How Pete Dye’s Dog Killed Herb Kohler’s Sheep

Editor’s note: This tale originates with Monte Burke at Forbes.com. Visor tip to John Strege at Local Knowledge.

HERB KOHLER LOVED HIS black-face sheep that wandered Whistling Straits, the Wisconsin golf course that hosted the 2010 PGA Championship won by Martin Kaymer in a sudden-death playoff against Bubba Watson. (And, of course, the home of the bunker controversy that ruined Dustin Johnson’s bid for his first major.)

The sheep made the Kohler property on the edge of Lake Michigan seem more like Scotland. They also provided photo-ops for golfers. They even trimmed the rough.

(Photo: The black-face sheep of Whistling Straits /
Dan Perry, Flickr)

In advance of the 2004 PGA Championship, famed course designer Pete Dye was summoned to Whistling Straits to build an ambulance road. Dye brought along one of his Belgian shepherds for company as he mapped the road. It was a habit of his. Apparently, Pete loved his dogs. But a problem arose.

“I wasn’t paying attention to my dog,” Dye told Monte Burke. “And the next thing I know, that dog is chasing the sheep.”

Desperate to escape the canine, one of the sheep plunged into Lake Michigan. The dog jumped in after it! The sheep swam out farther. The shepherd followed.

“I ran down and jumped into the lake and grabbed the dog, but by that time, the sheep had gone upside down,” Dye said.

Uh-oh.

Steve Friedlander, general manager of Kohler’s golf courses, descended a hill and made a beeline for the course architect. You are in big trouble, he told Dye. Dye: I know. I’ll tell Mr. Kohler. But that wasn’t what Friedlander meant. An editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was playing the course and saw the entire dog-sheep episode.

Dye trailed the editor and approached him on the 14th. He asked the editor not to make a big story about what he saw, otherwise Dye could write the following day’s headline: “Herb Kohler shot Pete Dye.”

The editor smiled and returned to his mediocre golf game. The anecdote ran as a small item the next day, and Dye surely breathed a sigh of relief.

−The Armchair Golfer

VIDEO: Martin Kaymer and Bernhard Langer Yuk It Up (in German)

THIS STILL IN: MARTIN KAYMER won the 92nd PGA Championship on Sunday at Whistling Straits. The Dusseldorf native defeated Bubba Watson in a three-hole playoff. I’m just reminding myself after getting buried in the bunker controversy. I figured it might take a day or two to get out. I’m playing out sideways.

The video shows Bernhard Langer and Kaymer (pronounced as if the “a” is silent) instructing some German golf prospects at the 2009 BMW International Open. Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie also appear in the video. I don’t understand any of it. (Except the chuckles.)

I expect the German major winners will have another good laugh next time they see each other. Langer won the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open in recent weeks. And Kaymer, well, you know.

Again, Martin Kaymer won the PGA Championship. Glory’s last shot. Tell a friend.

−The Armchair Golfer

Q&A: Sandy Lie on Bunker Controversy at PGA Championship

IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, Sandy Lie spoke to ARMCHAIR GOLF about the bizarre ending to the 92nd PGA Championship.

Q: What did you make of the controversial ruling involving Dustin Johnson?

SANDY LIE: That’s golf. It can ruin your life. It has mine.

Q: Can you elaborate?

SANDY LIE: The game is run by people obsessed with arcane rules and played on alien landscapes designed by men who like to push massive amounts of dirt around and shovel me into odd-shaped holes of all sizes. Look, I feel sorry for Dustin Johnson, but he chose to be on the golf course. I sure didn’t.

Q: How has golf harmed you?

SANDY LIE: You mean, besides not knowing who or what I am? Everywhere else in the world I’m just Sandy, but in golf they’ve put all kinds of crazy labels and definitions on me. Two words: identity crisis. The players don’t even read the rules. They admitted it on TV! What kind of game is that?

Q: What do you think of Whistling Straits?

SANDY LIE: Don’t get me started.

Q: How about Pete Dye?

SANDY LIE: I wish he’d leave me the hell alone. I’ll bet he never got to play in a sandbox growing up.

Q: So how do you deal with it?

SANDY LIE: I’m in therapy.

Q: How’s that going?

SANDY LIE: I make some progress, then something like Whis … Whis … Whis… sorry, I can’t say the words. Then I regress. It’s a process.

Q: Do you think Dustin Johnson got a raw deal?

SANDY LIE: Hey, did you hear the PGA has a new headliner at their Las Vegas show this week?

Q: No. Who?

SANDY LIE: The Blue Dot Men Group.

Q: Pretty funny.

SANDY LIE: Thanks. Saw it online today. I don’t what it means.

Q: Getting back to the Dustin Johnson thing, David Feherty said he, Feherty, didn’t know it was a bunker.

SANDY LIE: Who?

Q: Feherty.

SANDY LIE: The burrowing animal?

Q: No, that’s a ferret. Nevermind.

SANDY LIE: Are we about done here?

Q: Pretty close. Do people get you mixed up with Sandy Lyle?

SANDY LIE: Our names are somewhat alike and we’re both involved in golf, but that’s where the similarities end.

Q: Sandy Lyle’s Masters victory was directly from a sandy lie on the 72nd hole. Coincidence?

SANDY LIE: You’re overreaching.

Q: Do you prefer to be raked or unraked?

SANDY LIE: This interview is over.

−The Armchair Golfer

(This is an ARMCHAIR GOLF spoof.)

(Image: rsutton 198/Flickr)

PGA Championship: Young Guns Dominate at Birdie Straits

NICK WATNEY PUTTED AND GRINNED his way to a 66 at the PGA Championship to take a three-shot lead into the final round at Birdie, er, Whistling Straits. The Pete Dye track had no defense against the precocious genius of the young guns. The wind was down, the greens were soft, and the scores were low.

Tied in second place, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy are Watney’s closest pursuers. Three more of the youth movement—Martin Kaymer, Jason Day and Wenchong Liang—are T4.

(Photo: This is going to hurt, ball. Dustin Johnson tees off at the Quail Hollow Championship / Ed McDonald, Flickr)

The young guns rode into Whistling Straits on Saturday and loaded up on birdies like it was the dessert buffet at Golden Corral. Leader Watney carded eight on his way to a 66. Johnson had five and no bogeys for a 67. McIlroy had six in his round of 67, as did Kaymer (67) and Day (66). And, with eight birds on his card, Liang set the course record of 64.

There are fossils in contention: the ancient Steve Elkington, a 47-year-old former PGA champion; world No. 5 Jim Furyk, 40; and Masters champion Zach Johnson, 34. Yes, even Mr. Johnson is an old man. I’m telling you, anybody over 32 on this leaderboard is old, old, old.

Which of the boys will pass the examination tomorrow? Nick? Dustin? Rory? Martin? Jason? One of the fossils?

This is going to be fun.

−The Armchair Golfer

Dark Conditions Halt Play at 92nd PGA Championship

WIDESPREAD DARKNESS HALTED PLAY around 8:30 CT at the 92nd PGA Championship. Many players were in the middle of their second rounds when they began squinting in the dimming light at Whistling Straits. Not long after PGA officials halted play as darkness enveloped the championship venue on the shores of Lake Michigan.

(Photo: Dark conditions forced players from the course in Kohler, Wisconsin / anderssporring, Flickr)

Darkness has stopped play at all prior PGA Championships. Officials were not concerned about the interruption, noting that the previous 91 PGAs had been scheduled and played during daylight hours.

Most players left the course and returned to their hotels to wait out the darkness delay. Play is expected to resume early on Saturday morning when light returns to the skies above the Pete Dye-designed golf course.

−The Armchair Golfer

The Land of 1,000 Bunkers, But Who’s Counting?

AS YOU CAN SEE at left, Whistling Straits, site of this week’s 92nd PGA Championship has sand fairways. This player’s ball has split the middle, and he looks to have a decent lie from which to hit his next shot to the green.

OK, Whistling Straits doesn’t have sand fairways. But it does have sand, lots and lots of sand, and it’s on display in countless (and I do mean countless) configurations, including furry little baby traps that want to be scary cavernous bunkers when they grow up. This former army base along Lake Michigan has a 1,000 bunkers, give or take ... well, no one is quite sure.

Why so many bunkers?

Because billionaire Herb Kohler wanted a wild-looking Irish links course on the Wisconsin shore. And what Herb wants, Herb gets. Just ask course architect Pete Dye. Although, in actuality, Dye’s handiwork more resembles a Scottish links. (When Herb or Pete can’t sleep, there’s no need to count sheep. They can count bunkers on Whistling Straits. There are more than 50 per hole. Sweet dreams.)

“The bag drop at Whistling Straits is more heavily bunkered than the greens at Augusta National,” wrote SI’s John Garrity.

“I feel bad for the fans,” Hunter Mahan was quoted as saying, “because it seems like you could be walking and all of a sudden you’re falling in a hole of sand and don’t even know it.”

Garrity had a solution for that very real possibility: lugging along a hamper with charcoal, lighter fluid, hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and two sharpened sticks. From watching on TV, it does look like a perfect spot for an afternoon picnic or late-night bonfire.

Seriously, who’s counting every last bunker at Whistling Straits? Apparently, no one. Call it a 1,000. Or 1,200. Close enough. You see, the task is far too tedious, only slightly less difficult than taking the U.S. Census or fixing Social Security.

Besides, if someone did come up with an authoritative bunker count, how would we know it was authoritative unless someone checked it?

No one would want to do that.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Dan Perry/Flickr)

Whistling or Dire Straits for Harrington’s Ryder Cup Hopes

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh, a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a regular contributor to The Irish Times and Golf Digest Ireland, writes about the dilemma of five-time Ryder Cupper Padraig Harrington.

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

PADRAIG HARRINGTON ADMITS THAT this week’s US PGA is his last chance to avoid the need for a Ryder Cup pick. The Dubliner plans to skip the final qualifying event at Gleneagles to play in the clashing FedExCup play-off tournament in New Jersey in two weeks’ time. And that means he must grab a top-four finish at Whistling Straits to ensure that he is not relying on one of skipper Colin Montgomerie’s three wild cards on August 29.

Confessing he could be in dire straits instead of Whistling Straits on Sunday night, Harrington said: “It’s very precarious. No one who doesn’t qualify automatically deserves to be in the team. If you don’t make it on merit, you are asking for a little bit of a favour.”

Ian Poulter sparked a massive controversy two years ago when he decided not to travel to Gleneagles despite the fact that he could still qualify for the team. It was alleged that Poulter had been given “the nod” by skipper Nick Faldo, who later handed him a captain’s pick.

But Harrington will have safety in numbers this time as Paul Casey and Justin Rose, who are also outside the qualifying places, also intend to skip the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in favour of The Barclays.

Harrington said: “It is a very awkward situation, there’s no doubt about it. I saw the last time round that one of the players [Poulter] didn’t come to play the last event and I thought he should have. Now I am in the same situation because I have a Special Olympics clinic at The Barclays and I don’t want to let them down.

“I have talked to some of the other guys who will be looking for a pick and they are all saying they will be playing The Barclays. So at the moment I am committing to the Special Olympics and I’m going to try and qualify this week and have nothing to worry about.”

Seventh in the race for four places from the World Points List and just over €13,245 behind Miguel Angel Jimenez in the battle for the other five places from the European Points List, Harrington knows he needs a massive week in Wisconsin.

“The goal is to get in on the world ranking points because that ends in a week’s time. Even if I pass Jimenez in the money, he can jump by me in the last event in Gleneagles so the goal is to play well this week and sort it out.”

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.

(Image: Mike Davis/Flickr)

Rory’s New Wave Band

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a regular contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following piece is excerpted from his blog, Irish Golf Desk. 

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

RORY MCILROY WILL LEAD a hungry new generation of European young guns to Wisconsin in search of US PGA glory next month. The Holywood star, 21, bounced back brilliantly from his nightmare 80 in The Open to share third place behind stablemate Louis Oosthuizen.

And McIlroy’s manager Chubby Chandler reckons his young superstar is at the vanguard of a new wave of European talent set to sweep all before them in the same way that Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam dominated golf in the 80s and early 90s.

Chandler said: “After major wins by Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen, there will be a whole bunch of European Tour players going to Whistling Straits for the US PGA believing they can win.

“The days when Europeans looked uncomfortable leading majors seem to have gone. And it’s not just four or five players any more like it was in the 80s and 90s—there are 25 of them now who are going to the US PGA to win.

“Rory did great to finish third in the Open with an 80 in the second round. It was a really great comeback and I don’t think what happened on Friday will make any difference to him. He knows exactly where he is going in the game and this is just a step along the way.”

McIlroy must believe he is heading for greatness and his rivals can only pray that he doesn’t address the weaknesses in his game. At St. Andrews, as the American writer Dan Jenkins pointed out over a cigarette on Saturday, McIlroy was too young to realise that a 75 was a good score on Friday afternoon.

“He learned something every day at St Andrews,” Chandler said as his ISM stable celebrated its first major win on Monday. “Day one—he led a major by two. Day two he takes 80 after getting knocked out of his rhythm by the weather delay. He won’t do that very often when he’s leading majors.

“He came back unbelievably well on the last two days to finish third so there are more positives than negatives for Rory. He now knows that you don’t go out and win a major first time, like Louis has done. Normally you have to earn it—just look at what Lee [Westwood] is going through.”

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.