The Straits Course is the flagship at Destination Kohler – Pete and Alice Dye’s full-blown tribute to Irish links golf, transplanted onto the western shore of Lake Michigan. The land was originally flat, an abandoned army airfield, so Dye trucked in hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of soil and sand to sculpt the dunes, ridges, and over a thousand bunkers that now define the place. About half the holes run directly along the lake’s two-mile coastline, and from most of the rest you can still see the water.

From the back tees it stretches to 7,790 yards (par 72), though the more sensible markers give the average golfer plenty to work with. The par 3s are the standout collection – Shipwreck at the 7th clings to a cliff above Lake Michigan, and Pinched Nerve at the 17th is a brutal long-iron over wave-shaped bunkers. Cliffhanger, the short par 4 at 13, has its green perched right on the lake’s edge. The closing 18th, Dyeabolical, is a bruising par 4 that splits opinion but isn’t easily forgotten.

Conditioning is consistently first-rate. Pace is honest rather than quick – the walk runs around seven miles, usually into a stiff breeze, and a caddie makes the round substantially better. The Straits sits within the wider Kohler resort, sharing the property with the Irish course and Blackwolf Run a short drive away.