Wisconsin Counties Golf Expedition

I am reposting an article I received from Kem Psyck. Congrats on your journey!

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Golfers will remember in the spring of 2020 what the prospects were for golf. Because the COVID pandemic was at its strongest then, there was no golf then, and we did not know when we would be able to get back out on the fine Wisconsin courses.

During that spring, I was walking in a neighborhood near my Madison home. In the University Hill Farms neighborhood, many of the streets are named after Wisconsin counties. While bemoaning the lack of golfing opportunities while on one of those county-named streets, first, the idea of playing golf in that county popped up. Then, 'what about playing golf in every Wisconsin county?'

What would that be like? How many counties are there? (72) How many have golf courses? How many don't? Is this even feasible?

There was no question whom I would ask. Wayne Woock of Fitchburg, Dave "Boomer" Schultz of Germantown and I have been playing golf together for decades. When asked, they enthusiastically jumped in. We would at least start down this "all counties" road.

Over the next weeks and months, while not playing golf, we developed some guidelines for what we later named the Wisconsin Counties Golf Expedition (WCGE.) It had to be 18 holes of golf in every WI county that had a regulation golf course, that is, no executive or par-3 courses.
It would be at moderately-priced public courses. It would not be on the few courses that straddled a county line. We later established that the golf round had to be together - the three of us - simultaneously.

In that summer of 2020, we determined that we had previously played in 16 counties, mostly in southern Wisconsin, but a few in the north. That left 56 counties. Whew! It helped that we were either retired or semi-retired.

By September, 2020, golf courses were back to being open, so our first course on the WCGE was Whispering Springs in Fond du Lac County. We played in three other "new" counties that fall. Starting in 2021, we played in an average of 10 new counties each year - through a combination of one-day trips (southern WI) and two or three-day trips (northern WI.)

Finding these golf courses all over Wisconsin took quite a bit of what we lightheartedly called "research." One of the features of the GolfWisconsin Golf Course Guide is that it's searchable by counties. This was valuable in determining which courses are in which county. https://www.golfwisconsin.com/golfcourses/

People ask about our favorite or best course. We find it really hard to answer because there have been so many of both. At the risk of leaving out some of our favorites, we did like:
Wild Ridge in Eau Claire, Turtleback in Rice Lake, Northwood in Rhinelander, and Royal St. Patrick's in Wrightstown.

Unique layouts include Apostle Highlands in Bayfield, (The views!) Peninsula State Park in Door County, and Pine Hills in Shawano County.

Two surprisingly good golf courses are in very northwest Wisconsin: Nemadji in Superior, (especially the East Nine,) and Siren National in Burnett County.

We did play some destination courses, especially before the pandemic. They include:
Brown Deer Park in Milwaukee, SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Blackwolf Run in Sheboygan County, Trappers Turn near the Dells, and The Golf Courses of Lawsonia in Green Lake County.

Probably the overall biggest surprise to us was the number of good courses in rural or remote areas. By 'good' we mean the course is well-designed, on an undulating or somehow unique property, and well taken care of - with moderate or fast greens. Some of these courses are: Bass Lake in Deerbrook, Clifton Highlands in Prescott, Glacier Wood in Iola, Hayward GC in Hayward, Hunter's Glen in Crivitz, Nicolet in Laona, Northbrook in Luxemburg, Pheasant Hills in Hammond, Spooner GC in Spooner,

This is not to ignore the many, quality courses in more urban areas: greater Milwaukee, greater Madison, and the Fox River Valley including Green Bay.

We experienced outstanding hospitality at Plum Lake in Vilas County (one of our favorite 9-hole courses,) Tanglewood Greens in Menomonie, which re-opened in 2024 after many years of closure, and at our "last" county (in mid-August, 2025,) at Waushara CC in Wautoma. Jeff (the G.M.,) helped out by recording our putt-outs on the 18th and final green, and showed us around their "3rd nine," which we didn't play.

We came across a few counties which had only a 9-hole course or courses. The solution to get in 18 holes was easy: play the course twice. We did like that on the 2nd time through, we knew the holes a little better. One of the WCGE challenges on 18-hole or more courses is that every hole was a new hole to us. In order to avoid hazards, etc., we really had to pay attention to the scorecard maps and any on-the-hole signs.

Sadly, Boomer became ill and died in April, 2022. We knew that he would have wanted us to finish out the WCGE. So, Wayne and I dedicated the final four years to him. There are now "Boomer Balls" hiding out on courses all over Wisconsin. Since he left us, we seemed to endure more-than-usual rainy and turbulent summer conditions; we suspect Boomer had something to do with that.

Well into our final year of the WCGE, we learned that a county that previously did not have a golf course, now had one. Spread Eagle in Florence County re-opened in June, 2025 after many years of closure. So, on our last multi-day trip, we had to add in a day for two trips around this 9-hole course in very NE Wisconsin.

As the remaining counties ticked down late this summer, friends and relatives asked us if we were going to celebrate our accomplishment. Well, good idea. So just five days after our last county, we hosted an open house where golfing and non-golfing relatives and friends celebrated this milestone, and we displayed the scorecards, documents and even a counties map detailing our golfing play.

When we started this WCGE, we didn't think about what we might learn. But learn we did. We saw that Wisconsin has many more good, public golf courses than we would have thought, and they are located all over the state. That there is only one county (Menominee) that doesn't have a golf course illustrates how much golf is appreciated here. And we re-learned that golf course operators and golfers in general are very welcoming and friendly, everywhere. We felt like we were in a large, loose community - of those who just appreciate golf!

Now that we have completed this multi-year journey, Wayne and I are not exactly sure what's next- in 2026 and beyond. (No, we're not going to do this in another state.) However, in many Wisconsin counties, we had a tough choice to make: which good course should we play in "this" county? We're thinking that between these other courses that we did not play, and the courses that we want to play again, we will hit Wisconsin highways and roads - experiencing again what a great state Wisconsin is for golf!