Erin Hills.

Date Played: 10/18/25

Location: Hartford, WI

Yardage: 6,801 yards, 73.3/135

Architects: Michael Hurdzan & Dana Fry

Greens Fees: $375 without caddie, $55 fee for caddie (excluding tip)

Today was the day. I finally checked the box on my biggest bucket list course. I'll be honest, after Lawsonia was a touch underwhelming, I was a bit worried that maybe I was setting myself up to be let down by Erin Hills. I was unsure that Ireland/Scotland style golf was my cup of tea, and that I may not end up enjoying the course as much as I'd hoped. I'm happy to report that I was wrong. Erin Hills was everything I dreamed it would be, and then some. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face all day.

Let's start with the first thing that often stands out for most: the price tag. Simply put, playing Erin Hills is a luxury and is going to hit you hard in the wallet. As long as you know that going in and accept it, I promise you will feel like you got your moneys worth. When you arrive, you are greeted at the front gate by someone to confirm your tee time. The woman who greeted me couldn't have been nicer. She told me how excited she was that I was getting to play the course and how much I would love it. One thing that stood out clearly to me throughout the day is that everyone who works at Erin Hills truly loves and appreciates that place immensely. They are incredibly proud of the course and are thrilled to get to share it with you. It was really cool to see and it set the tone that you were somewhere special and about to have a day to remember.

You then drop off your clubs at the caddie barn and head into the clubhouse/pro shop to pay. Simply put, I could've spent my entire 401k in that pro shop if I had enough time. The clubhouse features a cool little restaurant where a lot of people were eating breakfast, but overall is fairly understated. I should also mention the course has lodging on site, all designed to look like cottages you'd find in Ireland and named after the famous golf courses of Ireland.

I went over to the range to hit some balls, where I was greeted by Ben, my caddie for the day. Ben is a Wisconsin native who works as a logistics manager during the week, and caddies at Erin Hills on the weekends. He was around my age and was very easy to talk to, and we hit it off well. He began watching me hit balls on the range to get a feel for my game. He asked questions about what type of shots I like to hit, what are my favorite clubs in the bag, and anything else he could think of that would make it as easy for us as possible out there. I made sure to tell him I was not worried about my score, I really just wanted to soak in the venue and enjoy the day as much as humanly possible, even if it meant shooting a 110. Luckily for me, I ended up playing pretty well regardless.

We were paired up with a few others, including a late 30's husband/wife combo from Chicago, and a younger kid who played college golf. The college golfer decided he wanted to play the tips at 7,800 yards, despite the caddies warnings. Obviously he had no business playing them, but I understand the appeal of wanting to see how the course played for the pros in 2017 at the US Open. It was a fun group overall, and Ben made our lives much easier all day.

One thing to note is these greens are absolutely pure, but they are FAST. The starter said they were rolling at a 13 on the stimp that day, which is on par with what they played at the Women's US Open they hosted this year. For reference, most muni courses run at somewhere around an 8 on the stimp, so these were rolling significantly faster than most of us are used to.

I won't write a recap for every hole, but will highlight a few that really stood out to me. Apologies in advance for the poor picture quality, I tried to get a better phone before the trip but it was delayed.

Hole 1: Par 5, 516 yards, 3 handicap

As we walked up to the first tee, a 525 yard par 5 into the wind, I surprised myself at how few nerves I felt. I had this overwhelming sense of awe, like there was no place on the planet I'd rather have been in that moment. Starting on a relatively tame par 5 (by Erin Hills standards) is a nice way to ease into the round. It's one of the few par 5's that you can potentially get there in two if the wind is cooperating. We were into a slight wind, so all of us had to lay back. The hole contains multiple fairway bunkers up the right side of the fairway, but they are mostly out of play. The left side is completely flanked by thick fescue, which the caddies refer to as "Prov V1 Pond".

The round started about as well as I could have ever hoped, sending one about 270 right down the center of the fairway. From there I hit a perfect 4 hybrid down the middle of the fairway, laying back to about 70 yards out. I flipped a wedge to about 10 feet and had a legitimate birdie look on the first hole. I literally could not have scripted a better start, and it reminded me why I love this game so much. What else on earth can bring someone that level of joy and satisfaction? But not all perfect starts have perfect endings, and I missed the birdie putt and settled for a tap in par. But we were off and running.

Hole 2: Par 4, 336 yards, 13 handicap

My favorite hole on the course. This hole just rocks man. It's a short par 4 that looks simple on the scorecard, but it may be the most clever and deceptive designed hole on the course. Standing on the tee box, you assume the play is at the bunkers on the right side, which are only about 250 yards out. What you don't know, is that the fairway actually cuts back hard to the left, and opens up significantly parallel to the traps. The actual line you want to take is left of the small tree on the left side hill, which you would absolutely never guess standing on the tee box. Again, awesome design. Even when you know the line, your brain still doesn't want to accept that could possibly be the correct line, and three of us ended up in the right bunkers. The hole doesn't get much easier down by the green, as it's a big turtleback green that rejects anything not hit to the dead center, similar to what you'd see on much of Pinehurst #2. It's just an awesome golf hole.

I ended up in the right fairway bunkers and missed long and left of the green on my 2nd. Around the greens is all shaved down, so the preferred play is to putt it from off the greens. However, you're usually putting up a significant slope, as I was on this one, a shot I had zero experience with. I made bogey here but thought it was just a phenomenally designed hole.

Hole 3: Par 4, 402 yards, 7 handicap

If you couldn't tell by the previous pictures, Erin Hills lives up to the 'hills' portion of it's name. There are ridges all over the place on this course, feeding the ball any number of directions. This was the first hole where it really stood out to me from the tee box visually. You end up playing a ton of uneven lies, which for the average golfer can be a big challenge. The slopes are never unfair though, and make you think very strategically about where you want to miss. Just great design. It's really cool to think that this was all natural to the land as well, the architects did very little in terms of creating these mounds and ridges. The left bunkers here are strategically placed, as they are 260 to carry, and depending on the wind that day can essentially cut your safe landing area significantly off the tee.

The wind was luckily left to right for us on this hole that day, and i just BARELY carried them to leave myself a 9 iron in here. I can't remember exactly what I did from there, but my money is on being on in regulation and 3 putting. That was my primary theme of the day.

Hole 8: Par 4, 415 yards, 5 handicap

As you'll see in the pictures, the weather had started to turn by this point in the round and we had an absolutely perfect day. It was 70 and sunny all day from here on out. Erin Hills looks good no matter what the weather is doing, but it really popped in the bright blue skies.

Another blind tee shot over a massive hill, this one is a big dogleg left. This hole was unassuming from the tee, but once you got over the hill (picture is at top of hill), you see how much it runs down and then back up to an elevated green. The hill basically acts as a big speed slot, sending your drive down into the collection area at the bottom of the hill. This is actually challenging, because you then are going back up to about a 30 foot elevated green, making it semi-blind and hard to hold the green. Just a really cool design that makes you hit two good shots to give yourself a birdie look.

I executed well on the first portion, hitting my drive down into the right side collection area, with a 120 yard shot left. I hit a good approach, but again, the elevation change makes it hard to hold greens this firm. I ended up just off the back with about a 30 foot putt on top of a diabolical little ridge. Another 3 putt, another bogey.

Hole 9: Par 3, 147 yards, 17 handicap

My second favorite hole on the course. The pictures don't do it justice, it's an absolute stunner from the tee box. It features one of only two bodies of water on the course (the other being another par 3, the 13th), but the water is out of play unless you hit a dead shank. The caddies all refer to this hole as "the shortest par 5 in Wisconsin", as you can get yourself in a world of trouble VERY quickly on this hole. It is completely surrounded by bunkers, and the bunkers can leave you with some incredibly gnarly lies. The wind can also get swirling on this one, as this hole is located dead center in the middle of the complex. In the 2017 US Open, it played as the 4th hardest hole on the course, despite the 17 handicap on the scorecard.

No one in our group made par here. I had the best opportunity of the group, but no dice. To speak of those swirling winds, the pin was in the back and hole was playing about 157 that day on yardage. I hit a 9 iron, usually about my 145 club, and absolutely sailed the green. I mean it wasn't even close to hitting the surface. Luckily I was so long that I had no lip trouble out of the back bunker, and hit a good sand shot to about 8 feet. I promptly blew that one by without even scaring the hole and made the comebacker for a bogey.

Hole 12: Par 4, 396 yards, 10 handicap

The 12th is an incredibly cool par 4 that includes multiple obstructed view shots. The tee shot is up over a slight hill, and once again the importance of having caddies cannot be overstated here. The line you think you should play is not at all the line you need to play. The hole sort of zig zags back and forth with the contouring of the hills, with the green being a sharp left past the left side mound. I didn't get a picture of the green, but it's one of the coolest ones I have ever played, as it is basically this small hollow surrounded by ridges. No dirt was moved to create the green, it was a naturally occurring hollow, and another prime example of Erin Hills architects using the natural land to create an incredibly cool hole.

I played this hole sort of like an asshole. Actually not sort of, definitely like an asshole. Ben's only advice to me off the tee was "don't go left". Well, I went left. I ended up in the very thick left fescue off the tee. From there I proceeded to basically top the ball, which was highly embarrassing and didn't even get out of the fescue. The beauty of golf though is that you're only one great shot away from being back in the hole, and I hit the next shot to about 15 feet. I absolutely blasted my par putt, leaving myself a nice 10 foot comebacker. Somehow I made that one and escaped with a bogey. One of the more adventurous bogey's I have carded. Then I nearly dunked one for an ace on the next tee shot. Golf is weird.

Hole 14: Par 5, 507 yards, 2 handicap

This hole freaking rules. It's a short par 5 by Erin Hills standards at 507 yards, but it can play 50 yards longer if the wind is in your face, which it was for us that day. The fairway looks wide open, but it slants left and tightens up significantly (as seen from 'behind the green' picture) around the big mound in the center of the hole. I would say this hole isn't really a two shot par 5, as you'd need to bomb a tee shot then try to use the back side of the ridge in front of the green to feed it on. For most amateurs, that's just a lot to ask. We basically all laid up to about 50 yards.

What they don't tell you about laying up, is that most amateurs probably want to lay up to about 100 yards in reality. To be fair to Ben, he told me this and I was too prideful to do so. The fairway in front of the green feeds balls down to a collection area in front of the big ridge in front, and you basically have a blind pitch shot at that point, as the ridge is a good 15 feet tall or so. Oh, the green also has a massive false front for good measure. I ended up in front of the ridge in two shots, and took 4 shots to get down from 50 yards out. Again, a really well designed hole that makes you think your way around and puts a premium on positioning.

Hole 18: Par 5, 622 yards, 6 handicap

Yes you read that correctly. 622 yards. This one's a big boy of a finishing hole.

Summary:

So that was my day at Erin Hills. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I ended up shooting an 86, which I was thrilled with given the yardage and difficulty of the course. It's a special place to me for personal reasons, but I think every golfer owes it to themselves to make a trip out there. And if you do, save a spot on the tee time for me.

Layout: 10/10. Every hole was unique and fun. The course is hard, but never unfair.

Condition: 10/10. The most pristine course I have ever played. Every green was perfect.

Amenities: 10/10. For the price tag, it's expected, but they just do everything right.

Value: 7/10. The only knock on Erin Hills is the price tag, but I believe the experience justifies it.

Total: 37/40. It's my favorite course I have ever played and I cannot wait to go back.