The Links at Lawsonia By Brian Weis

The Links at Lawsonia

Top Fun Courses To Play

By Brian Weis

Golf Digest recently released America's Top 50 Fun Courses To Play. The new list puts less emphasis on design features, distance and the awe factor and more on playability of a course and the intangibles that make a round fun.

When Wisconsinites review the list, they will see just one course from the Badger State. The links of Lawsonia ranked 13th, and deservingly so. I admit I am biased, the Links Course feels like home. Largely, because William Langford also designed the course I grew up on, West Bend Country Club.

After the publishing of the list, I realized I needed to make one more pilgrimage to Lawsonia this season. I will save you all the details of my round and sum it up with saying the course was an absolute Autumn treat. The fall colors were brilliant, the setting peaceful and conditions would rival any course in the state.

Before my round, I said hello to Jeff Klienke, Director of Golf. While checking in he mentioned that the greens are immaculate. Because of the list, they have had a ton of play from Midwest and national golf travelers. He has repeatedly heard that their greens rival any course in the state and even the midwest. I echoed his statement after the round.

Congratulations Lawsonia for cracking the list and living up to the hype!

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Revised: 10/01/2012 - Article Viewed 33,474 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.