Badger State’s
All-Time Greats
Led by Andy
North, Steve
Stricker and
Jerry Kelly,
Wisconsin has
produced an
abundance of
fine players
By Rob Schultz
Right: Andy North is credited
with putting Wisconsin golf on
the map following his two U. S.
Open victories in 1977 and ’ 85.
Below: Edgerton native Steve
Stricker is the No. 4-ranked
player in the world.
In the meantime, a bevy of young players
from Wisconsin followed in North’s
footsteps and continued to prove that you
don’t need to spend
12 months a year in a
warmer climate to succeed on a golf course.
The list includes Edgerton native Steve
Stricker, the No.
4 ranked player in the
world and a two-time comeback player of
the year on the PGA Tour who rebuilt his
swing at home hitting thousands of balls in
sub-freezing conditions during two long,
ANDY NORTH WASN’T MUCH DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER successful golfer from America’s snow belt when he turned professional in 1972. North grew up in Madison, Wis., but spurned the Badger State to attend college at the University
of Florida in Gainesville, where he was a three-time All-American. Upon
the end of his collegiate career, he decided to make Gainesville his
official residence because of the year-round warmth it provided.
U.S. Opens and that helped put a spotlight
on golf in Wisconsin that has never been
turned off.
Four years later, just as he started playing
the best golf of his life, North moved his
family – comprised of wife Susan and two
young daughters – back to Madison. It was
an unthinkable move at the time, but one
North credits for changing his career and life.
“We made it work,” recalls North.
“Educating our kids and having them grow
up in a great environment was a lot more
important than me hitting balls every single
Meanwhile, North went on to win two
Prior to North’s first U.S. Open triumph
at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado
in 1977, the only state golf course that
received any regular notoriety was
Milwaukee Country Club. By the time of
his second Open win at Oakland Hills
Country Club in Bloomfield Township,
Mich., in 1985, a golf boom had started in
the state that already included Sentry World
in Stevens Point and would soon include
two courses at Blackwolf Run in Kohler.
Blackwolf Run was the site of the 1998 U.S.
Women’s Open, which established
numerous attendance records.
By the turn of the century, Kohler
opened up two more courses at Whistling
Straits to such critical acclaim that the
Straits course quickly was penciled in to
host the 2004 PGA Championship, the
2007 U.S. Senior Open and this week’s
PGA Championship (with the 2015 PGA
Championship and 2020 Ryder Cup still to
come).
THE PGA OF AMERICA
90 THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM OF THE 2010 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
