The BEST Golf Course You've NEVER Heard OfLike being named "the best player never to be called the best player to win a Major", there's a chance of losing this award as soon as you earn it. However, if more people find out about
Eau Claire G&CC in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I think that's a good thing.
The club itself is 101 years old, celebrating its Centennial last year when it hosted the Wisconsin Amateur. The golf course has been in existence - with some changes - since the Depression, making it about 70 years old. Designed by an architect you've never heard of, it still has a pedigree.
Tom Vardon was the golf pro at
White Bear Yacht Club (recently profiled on this site by the Naffer) near St. Paul and the brother of Harry Vardon of Vardon Grip fame. A Scotsman who was a golf pro designing courses on the side?
Sounds like Donald Ross, and it isn't much of a stretch to think he could have had a full-blown career in design if he hadn't been so unfortunate to start that career in the midst of the Depression.
A Parkland course alongside a river, the site is blessed with hills big enough to be used for sledding in the winter and is bisected by a stream that never directly affects play. Like most great courses of its era, ECG&CC has better variety for hole lengths than Modern courses. While unique, comparable (remote, underheralded) courses may be found at
Longmeadow (MA) or
Teugega (Rome, NY), the latter of which I've yet to play.
A quick run through some of the best holes:
1. A strong par 4 of 431 yards to start. Great drives will run down a steep hill making for a much shorter approach. 3. 432 yards, dogleg right, this par 4 features a slightly downhill teeshot and uphill mid- to long-iron approach to a green guarded by a tree on the left.4. Just 481 yards, this par 5 is almost impossibly tight through a passage and then uphill and right to a small green. Pulled tee shots wind up in a hazard while a stand of trees blocks pushes. (Photo of approach from about 190 yards.)
7. Arguably the best hole on the course, the 406 yarder plays severely downhill to a flat fairway, then up an incline to a dicey green. Doglegs slightly right and plays across a stream on the second. Par 4. (Tee shot, approach, then look back to the tee from fairway.)
13. Christened the 25 hole because it is as easy to make birdie on as it is to double-bogey, at 134 yards it seems inconspicuous on the card. A little uphill to a plateau green that's twice as wide in back, misses on either side are repelled from the green site and become increasingly tough to chip up as you get further from the green and further down the hill. Par 3. (I made the 5.
) (View from back of green.)
14. A brute of a par 4, Vardon drew upon inspiration from a Scottish links when he placed the back tee slightly lower than the mound in front of it. You can't see much, but can infer from the cavernous look between the trees that the fairway is wide. The green on this 449 yard par 4 is perilously close to the stream on the right. (Approach of about 185 yards downhill.)
The only negatives I can find to point out are that
a) the course finishes on two of their easier holes (more on this later), and
b) parts of the property are a little over-treed. Conditions are terrific and the greens are exceptional. My gracious host, club pro
Jim Julsrud[/i], spun around in a tidy 69 with his lone bogey on #15 where I made my only birdie. (Like Tommy Aaron boasting about all the home runs he and his brother combined for in their careers, I can talk about the day Julsrud and I partnered for 67 best-ball!
Hank Aaron actually began his professional baseball career as a minor leaguer in Eau Claire.)
Now about the club… it seems a little peculiar to someone from a more populated area. My lunch of Trout-on-Toast and cup of Clam Chowder ran just $5.50.
Which brings me to the club's economics. How much do you think the initiation is for a club with a golf course of this caliber? Guess again, you're way too high. Guess again, still too high.
Nope, it is just $750 to join with $300 per month dues.
They are presently a little short on members and anticipate the initiation returning to $4,000 soon, but that's still only 1/20th the reported downstroke to join storied
Interlachen CC less than two hours away. Because of these economics in a small Middle America town - one with another private club and SIX daily fee options - reason trumps tradition when making decisions for the club. One example is that three or four holes were moved away from the low-lying riverside to higher ground. Around 1980 it was deemed necessary to plant trees to better delineate the line of play on these new holes. Naturally these trees grew up together and now it is not only defined, but a little cluttered as well. (Almost sadly
, rounds are down from about 28,000 annually in the late 80s to more like 18,000 today.)
Another example is found in a change the club is undergoing in the next two years that will radically alter hole sequence. First, an additional par 3 is being built between the present 6th and 7th holes. Once completed, construction on a new clubhouse will commence on a site that includes the present 5th hole. When that is finished the club will sell the valuable land (on a major thoroughfare) where the obsolete clubhouse sits and move the entrance road to the other end of the property. Because of the value of the land being sold, the club will somehow pay for the cost of a their new clubhouse without going deep into pocket. Pretty hard running assessments through on a club that's letting in members for less than a grand! It all makes perfect financial sense, but I'm guessing you would never hear a similar project at
Shinnecock. (Don't know if I can say that with certainty, though.
Pebble Beach's addition of New #5 isn't an unfair comparison.)
(Construction has just started on the new par 3 - August 2002.)
Personally, I have no qualms with the changes that have been made or those just starting. However, some purists will no doubt object to them and clamor for a total restoration to the original Vardon design, even though I've never heard anyone singing the praises of Vardon like they may for Ross or Raynor.
Despite a reputation that doesn't extend to St. Paul to the West or Madison and Milwaukee to the East, Eau Claire is a delightful course that embodies low profile, Classic design philosophies. A stealth candidate for national recognition, it is entirely possible that the club goes another hundred years remaining undiscovered. (For those wondering if it is worth a trip to Eau Claire to see the course, be aware that the
Wild Ridge course at the Mill Run club is a terrific new daily-fee option you could also visit while in the area.)
EAU CLAIRE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB431, 144, 432, 481, 189, 372, 406, 518, 408
414, 204, 396, 134, 449, 371, 529, 335, 3616574 yards, par 71John Conley, August 2002