lot of love on Blackwolf. I also know we ate at the Whistling Straits restaurant the one night as well and from my memory was pretty good. We walked a lot of the Straits course when we were there so you’ll find it in the scrapbook though I never played it.
Golf Scrapbook 