Perhaps couples golf trips are on the rise. Maybe more wives are accompanying their husbands on what were formerly guys-only golf junkets. Possibly the aging Baby Boomer population needs to work out the kinks caused by the 36-holes-a-day golf regimen, in concert with ever-increasing travel hassles.

Whatever the reasons might be, the concept of a combination golf-and-spa vacation has gained traction in the last decade. And no resort does this complimentary combo better than Destination Kohler, in the unlikely blue-collar locale of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Sheboygan? What about Hawaii, one might argue? How about southern California, or Florida? Vegas or Pinehurst or Kiawah or Scottsdale? All fine choices. But at Herb Kohler’s personal fiefdom, the golf is literally unbeatable—four fabulous Pete Dye designs with an unmistakable championship pedigree, having hosted the U.S. Women’s and Senior Opens, PGA Championship, and in 2020, the crowning achievement, the Ryder Cup Matches.

Because Kohler is a plumbing-fixture magnate, the Kohler Waters Spa has some of the finest equipment in the business. Add in the ultra-luxe accommodations, panoply of excellent restaurants and other activities, and it’s not hard to see how Destination Kohler is the only AAA Five-Diamond Resort in the Midwest.

So how did the Grand Poobah of plumbing get in the hospitality business to begin with? The genesis of the project was Kohler’s decision to renovate The American Club, an out-of-use worker’s dormitory, three stories high, located across from his company’s factory. Though outside consultants didn’t endorse his decision, rather than raze the historic 1918 structure which was in disrepair, Kohler instead opted for a comprehensive renovation. Three years later, in 1981, the former dorm had been reborn as a luxury inn.

Further additions followed, and now this handsome hotel, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, boasts 237 guest rooms and suites, with more than 20,000 square feet of conference space. “I built the hospitality business with zero vision,” admits Kohler. “We had one little success built on another little success. And suddenly the combination of those successes and the demand for golf became synergistic.”

The initial course designed by the legendary Pete Dye was named Blackwolf Run, after a prominent Winnebago Indian chief from the 1800s. Shortly after opening for play in the summer of 1988, there were lines outside the pro shop door. Golf-loving Wisconsinites and guests of the American Club, which had until then been shuttled off to public courses, had never before had nearby access to such a beguiling venue, with its rolling terrain, woodlands, wetlands, abounding creeks and streams.

But despite the serene setting, with native grasses, unusual mounding and color palette of dazzling flowers, it was the strategic element of the routing, the go-for-broke mentality, that golfers found irresistible, making the course an instantaneous hit. So it’s not hard to envision Herb Kohler, triumphing at the sight of a perpetually-filled tee sheet, summoning Dye again, and commanding, “Build me another.”

The third nine opened in the summer of 1989, and an additional nine the summer after that. The now-36 holes were reconfigured, and were renamed Meadow Valleys and the River Course.

The latter is the real stunner. It features the daunting influence of the Sheboygan River on twelve holes, and is an extremely scenic parkland experience, heavily wooded, and with abundant wildlife. It’s a bit more target oriented, with accuracy more of an imperative in comparison to its adjacent neighbor.

In autumn, golfers get more to remember than just the changing colors of the trees. There’s also a salmon run in the Sheboygan River, and anglers vie for prime position on its banks with the same sense of urgency as do the avid golfers lining up for tee times.

With his 36-hole complex doing brisk business close by the American Club, some years later Kohler decided to expand his horizons and his burgeoning golf empire concurrently. He found 560 lakeside acres about ten miles northeast of the resort itself. The land was a former army base, which had operated as an anti-aircraft weapons firing range during World War II. While the property was an ecological ruin, filled with asbestos, toxic waste, concrete bunkers and fuel storage tanks, it also featured 70-foot bluffs rising above the adjacent waters of Lake Michigan.

Though he didn’t start playing until he got into the golf business himself, Kohler had quickly developed an affinity for the links courses of Ireland. “I want the course to look like it’s in Ireland,” was the directive handed down.

By the time Pete Dye was done conjuring the flat landscape, having employed 40 years of cunning and experience, an armada of earth-movers, and 13,000 truckloads of sand imported from area farms, the wondrous creation was still hard by the shores of Lake Michigan. But it looked like it was sitting on top of the Irish Sea. To heighten the Eire illusion, Kohler imported a flock of blackface sheep, which roam the golf grounds along the lakeshore unencumbered, offering a uniquely appealing ambience.

He also decreed the course would be walking-only—carts would be about as welcome on property as waterfalls, spurting fountains and lovingly-tended flowerbeds. This was meant to be the antithesis of a typically cushy resort course. “He told me he wanted a walking course, and I thought he was crazy,” says Dye. “I enjoy walking, and thought I’d be the only one who ever played this course, but I was wrong. He set a trend.”

This marquee course was named, as it should have been, by its founder. Herb Kohler was walking the lakeside landscape in ultra-blustery conditions during construction. He noted that the wind was whistling through the bluffs, with whitecaps breaking on the rocky shoreline, or straits, of adjacent Lake Michigan. Hence the name Whistling Straits.

The entire course, but the shoreline holes especially, are subject to the vagaries of the weather. Locals swear the temperature can drop 20 degrees in a matter of minutes, and that the gale-force winds rumbling along the two-mile stretch of lakeshore can sound like a midnight train. Shell-shocked golfers will be more concerned with the bogey train. Trouble, like the wind, comes quickly and from all directions. Not the least of which from a dizzying and virtually uncountable series of bunkers in all shapes, sizes and depths, as many as there are dimples on a golf ball. Noted architecture critic Ron Whitten painted the picture vividly when he commented that the bunkers are “scattered about like laundry in the aftermath of a tornado.”

The Irish Course is the baby of the bunch, dating from the summer of 2000. It lies directly west of Whistling Straits, and differs from its Lake Michigan-hugging neighbor in one major respect. Put it this way: Early on, the Creeks Course was the name taken under serious consideration. There’s more calculation involved playing the Irish, as a cerebral golfer must continually decide whether to go up and over, or lay safely back from the numerous creeks bifurcating the fairways. Seven Mile Creek comes into play on a half-dozen holes, and in concert with the other assorted ponds, about half of the holes have a watery mien.

But it’s the spa waters, not the insidious golf course waters, that elevate Destination Kohler to the upper echelon of vacation spots. More than fifty different treatments and finishing services are offered, with particular emphasis on water treatments. A wide range of massage therapies, facials, manicures and pedicures are standard fare in the spa world. But Kohler also offers body wraps, hair and makeup services, couples’ massages, and even prenatal treatments, like the popular Mom-To-Be Milk Bath.

Even if guests choose not to avail themselves of individual spa services, the entire setting is both soothing and rejuvenating. The centerpiece of the spa is the charming lap pool and waterfall. And amidst the black and white marbled tile and tumbled stone are saunas, steam rooms, whirlpools, cold plunges, all accessorized with classic Kohler fixtures.

While not everyone is a spa person, everybody loves to, or at least has to, eat. Destination Kohler doesn’t disappoint. The showcase restaurant is the white-linen Immigrant Room, formal dining at its finest, with bold, contemporary cuisine in a romantic atmosphere. The restaurant is arranged in a series of six rooms decorated in the European style of early Wisconsin settlers: French, Dutch, German, Norman, Danish and English.

Quite nearby, but on the other end of the spectrum is the rustic Horse & Plow, for hearty pub fare. Handsomely decorated in rich wood, brass and stained glass, this casual historic tavern was once the tap room for Kohler Company factory workers who lived at the American Club. In between the two extremes are no less than eight other eateries on property, or at the nearby golf courses—wine bars, bountiful breakfast buffets, authentic Italian, pastry-and-ice cream spots and smoothie bars—running the gamut in terms of price, location and ambience.

Dining at Destination Kohler mirrors the golf, the spa, the sports and the other activities----there are an incredible array of choices, and all of them are eminently worthwhile.

DYE vs. KOHLER

Compromise Equals Great Golf Design

The question to ask isn’t: How did Pete Dye and Herb Kohler collaborate repeatedly over a dozen-odd years, building a series of superb courses that now comprise one of the most desirable golf and resort destinations in the United States. Rather the question to ask is: How did they collaborate at all.

The owner and architect have managed to stick together through thick and thin, even when the tension was thick and the patience worn thin. “He’s demanding,” offers Pete Dye, speaking of Herb Kohler.  “He pays close attention, and he’s a bulldog.  Once in awhile he gets his nose in a little too far, and I don’t listen.”  It was just such an incident that nearly precipitated the demise of their relationship in the early stages, as Kohler explains.

“One day Pete said to me, ‘I’ve planted 17 holes, but we need to finish this golf course.’  I told him to come down, and we’d locate the final par-3 on Blackwolf Run, which was our first course. By the time I got down there, there were four large piles of smoldering logs, each perhaps 25 feet tall.  Then I saw that the nearby grove of 70-foot tall Dutch Elm trees, some of the last remaining species in Wisconsin, which had been ravaged by Dutch elm disease, was gone.  And behind the 16th green I was shocked to see a brand new tee box that must have been eighty yards long, an adjacent four-acre lake that appeared twenty feet deep, and above it was a roughed-out green exactly where the grove of Elms had been.”

The owner had been lobbying to have the green nestled by a series of river rapids, but the architect knew that the ensuing 200-yard walk to the 18th tee was untenable.

“I reached Pete that evening back in Indianapolis.  I told him we needed to come to a real understanding of how we were going to communicate, and build golf courses together.  And if we couldn’t do so quickly, then someone else was going to finish the job, and that person would be credited for the design.  Pete was back within 24 hours, we had a long discussion, and it hasn’t been an issue since.”

Kohler admits that the par-3 17th hole Dye freelanced is wonderful, and despite his own desire to save the trees and have the green hard by the river, it was somewhat impractical.  “We would never have hosted the U.S. Women’s Open if I had gotten my way,” he admits.