Kenosha Country Club

Kenosha County Club

The House That Donald Built

By Brian Weis

Mention the name Donald and the game of golf in the same sentence and the real estate mogul Donald Trump normally will come to mind. The original Donald to the game was legendary course designer Donald Ross.

In the early 1900's, Ross predominately built courses along the East Coast primarily because cross country transportation was limited to steam engine train. Fortunately, for Wisconsinites Ross built two classic masterpieces in the Badger state - Kenosha CC and Oconomowoc CC.

Built in 1922, Kenosha CC has stood the test of time. The 6511 yard, par 70 course features classic holes with small elevated greens, tree line fairways and elegantly shaped bunkering.

The heart of the course lies between holes 13 through 15 where golfers will be tested in an uphill downhill bout with two long testy par 4s sandwich between a monster 218 yard par 3.

Head Pro Eric Malone shared immediately that hands down the signature hole was 15. Named Waterloo, the hole drops to the riverbed floor requiring a long precise drive to carry the gently flowing creek. A long iron second shot will be needed to reach the elevated green 430 yards into the distance. I can only image how many matches have swayed on this challenging hole.

Donald Ross trades a few brawny uphill par 3's in exchange for a beautiful collection of downhill par 4's including the underrated 16th dubbed the "willows," and parallel finishing holes 9 and 18.

Bottom line, the design features are classic but like all Donald Ross designed courses the conditioning is first rate. Case in point, the Autumn day we played two crews were trimming back the towering mature hardwoods lining fairways 8 and 9. This pruning goes along way in rejuvenating a course as opposed to looking like a tired 100 year old course.

If Donald Ross was alive today he would still be proud of Kenosha Country Club.

The Skinny
4 Tees - 6511, 6277, 5982, 5705 yards
Par - 70
Back Slope/Rating - 132/71.6

Kenosha Country Club

500 13th Avenue
Kenosha, WI 53141
262-552-8488
www.kenoshacountryclub.com

Revised: 11/17/2012 - Article Viewed 33,408 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.