| © 2006 Destination Kohler |
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The Irish Course's seventh hole is beset by bunkers.
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In America, you don’t often find an individual golf hole with more than a handful of bunkers; having a dozen or more is downright rare. But golfers lucky enough to experience an American Club Kohler golf vacation have the unique opportunity to play a hole with twice that amount.
Architect Pete Dye’s ode to bunkers can be found on Wisconsin's Whistling Straits Irish course, particularly hole number seven, named Troll for the creature that supposedly presides over its greenside creek.
Of the more 500 bunkers on the entire course, 21 of them flank the left side of this fairway — some visible, some hidden — all the way up to the green, while another large one constrict the right portion of the landing area. Though it seems counterintuitive, the smart play is to aim right at this string of surreptitious sand traps; just not with a driver in your hands.
As for the approach, Dye often permits shots by land or air, but on this shortish par four, whose green is also surrounded by sand and the aforementioned creek, the only option is to take to the sky.
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