THE SPECTATOR Harman’s test / P. 60
Forced to sell Erin Hills, old owner still takes pride in hosting Open
E RIN, Wis. — Passion always has been a virtue for Bob Lang. It’s obsession that doomed him. It was Lang’s vision and passion that created Erin Hills and the 117th U.S. Open that’s being played this week on its scenic rolling hills located 45 minutes northwest of Milwaukee.
But it was his obsession that overextended him financially and took it all away from him, rendering him this week in a bizarre netherworld, a spectator at the course he conceived after coming to the sobering realization he had to sell the property in 2009 when he ran out of money.
To witness Lang roaming around Erin Hills with all the activity bustling around him — the best golfers in the world playing, the tens of thousands of fans packing the grandstands, the corporate tents,
the buzz — is analogous to a kid standing on the outside looking in while someone else twirls his girl around the dance floor and canoodles with her at the prom.
While he sat quietly in a golf cart in the shade at the Erin Hills caddie barn conversing with The Post, Lang was intermittently beaming with pride and staring wistfully at the surroundings.
It was easy to see how well-liked he was as the owner, with key people he hired in the beginning — the superintendent, the head pro and caddies — spotting him and greeting him warmly.
This cannot help but tug at Lang’s heart — no longer being a part of that everyday camaraderie — not to mention watching the U.S. Open he promised to bring to Erin Hills being played on the course he created.
“No, I’m not sad,’’ Lang insisted. “My emotions are it’s surreal … and it happened. My marketing plan was to tell everybody beginning in 2000: ‘I’m going to bring the U.S. Open here.’ Anybody I would talk to, I’d tell them that I was going to do it.’’
So he did. He just didn’t get to carry the football into the end zone.
This is the way Lang, who comes off as a perpetually positive soul, rationalizes it all in his mind: He started the race and handed the baton off to Andy Ziegler, who bought the property from him in 2009 and finished the job.
“It was a 10-year journey,’’ Lang said. “And all the people that followed me … achieved it and it was done. I ran out of money, Andy Ziegler came in and bought the property, and he had the resources to prepare Erin Hills for the U.S. Open.’’
Lang is a paid consultant for Ziegler, who bought the course from him for $10.5 million in 2009 after Lang had put a reported $26 million into it.
Lang sold his successful calendar company to bring Erin Hills to life and he, too, spent his children’s inheritance on the project. “I didn’t own this golf course,’’ Lang said. “My three children owned it. It was in a trust. Their future was the Erin Hills golf course. It was my decision and my decision only to build and invest my children’s future in a golf course. I wanted them to have it. I did that for my children and grandchildren.’’
Lang’s involvement with Erin Hills began with a phone call in 1999 from a man named Steve Trattner, who was seeking a buyer for the property he could not afford himself. The moment Lang visited the property he fell in love with it, seeing its potential. And so began the odyssey. It was a project that included Lang buying 130 more acres (for a reported $8 million) around the golf course he wanted because he didn’t want anyone to be able to see a single house from the property.
The people who sold him the adjoining land were aware of how desperately Lang coveted the property and they took advantage, inflating their prices. Lang, against the advice of his golf course architects and USGA executive director Mike Davis, bought the land anyway.
This was the beginning of the end for Lang’s involvement with Erin Hills, as he overextended himself so badly he was forced to sell.
“Was it needed?’’ Lang said of the eight extra parcels of land he purchased. “No. No one said I needed it. I was very passionate about it … and then passion turned to obsession. When did it turn to obsession? When I first made up my mind I was going to buy the properties with the houses on the hill. That’s when I became obsessed.’’
There were bizarre happenstances surrounding Erin Hills beyond Lang’s self-destructive obsession.
In January 2006, six years into Lang owning Erin Hills, Trattner was arrested and charged with killing his wife, 36-year-old Sin Lam, in their home. Police reports said he became enraged that she wanted a divorce. He was sentenced to 35 years in at Waupun Correctional Institution, which is located about 40 miles northwest of Erin Hills.
Another twisted tale to the story: Lang first hatched the idea of attracting a U.S. Open while he was at Pebble Beach by himself during the 2000 Open, which Tiger Woods ended up winning by a record 15 shots. It was there Lang looked around the iconic piece of land by the Pacific Ocean and thought to himself, “Erin Hills is a better piece of land than this.’’
Ten years later, and about a year after Lang was forced to sell to Ziegler, the USGA announced it was awarding the 2017 U.S. Open to Erin Hills. That announcement came, of all places, at Pebble Beach during the 2010 U.S. Open.
“Did I overextend myself? Yes, of course I did,’’ Lang said. “Would I change things? Of course you’d change things. Would I build the golf course again? Absolutely. Yeah, I did it.
“Would I buy the [extra] land again?’’
His voice trailed off after that last rhetorical question.
Lang said he’s embarking on a “new chapter’’ to rebuild his business life. He owns 15 original period paintings of Abraham Lincoln, the largest known private collection in the world.
The collection, which Lang said “is worth millions’’ and which he once planned to donate, is housed at the Gettysburg Museum of History in Pennsylvania. Lang said he’s seeking “the right patron’’ to purchase it and donate it in their name because he can no longer afford to donate it.
He, too, talked of purchasing an Alabama furniture company “that will compete with Ikea,’’ and resurrecting his greeting card business.
“That is my recovery,’’ Lang said. “That’s how a guy comes back with a new life. This is my second act.’’
ERIN, Wis. — When Brian Harman’s dad dropped him off at football practice when he was a kid, the elder Harman told him not to be disappointed if he didn’t get to play a lot.
That was the day Harman put that invisible chip on his shoulder and became determined to prove people wrong. He’s been doing it ever since. “I played a lot,” he said of his football career.
The 117th U.S. Open was supposed to be a big hitter’s major. But it’s Harman, all 5foot-7, 150 pounds of him, leading by one stroke entering Sunday’s fourth and perhaps final round. His 5-under 67 on Saturday put the former Georgia Bulldog at 12-under, one shot clear of Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas. There are 12 golfers within five shots of the lead.
“Normally, 12-under would be a 10-shot lead at most U.S. Opens,” Harman joked.
Not this one. His 12-under after 54 holes is second only to the 14-under Rory McIlroy posted at Congressional in 2011. McIlroy ran away from the field that year. Harman will have to fend off a bevy of contenders to win his first major.
Harman, who is looking to become only the fourth player to win the Junior Amateur and the U.S. Open, was pleased with his performance on Saturday. His only bogey came at the par-4 third hole. He had birdies at 1,4, 9, 11, 14, and 15.
“I was glad to hang in there especially playing in the last group,” he said. “It’s tough to see everyone doing well and wanting to do well, it’s hard to stay patient. I think I did a good job with that.”
Harman, 30, doesn’t seem to be feeling the pressure, though that could change Sunday. A two-time winner on tour, he planned to spend Saturday night with his family and worry about Sunday on Sunday.
“I’ll get some sleep and then come out and make a plan,” he said. “It depends on the weather. Someone can get out early and shoot a low score. I may not be leading the tournament by the time I tee-off.”
Harman credits the low scoring on the set-up of the golf course.
“The weather has been so good,” he said. “When you set-up a golf course in a fair manner and the weather’s good, the scores are going to be low. The wind is going to blow [Sunday] and the