Erin Hills
In a country that is blessed with so much incredible golf, it takes a lot to be considered special enough to host major championships, let alone multiple events for varying types of golfers. That is a feat that the team at Erin Hills has achieved.
This location now has its sights set on the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open as the team is already beginning the process of getting the course tournament-ready before they host the best female golfers in the world, but it’s also important to look back at the events that helped them get there.
Erin Hills: A venue for the best at all levels
Most notably, Erin Hills hit the international stage when it had the chance to host the 2017 U.S. Open where Brooks Koepka won his first major championship and established a multi-year dominance in these elite events. It’s no surprise that this served as a perfect venue for Koepka as it’s a ball striker’s paradise that requires control of your ball from tee to green, but especially on your approach shots.
Here’s what Rory McIlroy had to say about the course during his tournament prep.
While this may have been the first time that many of us first took notice of this iconic property, the journey to hosting this event began long before that with the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, an event that was exclusively for golfers who played their local golf at public golf facilities, not private clubs. The USGA ultimately discontinued this event in 2014, but replaced it with the new four-ball championships for both men and women.
Erin Hills’ next big event was the 2011 U.S. Amateur, the premier golf event in the world of amateur golf. This event featured Kelly Kraft outlasting Patrick Cantlay, then a young UCLA sophomore, for a 2-up victory in the tournament final. Once again, no surprises here to see a player like Cantlay excel as he is such a solid ball-striker.
Most recently Erin Hills hosted the 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship where the links-style design featured a final that included two Irishmen, with Matthew McClean taking home the Robert T. Jones Memorial Trophy over Hugh Foley. Once again, no surprises here as a pair of Irish lads who know how to control their ball flight in the wind and are no stranger to the thick, golden fescues that outline the course. The criteria for playing in this event is being an amateur golfer with a 3.4 handicap or better and exceeding 25 years of age.
Erin Hills
Earning a championship pedigree
Erin Hills is the type of golf course that caters to everyone. This course can be a beast if you play it from the tips out at over 7,700 yards and will give you all you can handle if you decide to challenge yourself at the ultimate level. But one of the genius pieces of the design here is that if you move up and play the correct set for your game you will be faced with a challenging-yet-fair layout to test your game. That’s evident in the types of events that have been hosted here that have included everything from top amateur females and males all the way to the best male and female professionals in the world.
As Bill McCarthy, the U.S. Mid-Am Tournament Director for the USGA, puts it, “It’s just an amazing facility. When we talk about the variety of championships that we’ve held there and are going to hold there…I think that speaks to the strength of the course in terms of the architecture being able to provide championship set-ups for those varying demographics of championships and players.”
McCarthy described how this flexibility works for all: “When the U.S. Open or the Mid-Am goes to Erin Hills, we expect a set-up that the player is going to pull every club in his bag. And when the U.S. Women’s Open comes, we expect the same thing. It’s not like you go to a course and it’s all mid-irons for the U.S. Open and all long-irons and hybrids for the Women’s Open. Based on the teeing areas, all the same shot values are there, which is fantastic.”
Recommendation
If the sign-off by the governing body in the game of golf in the United States isn’t enough to convince you that this place is special, then we aren’t sure what more we could tell you to do so. But if we can offer one last anecdote to help, it’s that the USGA’s take seems to be spot on whenever we are on property here. As you go after your round to enjoy a pint or perhaps a bourbon at the Irish Pub as you gather around the fire pit, the one thing you’ll notice is that there is a wonderful variety of golfers coming off the 18th green here. You’ll see groups of buddies talking trash, fathers and sons, families, ladies’ groups, and everything in between. It’s the type of course that anybody can enjoy, and we highly recommend you stay for at least one night and play at least two rounds on this special design.
Erin Hills is truly special, and after a day here you’ll be able to consider yourself among the fortunate souls that have visited one of the best sites for publicly accessible golf in the United States.