Upon this rather blank slate, Pete Dye has imposed a formal, highly symmetrical routing plan. He has converted the lake bluff into two parallel tiers of holes: a lakeside tier about 30 vertical feet above the waterwater, and the more inland tier about 60 feet up. From almost all 14 holes on the two lakeside tiers, you enjoy panoramic views of the Lake. The clubhouse is sited 600 yards inland, in the center. Both nines consist of narrow figure 8 loops, with the fronfront nine south of the clubhouse, and the back nine north. Both nines begin with a hole running from the clubhouse toward the lake, followed by one long hole along the upper lakeside tier. Then you are granted two holes down along the lakeside. Here eacheach nine turns back toward the clubhouse with two holes on the upper tier. Each nine then climaxes with two more holes down by the lake, and then concludes with par 4's heading back inland to the clubhouse. Since Dye puts all the par 3''s on the lower ttier, you get 8 holes right along the lake, 6 holes on the upper vista tier, and 4 holes basically perpendicular to the lake. There is probably no more perfect routing conceivable (unless they chose to put the clubhouse on the bluff, allowing #18 to finisfinish alongside the lake), which is why Dye used it for both nines. This layout has huge advantages over those found on most linksland courses in the British Isles, where you often can barely see the water at all during your round, much less have greensclinging to precipices over the water.

The problem, though, is that perfection tends to be the enemy of charm. Only on the 4 inland holes running to and from the clubhouse, where the meandering creek comes into play, is there a sense of the architect beinbeing forced to confront nature''s idiosyncrasies and devise novel solutions. For example, when they finally get some grass to grow on #18, it will be one of the wildest short par 5's in the country. (Unfortunately, it's called a par 4, even though to hhave a shot at getting home in two requires a 264 yard carry from the black tees.) On almost all the lakeside holes, though, you sense the architect imposing his will upon the property. There are no awkward but unusual terrain features that Dye must overcovercome. In fact, so many holes consist of the same ideal elements (e.g., greens set at 45 degree angles with the back left or right pin positions hanging out over perdition) that some of the individual holes alongside the lake aren''t really that memoramemorable. Although Ballybunion is probably the primary inspiration, Whistling Straits doesn't really look that much like Ballybunion, for two related reasons. First, there is an enormous amount of exposed sand at Whistling Straits: I counted 320 waste bubunkers on the scorecard hole maps, and that is almost certainly an underestimate. Most of the excitement of Ballybunion comes from the course having to adapt itself to this rugged landscape. In contrast, Dye has created an infinite number of small to faifairly large-size dune shapes (covering almost the entire property, at no doubt prodigious expense), that are conveniently arrayed to serve his ideal holes.