Kestrel Ridge

Getting To Know: Kestrel Ridge Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Lori Brown, GM

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Lori Brown who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
18 hole links style course/ 2 practice greens including practice sandbunker/ large driving range/ fully stocked pro shop/ Excellent sports bar (Putter's Pub) with large t.v.'s, full menu, daily food and drink specials/ Beverage cart out most days/ full service banquet hall that holds 250 people/ on site ceremony location/ outdoor tent for outings.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Practice sand shots- there are 72 sand traps on course/ practice on our greens-they are fast/ make a strong effort to approach the hole from below-trying to never putt down hill.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
Friendly dedicated staff/ we put a lot of effort into the greens-making them fast and smooth.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Hole 18-par 4/ very narrow fairway-houses on one side-rock quarry on the other side-leading up to an elevated green.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
Hole 11-par4/risk and reward hole/can shoot straight to the reachable green-having to clear water with prevailing winds or lay-up for 150 yard shot into the green/ if you lay-up make sure to be left of the red pole to avoid hidden water.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Ridge Burger (hamburger smothered in bacon and cheese served with leaf lettuce and fresh tomato on a toasted bun.

Bloody Mary with beer chaser!!!!!!

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Nathan Collath shot a 63

Back Tee Stats
Par: 70
Yardage: 6116
Slope: 122
Rating: 70.1

More Information
Kestrel Ridge Golf Club
900 Avalon Road
Columbus, WI, 53925
920-623-4653
www.kestrelridgegolf.com

Revised: 01/14/2013 - Article Viewed 33,430 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.