The Club at Strawberry Creek, designed by Rick
Jacobson, opened in the spring of 2006, and the par-72
course hasn’t been altered since. It measures 7,113
yards from the back tees and generally gives players
ample room in fairway landing areas, but from the tee
they often look much smaller.
There are few trees in play at the Club at Strawberry Creek, but trouble abounds in
sand, water and thick rough. Right, Strawberry Creek’s impressive clubhouse.
RICK PLEDL
Mike McDonald
is the defending
State Amateur
champion.
fter visiting
several park-
land-style golf
courses in recent
years, the Wisconsin State
Golf Association has some-
thing different in store for
State Amateur Champi-
onship hopefuls this
summer. The WSGA is
leaving behind the
traditional forested
golf facilities for
which Wisconsin is
famous and bring-
ing its marquee
championship to
a challenging
inland links.
A
The Club at Strawberry Creek in Kenosha will host
the 111th Wisconsin State Amateur, sponsored by
CliftonLarsonAllen, on July 16-19. The WSGA sets its
rotation of championship courses years in advance, but
Strawberry Creek and 2012 might end up being the
perfect combination for a scintillating State Amateur.
That depends largely on the weather.
Jamie Young, who lives on Strawberry Creek’s first hole
and is the reigning club champion at the private club,
thinks the nearly treeless layout will present some
unique challenges, particularly if this summer’s hot and
dry conditions continue through mid-July.
“The wind blows, so it plays very characteristic of a
links-style course,” Young said of Strawberry Creek. “I’ve
been to Scotland and Ireland a couple times, and I
would say it plays very much like British Open conditions.
Certainly, if it continues to be as dry as it is, it’s going to
be playing very fast and very hard. You really have to be
able to control the ball in the wind out there.”
The greens aren’t huge by today’s standards, but the
bunkers are deep, often demanding a wedge to get over
the front lip when players would rather pull a long iron.
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