Lawsonia Links

Lawsonia Links in Green Lake, Wisconsin, predates Sand Valley by nearly nine decades. William Langford and Theodore Moreau designed the course in 1930, and the features that made it remarkable then continue to define the experience today: massive elevated greens, deep bunkers with high, squared-off faces, and a routing that uses the gently rolling terrain of central Wisconsin to create natural elevation changes on nearly every approach shot.

The green complexes are the story. Langford and Moreau were known for building greens that sat above the surrounding terrain, requiring approach shots to carry to an elevated target and hold a surface that falls away on multiple sides. A shot that comes up short runs back down the slope. A shot that drifts left or right finds a bunker with a steep face that makes the recovery shot a genuine challenge. The greens are large enough to be findable from the fairway but contoured enough to create significant putting difficulty once the ball is on the surface. This is architecture from an era when green design was the primary defence against scoring, and Lawsonia's greens remain among the most distinctive in the Midwest.

Golfweek ranks Lawsonia at number 24 on their Best Courses You Can Play list and number 4 in Wisconsin. Golf Digest places it at number 58 among Greatest Public courses. Those rankings put Lawsonia in the company of courses that charge three to five times more for a round. The green fee of $70 to $140, varying by season, is among the lowest for any course with national ranking recognition.

The location in Green Lake is roughly 90 minutes southeast of Sand Valley, which positions Lawsonia as either a standalone destination or a stop on the way to or from the resort. Golfers flying into Madison and driving north to Sand Valley pass within easy reach of Green Lake, and adding a round at Lawsonia to a Sand Valley itinerary costs little in time and less in money. The combination of a 1930 golden-age design at public pricing and a modern links-style resort at full rates provides the kind of contrast that makes a multi-day trip through central Wisconsin more than a single-destination visit.

The course is public in the fullest sense. Tee times are available through GolfNow, the dress code is relaxed by resort standards, and the atmosphere is local rather than curated. Lawsonia does not have the manicured presentation of Sand Valley or the infrastructure of a destination resort. What it has is a set of greens that no amount of money could improve, designed by architects who understood that the most interesting part of golf happens in the last 150 yards. At $70 to $140, the green fee is almost beside the point. The architecture is the value.