Rich in history, Blue Mound Golf and Country Club in Wauwatosa is one of the most prestigious and well-respected private clubs in the state of Wisconsin.

Designed by one of the world’s all-time greatest golf course architects, Seth Raynor, Blue Mound originally opened for play in 1926 and is one of only four courses in the state to have hosted a major golf tournament.

They probably have the most legendary winner, too: Gene Serazen at the inaugural 1933 PGA Championship:

History aside (I added a full list of Wisconsin major tournament sites, years and winners toward the bottom of this post), the team and membership at Blue Mound should be proud of the way they’ve shepherded it in recent years. Anyone even adjacent to the golf industry has noticed the tremendous challenges Golden Age courses have faced, including but not limited to:

• Endlessly fighting the results of excessive post-war tree planting (and now the Emerald ash borer)
• Resisted some, and allowed then peeled back other 1990’s-era updates
• Surviving and recovering from the ensuing financial collapse
• Refocused on their rich heritage and invested in a future that includes strategic restorations and property enhancements

Continually doing all of this and more have brought Blue Mound full circle to where things began in 1926, with a…

Perfectly maintained golf course with superior design elements and the state’s best greens.

Anyone could live with that.

Even the first time I played it this year, following a few days that stockpiled over three inches of rain (you can see some still standing in bunkers), Blue Mound’s course conditions were better and faster than expected.

That said, the conditions the second time I played it were off-the-charts good. The fairways were spry and ran out, and the greens were just perfect.

No area course has better, more interesting green complexes than Blue Mound, and only Milwaukee CC can stand toe-to-toe with its decorated history and the mystique that coexists at upper-echelon private clubs.

Where does that come from? In the case of Blue Mound, it started and still lives with Raynor.

One of my coworkers who joined us for my first round there enjoys playing golf, but told me afterwards he didn’t follow our conversations about template holes. He especially didn’t understand why the club would want to raise a perfectly good fairway like on the Alps fourth when the hole is fine as is.

I had to admit it’s a geeky golf guy thing that goes against [real] common sense, but I love everything about Golden Age golf and especially when it’s related to Macdonald/Raynor and their template holes. These guys were masters, and that’s proven out over time, course and tournament history. The onus to keep the course within their parameters has long been passed, and Blue Mound has been running in full stride.

Raynor built some beautiful golf holes at Blue Mound, highlighted as I mentioned by incredible green sites. I’ll touch on a few of the most memorable to me here, and will also give a couple general opinions.

The first really remarkable green at Blue Mound is their Double Plateau second. At over 10,300 square feet, this is the largest and most pinnable surface on the entire course with three distinct levels.

While I haven’t had a chance to fly my drone at Blue Mound, @putt4dough24 on Instagram does on a regular basis. I highly recommend following him for great images of Blue Mound and other top national private clubs, including this pic of Blue Mound’s Double Plateau.

The first of Blue Mound’s par threes, the third is a terrific Raynor Biarritz. I thought it was interesting at first that they do not mow the first/high shelf section of the green. After doing more research, though, I’ve come to understand that this is how Raynor and Macdonald actually intended it.

Most Biarritz-style greens I’ve played were not actually designed by Raynor or Macdonald. The Sandbox at Sand Valley, Old Macdonald, Streamsong Red, Bandon Trails and Sweetgrass all have Biarritz-style greens, for example, but all were designed/implemented by modern day architects.

Shoreacres (Lake Bluff, IL) is the only other true Raynor course I’ve played and, according to Golf Club Atlas and The Fried Egg, is the exception to the rule that the front section of Biarritz greens should be mowed to fairway length. In fact, GCA mentions that the front section of Shoreacres’ Biarritz sixth lacks the cinder subsurface that serves as a base for the rest of the putting surface.

That said, I’d prefer the front section be mowed. There are few shots in golf more fun to watch than when your tee shot hits the front section of a Biarritz green, disappears in to the swale and reemerges rolling toward a back hole location.

My buddy, Greg’s tee shot on the 8th at Old Macdonald, for example (click for video) – a solid 12 seconds of watching the ball fly, run out, climb and curl in.

Some other Biarritz-style greens I’ve played and took pictures of:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Alps fourth hole is one that may garner interest in the near future because of potential renovation plans. The club is looking at raising the fairway surface near the green to make the approach shot completely blind, like it is on the original Alps hole at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.

The seventh at Blue Mound is the course’s Short hole and features one of the property’s prettiest backdrops: Mt. Mary University.

The eighth is probably the course’s signature hole, featuring a well-elevated Punch Bowl green.

I love the view from the tee on nine. With the clubhouse as the backdrop, the tee shot needs to carry the deep Ravine the hole is named for. The three fairway bunkers on the right side look gnarly but are not in play for most golfers. The biggest miss to avoid here is anything snappy and left.

With a back pin location, the green on nine is one of the toughest on the course to get to, but it pales in comparison to the seemingly straight-forward opening hole on the back nine.

Ten, appropriately nicknamed Prize, is a shining example of how an ingenious green complex can make an otherwise innocuous golf hole great.

There is nothing for the golfer to worry about off the tee. Given the size of the green, though, chances are there are at least a few clubs that can provide enough distance but just one that will leave a good chance for a two-putt par.

Featuring one of the most scenic teeing areas on the course, the par four twelfth is the course’s Hog’s Back template.

The tee boxes set up alongside a pond and play to a crested fairway that cants from right to left. Even if just for the views alone, this is a really memorable par four.

There are actually two standard right-to-left Redan greens at Blue Mound. The first is on the course’s par four opening hole, and the second is this gem that I’d imagine took incredible physical labor to manufacture:

The fun in any of Raynor or Macdonald’s Redan complexes is in the way the right side can be used to influence approach shots toward the middle or back of the putting surface.

The thirteenth has a long, narrow green with an expansive approach area above and short-right of the putting surface to funnel balls greenward.

I can’t imagine the amount of land that was moved to elevate the playing surface here. To illustrate my point, here’s a view of the outside border toward the back-right (from the tees):

Every great golf course needs a solid finishing hole, and the 18th at Blue Mound is perfect. Measuring 560 yards from the tips, the 18th is by far the longest hole on a par 70 course with just two par fives, and offers ample width off the tee and on subsequent long shots.

Both times playing here I was able to smack a 3-wood as far as I could on the second shot. Neither made the green, but being able to haul off on a long club without worrying too much about tree lines, water or other hazards is good fun and brings strategy in to play. Both times I put myself in no man’s land too close to the green and would have been better off laying up to a more comfortable distance with a full wedge, but that’s not quite as satisfying.

As with the rest of the course, Blue Mound is all about the second shot and putting. And the true genius in CB Macdonald and Seth Raynor’s work can be found in the give and take. While there is always a best-case, sporty shot to hit, there’s also one for the smart, consistent player (not me) to count on for a great look at par.

Any ultra-exclusive club is going to have outside naysayers. It’s how the world and people who want to feel important work. Over the past five to ten years, I’ve heard two common negatives about Blue Mound:

1. Tree removal made the course too easy
2. The membership is old and stuffy

Having not played Blue Mound previously, I pictured in my mind a landscape as barren as Washington County, or the Links course at Lawsonia… Scorched earth.

I was actually surprised by how many trees do come in to play, and I think if anything they could probably take out more. Their team certainly did not overdo it, though, and any challenge taken away was never intended to be there (by their ingenious course designer) in the first place.

From what I’ve seen, the second generalization is also unfounded. I half-expected to be having lunch and tea in a rollback leather chair with old bronze casters while old men read newspapers in their pajamas all around me, maybe slipping silverware in their pockets when nobody was looking.

In actuality, I’ve played with some really fun younger guys and have met a dozen or so others pre- and post-round by the range, men’s locker room bar and fire pits. I’d be excited to golf with any of them.

From what I’ve seen and heard, the club is getting younger and flourishing, and a bright future is comforting to see at a course so rich with history and charm.

In case you’re wondering about all Wisconsin courses to have hosted major golf tournaments/events (with year(s) and champion(s)), here is the full list:

• US Open
  • Erin Hills
    • 2017: Brooks Koepka
• PGA Championship
  • Blue Mound
    • 1933: Gene Sarazen
  • Whisting Straits
    • 2004: Vijay Singh
    • 2010: Martin Kaymer
    • 2015: Jason Day
• US Senior Open
  • Whistling Straits
    • 2007: Brad Bryant
• US Amateur
  • Erin Hills and Blue Mound (alternate site for stroke play)
    • 2011: Peter Uihlein
• Ryder Cup (yes, I’m including it)
  • Whistling Straits
    • 2020: To be decided
• US Women’s Open
  • Blackwolf Run
    • 1998: Se Ri Pak
    • 2012: Na Yeon Choi

Course Wrap-Up:
Location: Wauwatosa, WI
Yardage: Black-6667, Blue-6313, White-5632
Slope/Rating: Black-131/72.1, Blue-127/70.6, White-124/72.5
Par: 70

Blue Mound Golf and Country Club Website