Scottish Daily Mail

WELCOME TO WONDERFUL WHISTLING TOUGH TRIO: THE THRILLING FINAL THREE

A huge horseshoe grandstand, a thousand bunkers, a whipping wind and set in the middle of nowhere...

- DEREK LAWRENSON Golf Correspond­ent at Whistling Straits

Build it and they will come. if you think that is the sort of cheesy line belonging only to the world of Hollywood movies about sport, then welcome to the back end of beyond otherwise known as wild and wonderful Whistling Straits.

Here amid the wheat fields of Wisconsin and the seemingly endless miles of farmlands, a golf course has been made that stands comparison with any built in the last halfcentur­y. On top of it they have constructe­d a reasonable-sized village filled with grandstand­s and hospitalit­y outposts that, come Friday, will play host to upwards of 45,000 people daily.

The marvel is where on earth they are all coming from, and where they are all staying. The media hotel is a 65-mile drive away! Just a mile from the entrance, my journey was interrupte­d by a farm vehicle so vast i had to move over into the dirt so that it could pass.

Perhaps nothing illustrate­s the popularity of the modern Ryder Cup and the place it holds in the sporting bucket list that not even the remotest venue to stage the event and these uncertain times have led to any recourse to downscale.

The first hole is a classic example. The horseshoe grandstand around the first tee might not be quite as vast as the one built for the last match in Paris but it is pretty close. it is the biggest we have seen for an American Ryder Cup and it certainly whets the appetite for what is about to follow, and an eagerly-awaited 43rd edition that is almost finally here.

Wander down the first fairway and the number of hospitalit­y units on view is jaw-dropping. Ten of America’s most prestigiou­s companies have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for seating in the massive unit down the left side. By the green, there’s a ‘south side suite’ and a ‘north side suite,’ either side of the putting surface. There is no sport that big business adores quite like golf, even in nowheresvi­lle. it is truly a million dollar hole.

if truth be told, it is also a fairly ordinary hole on a course where there aren’t many. The glory begins at the par five second that runs for its entire length alongside lake Michigan. i had it all to myself yesterday until spying Sky’s Tim Barter beside the green, doing his homework, and marvelling at a nasty sand trap situated 20 yards before the putting surface. ‘Now that’s what i call a bunker,’ he said. ‘imagine going in that?’

Ah, the bunkers. it is the incomparab­le designer Pete dye up to his tricks again, just like his creation at Kiawah island at the opposite end of this nation. People have attempted to count the bunkers here but no one’s really sure. it is somewhere around 1,000 — typically, you would find about 100 on a regular course —and they range in size from a private beach to others where you would struggle to put a deckchair.

There was talk that the bunkers would all be treated as waste areas where you could ground your club, as was the case at Kiawah for the PGA last May. in fact, they will all be in play, just as they were at the PGA in 2010 and a situation that had painful consequenc­es for dustin Johnson, costing him his chance of winning his first major.

On the 18th he thought a sandy area where his ball had landed was too small and trampled on by spectators to be a bunker but it was and the two shots he was penalised for grounding his club cost him a place in the subsequent play-off, won by Martin Kaymer. With so few matches on the

course and a referee with each one, there is no chance of a similar incident befalling Johnson or anyone else this time.

A lot of the bunkers are there simply for visual intimidati­on. i counted 26 to the left of the tenth green, not one of which is in play, but they look scary from the tee.

Walking all 18 holes in a decent breeze, i felt a lot better about Europe’s chances of causing yet another upset. You can see why astute judges like Paul McGinley think the visitors have a heck of a chance. When the wind is blowing it is a thinker’s rather than a bomber’s course and Europe have more than their fair share of those.

It is also a world away from a typical PGA Tour venue like Hazeltine, the scene of the 2016 Ryder Cup. The wind speeds can change significan­tly from hole to hole as can the temperatur­e. i started out in bright sunshine and finished in a sprinkling of rain.

imagine sitting down in a meeting about Ryder Cup venues and proposing a place that’s almost an equidistan­t 65 miles from Milwaukee to the south and Green Bay to the north, with virtually nothing in between?

Yet they have made it work. Whistling Straits makes it work. ‘i should say this with some modesty but i’ve never seen anything like this course,’ said the late, much-missed dye, who passed away last year.

How he would have loved the drama to come over the closing two holes. The 17th is up there with the best par threes in the game, with a hellish 25ft drop off to the left of the green beside the lake that would certainly draw a look from your foursomes partner if you hit it down there.

Stand on the tee at the last two holes and there appears to be nothing to aim at, a classic dye trait. But there is, if you trust your research and your game and your nerve, with points on the line and the crowd on top of you and scrambling the senses.

in other words, all that you want at a Ryder Cup. Here in the middle of nowhere, we are set for three days of what promises to be worth the wait of three years.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Roar emotion: McIlroy celebrates a fourballs win in 2016 at Hazeltine
GETTY IMAGES Roar emotion: McIlroy celebrates a fourballs win in 2016 at Hazeltine
 ?? PA ?? Gladiatori­al arena: the horseshoe grandstand around the first tee
PA Gladiatori­al arena: the horseshoe grandstand around the first tee
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