Whistling Straits is one of two golf course complexes associated with The American Club, a golf resort in Kohler, Wisconsin owned by a subsidiary of the Kohler Company, a manufacturer best known for its bathroom products.
The two courses at Whistling Straits were designed by Pete Dye . Its flagship course, the Straits Course, has a length of 7,514 yards and a par of 72. It hosted the 86th PGA Championship in August 2004, and will host the U.S. Senior Open in 2007. In January 2005, the Straits Course was announced as the site for the PGA Championships in 2010 and 2015, as well as the 2020 Ryder Cup.
The Straits Course replicates the ancient seaside links courses of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Nestled along a two-mile stretch of Lake Michigan, the course features vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes and winds that sweep in off the lake. At 7,514 yards, it is the longest course to host a major.
The seventeenth named “Pinched Nerve”, the unofficial signature hole, is the most difficult par-3 on the course. At 223 yards, with towering sand dunes and the lake to the left leaves golfers with no option but to go straight for the green.
The course also features two miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan, eight holes hugging the lake, a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, elevation changes of approximately 80 feet and three stone bridges at holes 9, 10 and 18.
The second course at Whistling Straits, the Irish Course, is an inland grass-and-dune layout.
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