Herb Kohler was the CEO of Kohler Company for 43 years before he handed the role off to his son in 2015.
MILWAUKEE — Herbert Kohler Jr., longtime leader of Kohler Company, died Saturday, according to a news release from the company. He was 83.
“His zest for life, adventure and impact inspires all of us,” his family said in the statement Sunday. “We traveled together, celebrated together, and worked together. He was all in, all the time, leaving an indelible mark on how we live our lives today and carry on his legacy.”
Kohler was the CEO of Kohler Company for 43 years before he handed the role off to his son, David Kohler, in 2015. Since then, Herbert continued in the company as executive chairman.
During his time as CEO, Kohler grew the company from a $133 million operation in 1972 to one that in 2015 was approaching $6 billion in annual revenue.
Kohler opened several world renowned golf courses in Wisconsin. Blackwolf Run, his first course, opened in 1988. Whistling Straits came online 10 years later. It most recently hosted the 2021 Ryder Cup. Those two venues house four top courses — Whistling Straits Straits Course, Whistling Straits Irish, Blackwolf Run Meadow Valley and Blackwolf Run River.
Whistling Straits also hosted the 2015 PGA Championship, won by Jason Day.
Jason Day poses with the Wanamaker Trophy and Herb Kohler after winning the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Two months ago, Kohler scored a legal victory, allowing plans for a Whistling Straits sister course to move forward.
Kohler was born Feb. 20, 1939, to Herbert Kohler Sr. and Ruth Myriam DeYoung. He was the oldest of three. He had a sister, Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, and brother Frederick Cornell Kohler, both of whom preceded him in death.
Kohler graduated from Yale in 1965, after spending time at a couple other colleges. He started at Yale but left after a year and went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he studied theater and met Linda Karger, whom he married in 1961. Kohler then enrolled at Furman in South Carolina and worked on the side, before returning to Yale to get a degree in business administration.
Although his grandfather, John Michael Kohler II, founded the Kohler Company in 1873 and Herbert Sr. served as CEO for 43 years, Herbert Jr. recalled in interviews that he had not wanted to be a part of the family company.
But after graduating from Yale in 1965, he began working at Kohler. He was 26. Kohler became chairman and CEO of Kohler Company in 1972.
It’s the latest step in a years-long legal obstacle course Kohler has been negotiating.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has ruled that a conservation group has no legal standing to challenge a DNR land swap that would allow Kohler Co. to develop another golf course along Lake Michigan.
It’s the latest step in a years-long legal obstacle course Kohler has been negotiating as it tries to add another championship-level course in the Sheboygan area. It already owns Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits, which have hosted multiple major championships, and houses four top courses — Whistling Straits Straits Course, Whistling Straits Irish, Blackwolf Run Meadow Valley and Blackwolf Run River.
In 2020, the Supreme Court sided with Kohler on another dispute related to the golf course project, upholding annexation of the site by the city of Sheboygan to avoid a possible denial of a special use permit from the Town of Wilson.
Additionally, Kohler is appealing a judge’s decision last year upholding an administrative judge’s decision that the DNR improperly issued Kohler Co. a permit to fill wetlands. That case is currently before the Court of Appeals.
Thursday’s 4-3 decision reversed a decision by the Court of Appeals, which had ruled the Friends of the Black River Forest could advance its challenge of the land swap. The Friends say the loss of parkland would harm the group’s recreational, conservation and aesthetic interests.
Those interests aren’t clearly protected in laws, the court decided.
“None of the statutes or regulations cited protect any legally protected, recognized, or regulated interests of the Friends that would permit them to challenge the Board’s decision as “person[s] aggrieved,” Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority.
Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Brian Hagedorn joined the opinion.
In dissent, Justice Jill Karofsky blasted the majority’s “textualism” approach as a “rhetorical smokescreen obscuring a result-oriented analysis.” Justices Rebecca Dallet and Ann Walsh Bradley joined the dissent.
The Friends of the Black River Forest, Inc., issued a statement saying it was “disappointed in today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision reversing the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which had declared unequivocally that active users of Wisconsin state parks may lawfully challenge the State when it gives away those park lands to private interests.
Rory McIlroy hits his tee shot on the 3rd hole during practice rounds for the 43rd Ryder Cup golf competition at Whistling Straits. (Photo: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
“Today’s decision sets a disturbing new precedent for Wisconsinites and their ability to fight arbitrary and oppressive agency actions that affect their daily lives—actions that may extend far beyond where and whether they enjoy Wisconsin’s natural resources.”
The group said it will continue its mission “to protect Wisconsin parks for the good of Wisconsin’s citizens, not its companies.”
Dirk Willis, Vice President – Golf, Landscape & Retail for Kohler Co. Hospitality, said the company was pleased with the decision.
“We look forward to developing our public golf course in the City of Sheboygan on property owned by Kohler Co. for more than 75 years, and are committed to creating a world-class golf course that respects the property’s natural character and opens up private land to the public for the first time.” Willis said.
Willis said Kohler has “an established track record of good environmental stewardship with a commitment to following all applicable municipal, state and federal regulations.”
In 2018, the state Natural Resources Board agreed to give Kohler 4.6 acres of Kohler-Andrae State Park, on Lake Michigan, in exchange for about 10 acres of land west of the park. The state would also grant Kohler an easement over an additional 1.8 acres of the park.
The park property that would go to Kohler includes thick woods, open sand dunes and wetlands. The state would get upland woodland, cropland, a home and outbuildings.
Friends of Black River Forest challenged the deal. Kohler and the DNR argued the group had no legal standing, and that the swap was not even a “decision” subject to judicial review.
A Sheboygan County judge dismissed the action for lack of standing, but the Court of Appeals reinstated the challenge.
The appeals court found that the plaintiffs had in fact alleged sufficient injuries to be heard, not just dismissed. It is “not hypothetical or conjectural that the land exchange may cause the Friends to suffer the alleged recreational, aesthetic, and conservational injuries as a result of the golf course construction,” the court wrote.
The Supreme Court, however, said none of the Friends’ injuries — like loss of use of the swapped portion of the park, negative impacts on wildlife and plants, and increased noise and traffic from the eventual golf course, were protected by a statutory or constitutional provision.
Karofsky wrote that it was the majority that ignores the plain meaning of the law, “by distorting case law, conflating standing with the merits, and failing to engage in any meaningful interpretation of the legislative text.”
“Members of the public need not sit idly by when a state agency may have transgressed the very laws designed to protect their interests,” Karofsky wrote.
“Rather, the legislature has guaranteed that any person ‘whose substantial interests are adversely affected’ by an agency decision may call upon the judiciary to be a check on executive decision-making.”
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straights, TPC Sawgrass, Kiawah and more.
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Modern Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Classic Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino
* Indicates new to or returning to this list.
Editor’s note: The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for the top 200 layouts built before 1960 in the U.S. will be posted Wednesday, May 25. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.
Author Shane Ryan provides the definitive explanation for the European renaissance in the Ryder Cup and how America got its groove back.
No offense to the many other accounts of the Ryder Cup through the years, but “The Cup They Couldn’t Lose: America, the Ryder Cup and the Long Road to Whistling Straits (Hachette, $29),” provides the definitive explanation for the European renaissance in the Ryder Cup and how America got its groove back.
Heading to Whistling Straits last September, the great mystery of the Ryder Cup had been that America routinely lost despite having the superior team. “You know, if I could put my finger on it, we would have changed this bleep a long time ago,” said losing 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk.
That quote from the prologue perfectly encompasses what Ryan sets out to do in the 289 pages that follow. He puts more than a finger on it; he diagnoses what he terms “the 40-year disease” in astounding detail, artfully piecing together the history of this biennial match-play event pitting teams of 12 players each from the United States versus initially, Great Britain and Ireland, and since 1979, players from throughout Europe.
The section on England’s Tony Jacklin, who established a template that has been passed down from one European captain to the next, alone is worth the price of the book, and included this description of Lanny Wadkins that should be added to his Hall of Fame plaque: “Wadkins was the cockiest son of a bitch you ever met in 10 lifetimes. He was an arrogant bastard, But in the nicest way.” Jacklin served as captain for four Cups spanning from 1983-1989, and you could argue the Euros are still running much of Jacklin’s playbook.
“If 1983 had been the warning shot, and 1985 had proved that the Europeans were a winning team, at least at home, 1987 was the victory that transformed the Ryder Cup forever,” Ryan writes in emphasizing Jacklin’s importance.
Ryan tabs the period from 1983-1999 the golden age of the Ryder Cup when all but one match was decided by two points or less. It’s during this period that Team USA had its head in the sand as to why it continued to struggle despite often being the favorite.
“They adhered to the mindset that a Ryder Cup among equal talents is essentially random, that sometimes they would play better, and sometimes the Europeans would, but all thoughts of strategy or team building were blown out of proportion. Call it arrogance, complacency, or lack of imagination, but they stuck to this belief even as the results showed a pattern that was anything but random,” Ryan writes. “The Americans has been too successful for too long on the strength of talent alone to study the lesson. In that sense, they were victims of their own success, and it would be years before they could humble themselves enough to learn.”
Jack Nicklaus congratulates Tony Jacklin for a tied match at the 1969 Ryder Cup. (AP files)
The 2008 match, where Nick Faldo captained the Euros and Paul Azinger was at the helm of the U.S., “was perhaps the purest test of the old question: Did the captaincy matter?”
Azinger, America’s one outside-the-box thinker, was a winner on home soil, conceiving the pod system and getting the most out a U.S. lineup that featured the likes of Chad Campbell, Boo Weekely and Ben Curtis. Azinger wanted the captaincy again in 2010 and should’ve been given it. Instead, the PGA turned to Corey Pavin and a stretch where each captain approached the Ryder Cup in their own way, with little to no continuity.
“There were plenty of lessons to be learned,” Ryan writes. “They learned none.”
Paul Azinger was able to sell his ’08 American team as underdogs, and the attitude paid off.
The Miracle at Medinah in 2012, when the Euros rallied from a 10-6 deficit was exactly that – a miracle. “Whatever quibble you have with Davis Love III’s strategy, his loss at Medinah was a fluke, built on a pyramid of absurd longshots coming through one after another, and if any of them failed, Europe would have lost.”
There’s a whole chapter, an interlude titled “Why does Europe win?” where Ryan diagnoses the seven most-common theories for the 40-year disease, including old standbys that the Americans just need to play better and Europeans just like each other more. (Ryan quotes an oldie but goodie from a Euro vet explaining their team chemistry: “We get together for a week, we get along, and when it’s over, we all go back to hating Monty.”)
Ryan’s narrative moves briskly back and forth between the drama in Wisconsin while deconstructing the fascinating history and evolution of this 93-year-old competition. He delves deep into the brilliant mind of 2014 Euro captain Paul McGinley, while also explaining the mistakes made by past U.S. captains that led to the infamous U.S. Task Force in 2014.
From left, Europe’s players Jamie Donaldson, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Justin Rose pour champagne over captain Paul McGinley as they celebrate winning the 2014 Ryder Cup.
It all came to a head in the post-match press conference after a beatdown at Gleneagles in Scotland when Phil Mickelson threw U.S. Captain Tom Watson under the bus. Ryan writes of the 2014 debacle, noting it “embodied the stereotypes of the past four decades – brutal efficiency through hyper-organization on the European side, and rank dysfunction on the American side – that the contrast demanded to be recognized. When the mess was over, it was no longer possible to say with any credibility that the Ryder Cup was simply a test of which individuals played better. The effect of management was so obvious that even the most dyed-in-the-wool stubborn American couldn’t pretend everything was fine…It’s the Ryder Cup that broke the Americans.”
And also, he points out, “the one that set them free.”
The Task Force was a necessary evil and while the changes implemented in its aftermath “may not sound like earth-shattering ideas…what may look like foundational elements for any team sport, or even a business, are plainly not obvious in an individualized sport like golf,” Ryan writes.
The showdown at Whistling Straits is at the center of this book and Ryan takes us inside all of the back-room decision-making. He’s at his best when he’s picking apart the shortcomings of Euro Captain Padraig Harrington, taking us into the childhood home of USA Captain Steve Stricker and a meeting with his parents and detailing the importance analytics played in determining the various captain’s picks and who paired well together in foursomes and four-ball.
Ryan provides a road map that details how after a slew of embarrassing defeats, Team U.S.A. won in record fashion in 2021, with its six rookies combining for a 14-4-3 record.
“I think the most important thing for the U.S. team is a lot of young guys that are great players have bought into the Ryder Cup,” Rory McIlroy said. “I think that was probably missing in previous generations.”
Now the question remains: did the U.S. victory on home soil represent a generational shift and a sea change in America’s fortunes?
“Even in an era when home course advantage is massive,” Ryan concludes, “it’s clear that America is operating from a position of strength, and Europe from a position of hope.”
It will have been 30 years since America won on the road when these two proud competitors next meet. Sounds like the subject for a sequel in Italy in 2023.
Count down the top 30 courses of the past three decades, as judged by Golfweek’s panel of raters.
It’s been a crazy string of decades in golf design, with construction going gangbusters through the 1990s and early 2000s before grinding nearly to a complete halt after the financial crisis of 2007 and ’08. Things have picked up a bit in recent years, especially when considering high-end destinations scattered in far-flung locales around the U.S.
Through it all, these are the best 30 courses opened in the past 30 years in the U.S., as voted by Golfweek’s Best panel of raters.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating.
This ranking is compiled from data included in the 2021 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list, and it focuses on the golf courses themselves, not on resorts or private clubs as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s), the year it opened and its status as a private club (p), a resort (r), a daily-fee operation (d) or a real estate development (re).
The top 200 resort courses in the U.S. stretch from Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes to Whistling Straits and Pinehurst.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.
Thomas decided to have an ice-cold adult beverage while watching his teammates at the Ryder Cup.
The 43rd Ryder Cup was an unfair fight. The young, overpowering Americans dismantled the Europeans with little resistance on their way to consecutive wins on home soil. The team felt different. All the problems coming into the week — team chemistry, less experience than the Euros, among other things — seemed to melt away when the first session teed up on Friday morning.
Justin Thomas, making his second appearance in the Ryder Cup, played in all but one match throughout the week at Whistling Straits. That session just so happened to be the Four-ball matches on Saturday afternoon. Like many fans in the crowd, Thomas decided to have an ice-cold adult beverage while watching his teammates tee it up off the first.
“(Daniel) Berger and I — cause I guess that’s a Wisconsin thing that they do at the Bucks games — that lineman they have just houses a beer,” Thomas told Chris Soloman of No Laying Up during a podcast interview. “He’s like ‘should we do it?’ and I’m like ‘dude we can’t chug a beer, we just can’t do this.’
“But we went out there and started throwing stuff into the stands, and then they kept chanting and kept chanting. Then two people threw two beers down, and we just kind of looked at each other and I’m like, ‘I mean we gotta get these guys going, I guess we gotta do it.’
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“Since there was a hole in it I couldn’t shotgun it, and I turned it around and Berger already had a key in it. He had his fraternity days from Florida State take him back. I knew I wasn’t going to chug it very quickly so I Gronk spiked it.”
The Americans would eventually split the Four-ball session with Europe.
Thomas also touched on Tiger Woods during the interview saying he and the 15-time major champion are in constant contact. “He’s still his sarcastic-ass self, so nothing has changed there, so I’m glad to see that he’s still chipper as always.”
Playing Captain Tiger Woods of the United States team and Justin Thomas of the United States team celebrate on the 18th green during Friday foursome matches on day two of the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Course on December 13, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
He was also asked if he thinks Woods will ever play on Tour again.
“I don’t see him ever playing if he can’t play well. He doesn’t strike me as a guy who’s played at home and he’s shooting a bunch of 75s and 76s and he’s like, ‘OK, I’m gonna give Augusta a try this year.’ That’s not really gonna be him, at least from my understanding, what I know of him.”
We’ll have to wait and see about Woods, but his Hero World Challenge is scheduled for December 2-5, where a loaded field is headed for the Bahamas, including the aforementioned Thomas.
Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa seemed to bring out the best in each other.
In forming one of the best pairings of the Ryder Cup, Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa seemed to bring out the best in each other. DJ’s length and even-keeled approach was the perfect complement to an eager Morikawa and his precision iron play.
The U.S. team ran roughshod over the European squad at the 43rd Ryder Cup, winning by a margin of 19-9, earning the most points since the event went to its current format.
Johnson led the way for the Americans, as he entered with a career 7-9 Ryder Cup mark but won all five of his matches at Whistling Straits, becoming the first American since Larry Nelson in 1979 to go 5-0-0.
Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele all won three times during the week. Fellow rookie Scottie Scheffler also went unbeaten, winning twice while earning a tie.
“We didn’t say too much. When we were up, it was just me saying, ‘Let’s step on their necks. Let’s finish off this match.’ Our conversations ended pretty quickly. It wasn’t a ton, probably less than everyone else,” Morikawa said. “One DJ moment came after Paul Casey holed out on Saturday morning on 14. I think our match was now 1 up. And I’m sure a lot of guys would start freaking out and worrying, but he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said Good shot. We went to the next hole. Absolutely no conversation about the hole-out.
“That’s who DJ is. He leads with a quiet confidence. His presence was felt all week. When we really did need him to speak up, before the captain’s picks, he spoke his mind and it was awesome to hear that.”
After the team got off to an impressive start on Friday at Whistling Straits, the captains realized they’d formed some special units. In fact, vice captain Jim Furyk told Golfweek the group’s biggest problem was figuring out who to take out of the lineup.
“It was hard to figure out how we were going to sit four guys,” Furyk said. “It was just a super-talented team and we had a bunch of guys playing well. Not one vice captain ever walked in that room and said, you know what, I think we need to rest this guy because he’s struggling.
“Those are champagne problems, right? When you have those problems, it makes for a great team.”
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak chatted with U.S. Ryder Cup vice captain Jim Furyk about the team’s recent victory at Whistling Straits.
“It was hard to figure out how we were going to sit four guys,” Furyk said. “It was just a super-talented team and we had a bunch of guys playing well. Not one vice captain ever walked in that room and said, you know what, I think we need to rest this guy because he’s struggling.
“Those are champagne problems, right? When you have those problems, it makes for a great team.”
