When I was watching the PGA Championship last year, I heard that the 2015 PGA tournament would be at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin which is 90 minutes from my nephews in Pewaukee. I contacted my sister-in-law about the possibilities and we made the week of August 16, 2015 as the date for a visit. My mother wanted to go with me to visit her grandsons and to visit my brothers grave in Cedarburg. He was an attorney in Milwaukee prior to his death in 2001. I had made a couple of golf trips to the area to play with Mark in the Wisconsin Rapids and Milwaukee areas. There are many great courses in Wisconsin. Check out my previous blog about playing courses outside of Nebraska. We also would be attending Kathy's mothers funeral in King Wisconsin to be interned with her husband at the Wisconsin Vets home. We traveled up on Friday and arrived just in time for dinner. Nephew Jackson had scheduled a 10am tee time for a round at his high school home course at Naga-Waukee in Pewaukee. The front nine was an easy walk as we were joined by a gentlemen playing the tips and also had played the tips at Whistling Straits earlier this month. He told us to be prepared for large crowds , long lines and very uneven ground to negotiate as we traveled around the course. Jack and I posed for a picture on the front nine.
The back nine at Naga was quite hilly so we decided to get a cart. It was very hot with little wind and I was dragging by the time we got to the 10th tee. The back nine had a lot of beautiful vistas including the signature 14th playing down towards the lake.
This course brings me up to 9 Wisconsin courses played and 101 outside of Nebraska.
The next day was day 4 at the PGA! We left Pewaukee at 8am and arrive on the grounds at about 9:30.Each ticket holder could bring in one sealed water or soda bottle. We each brought in a 1.5 liter chilled bottle and left two frozen bottles in a cooler for the trip home. We stopped at the will call desk to pick up Jackson's complementary day pass for being a Wisconsin Jr PGA member. After passing through security at the gate we headed for the merchandise tent. They were out of most things that I was looking for such as logo balls and a PGA backpack to carry our stuff, so I ended up with a hat and ball markers. We worked our way to the first green and found a place to watch.
We camped out and watch all remaining groups play through here behind the first green. Jackson also reminded me that pictures are not allowed so I stopped snapping here when I saw the "Mobile Communication Policy Enforcement Team" show up. After your second violation you are sent to the parking lot! The only player going over this green was Dustin Johnson and he struggled to a quad bogey! He never recovered from that. After the last group of Jason Day and Jordan Spieth cleared this green we headed out to find another viewing spot. This is not a fan friendly golf course. There are over 1000 sand traps and a lot of them are outside the ropes plus the ground is very uneven with slippery slopes, I know I slipped to my backside and slide down about 10 feet. If you did not find a position right at 7am when they opened you had to either have credentials for a corporate box or wait in line for a seat to open up in the bleachers or stand on a knoll 20-30 feet behind the crowd. We did manage to get into a grandstand on the 12th green after waiting 30 minutes. I did some hip shots with my phone.
We watched the leaders come through here but the pine bush blocked seeing the hole unless we stood up.
After this stop, we found a hill to watch the 15th green while all leaders came through. After that the 16th, 17th and 18th were not approachable because of the crows. They reported that there were 50000 spectators on the grounds for the fourth round. Everyone near us headed down the 10th fairway to watch the finish on the 18th from about 200 yards.
After Jason Day putted out for the win, we headed for the parking lot where it took over an hour to get back on the highway. It was a great experience but this was not an easy course to walk behind the ropes or view the greens if you were moving around alot. Now its back to Nebraska to work on "Golfing Nebraska"!
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