The Links at Lawsonia

The Links at Lawsonia is a William Langford and Theodore Moreau design from 1930, shaped entirely with steam shovels and architectural imagination at a time when most American courses were built with teams of horses and hand labor. The course sits on Green Lake in central Wisconsin, 90 minutes northwest of Milwaukee and the same distance from Madison or Whistling Straits, and it is the course that the modern golf architecture community points to when they want to discuss brilliance that never became famous. Langford and Moreau built massive elevated greens, deep fairway bunkers, and dramatic land movement where the natural terrain alone would have been quiet. Fairways are wide and Scottish in feel; the challenge sits on the greens and in the bunkers flanking the approaches. The signature 7th, a 161-yard par-3 with a railroad boxcar supposedly buried under the green, features steep sides that reject all but the most committed tee shots. The back nine features a 3-5-3-5-3 sequence that's architecturally unusual and a highlight reel of Langford's variety. Lawsonia Links is ranked #4 Best Golf Courses in Wisconsin (Golf.com, 2024-25) and sits in the USA Top 100 on multiple lists. Golf Club Atlas and serious design historians treat it as one of America's most significant Golden Age survivors. The reason to drive to Green Lake.