Successful entrepreneurs passionate about the game realize their visions through exceptional golf courses. The examples are almost countless.
The Duke’s Course at St. Andrews, now known as Craigtoun Course, has joined the Links Trust portfolio, expanding the offerings at the Home of Golf in Scotland. It belongs to the Old Course Hotel, which, along with the iconic Jigger Inn pub, is owned by the American Kohler Company.
Herbert Vollrath Kohler Jr., the patriarch of the company, passed away in 2022. In Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, the plumbing mogul and billionaire transformed his family’s bathtub and faucet business into a global conglomerate with numerous ventures. \”Everyone thinks I’m in the plumbing business,\” Herb Kohler often said, \”but actually, I’m in fashion.\”
The course of a thousand bunkers: Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. (Photo: Getty)
Whistling Straits
To showcase how stylish Kohler products are, he established The American Club, a five-star hotel complex in a country club style. Golf was missing for a long time, which many guests complained about. Kohler then hired the architectural genius Pete Dye to design first Blackwolf Run, then Whistling Straits on the shores of Lake Michigan. The rest is golf history, including three PGA Championships, a US Senior Open, two US Women’s Opens, and the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Whistling Straits, a links-style course with over 1,000 bunkers, is considered a masterpiece of golf course design. As the Chicago Tribune once noted, \”The odds of turning this deserted field into a golf mecca are about the same as making a toilet a work of art. Herbert Kohler did both.\”
Bandon Dunes
Nearly 3,800 kilometers west, in