Bob Lang, the developer of Erin Hills, the golf course in the Washington County Town of Erin that was the host of the 2017 U.S. Open and will host the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, plans to build another destination golf course in southeastern Wisconsin, to be called Trinity Hills.
“I’m going to make this the best golfing destination in the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
Lang says he has agreements in place to purchase 281 acres of land along the Bark River between Delafield and Dousman in western Waukesha County. He declined to provide more specifics about the location and declined to name the current landowners.
The site has a unique variety of topography and features including eskers, kettles, farm fields, wooded areas with large oak and hickory trees, two small lakes, a pond, elevated vistas and ample amounts of sand. Wild turkeys and white-tailed deer roam throughout the site.
“This land is spectacular, it’s indescribable,” Lang said. “It’s like you’re in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.”
Lang has assembled a team of prominent golf industry figures to help him build Trinity Hills including PGA Tour pro Steve Stricker, who will be the lead course architect, and Bill Kubly, founder of Lincoln, Nebraska-based Landscapes Unlimited, one of the nation’s largest golf course construction, development and management companies.
The plan is to build a top-notch golf course, taking advantage of and preserving the land’s many features, while restoring prairie and wetlands original to the site, sculpting the land as necessary. “Golf in a nature preserve,” is how Lang describes his vision for Trinity Hills.
“The goal is the most naturally preserved golf course,” he said. “If I don’t build a golf course here, I know this land will eventually all go into a subdivision. The last thing we need on a natural wonder like this is a bunch of curlicued cul du sacs. I am a preservationist, and the way I preserve this land is through making it a golf course and going through a nature preserve.”
Lang’s partners say the Trinity Hills site is well located and agree with Lang saying it has great potential for a golf course.
“I think it could end up being a world class golf course,” said Kubly, whose firm, founded in 1976, has built more than 2,000 golf courses, including Erin Hills. “I think it’s a very, very good project. Beautiful site. I think it’s really unique. We’ve built a lot of golf courses in the sand hills of Nebraska. Projects like that where it’s all unique land, but it’s all consistent. (The Trinity Hills site) gives you three or four different varieties on the same property, which I think will make it unique. I think it can be a great golf course.”
Stricker became a professional golfer in 1990, has won 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour and earlier this year won the Sanford International, a PGA Tour Champions tournament. Now 57, Stricker wants to move into golf course architecture and was the lead architect for the $20 million transformation of Cherokee Country Club in Madison into TPC Wisconsin.
“When Bob reached out and asked if I wanted to be a part of (the Trinity Hills project), it was a no-brainer,” Stricker said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for me.”
Stricker said the Trinity Hills site “reminds me of Wisconsin.”
“I think it’s great,” he said. “You’re just a couple of miles off the interstate, but it feels like you’re back in a secluded wildlife area. It offers up a lot of different looks. It’s got some open areas, it’s got some water features and it’s got some woods. I think it’s a great piece and it offers up a lot to the imagination to be able to create something pretty special.”
Lang describes the site as “hidden in nature” and marvels at the huge old oak trees throughout the property. “What motivates me the most about the land is the preservation of the oaks,” he said. “They’re like guardians of the land.”
In addition to Stricker and Kubly, the Trinity Hills project team includes: Kent Instefjord, who served as head golf professional at Whistling Straits from 1998-2003, as general manager and director of golf for Erin Hills from 2006-10 and will serve as director of golf for Trinity Hills; Chris Leffler, owner of Leff’s Lucky Town in Wauwatosa, Revere’s Wells Street Tavern in Delafield and Hot House Tavern in Menomonee Falls; and Keir Peckham, the owner of Oconomowoc-based Natural Landscapes, Inc., a firm that specializes in the installation and management of naturalized growing spaces.
Lang’s plans for Trinity Hills include an 18-hole, 12-hole and 6-hole golf courses. It will also include a hospitality component with two clubhouse buildings, the first called the Stone House, which will have 6 guest rooms, a Scottish pub and a pro shop. The second building will be a Scottish manor house with 18 guest rooms, meeting rooms and a bell tower. After the manor house is complete, which could take several years, the Stone House will be converted into an 8-room guest house for rent, Lang said.
With a site lined up, and much of the project team assembled, Lang is missing one big piece to make his vision for Trinity Hills a reality. He needs capital, and is seeking an equity investor, or investors, who would provide about $35 million and would then own 72% of Trinity Hills. The other partners, including Lang, would own the other 28%.
“I think that’s where we can be a big assistance to (Lang),” Kubly said. “We’ve done this before where we have to raise a lot of capital.”
While Erin Hills is widely considered one of the best golf courses in America (it was ranked #10 last year by Golf Digest in its list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses and was recently ranked #21 on the Golf.com list of Top 100 Courses You Can Play in the U.S.), it cost Lang the fortune he made from a calendar company that he founded in 1982 and grew into a business with annual revenue of more than $60 million. Lang bought the Erin Hills site in 1999. He sold The Lang Companies (which in addition to calendars also sold greeting cards, stationary, decorative boxes and collectibles) in 2003. During his career he also built 19 Williamsburg-style buildings that revitalized downtown Delafield, and co-founded Delafield State Bank, which was later rebranded Town Bank and then acquired by Wintrust Financial Corp.
Erin Hills opened in 2006, and Lang was determined to perfect the course in a quest to attract the U.S. Open. Lang’s holdings took a severe hit from the Great Recession in 2008 and he spent so much on improvements to Erin Hills that he ran out of money, so he sold the golf course to Artisan Partners co-founder Andy Ziegler in 2009 for about $10.5 million, according to reports. Erin Hills was officially awarded the 2017 U.S. Open in 2010 and also hosted the 2011 U.S. Amateur. Ziegler completed the necessary improvements to the course to host those events. In addition to the U.S. Women’s Open next year, Erin Hills will host several other upcoming USGA championship tournaments, including the 2035 U.S. Amateur.
Lang, 80, has been out of the golf business since selling Erin Hills 15 years ago. He has been under a non-disclosure agreement in regards to the golf course and still can’t discuss it publicly. As part of the sale Lang was also under a non-compete agreement, but has been released from it, enabling him to pursue the Trinity Hills project.
Now the question is, can he pull it off?
“It will be a challenge,” Stricker said. “But, Bob’s got history. He’s a visionary. He’s got history with Erin Hills and what he did there and what a special place he made there. So, I don’t put it past Bob to get this done.”
The business model for Trinity Hills is a work in progress, but Kubly said it will be a private club with limited opportunities for nonmembers to play there. Lang agreed, but said providing an opportunity for the public to play the course is also important.
“No matter what the structure, the public will have access to this,” Lang said. A large equity investment would make it easier to provide public access to the course, he said. “There is a soft spot in my heart to make public access.”
Kubly said Trinity Hills would be able to attract members from outside of the Milwaukee area.
“What really makes it work well is its proximity to Madison and its proximity to Chicago,” he said. “A lot of these golf courses have a lot of national members and regional members, and they have a lodging component.”
Kubly’s firm, Landscapes Unlimited, owns or operates nearly 70 golf courses across the U.S., and the firm will oversee all construction, project management and operations for Trinity Hills.
Lang said his goal is to complement the other highly-regarded destination golf courses in Wisconsin, including Erin Hills, Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, the Sand Valley Golf Resort courses, The Golf Courses of Lawsonia and SentryWorld Golf Course. Lang is quick to praise those courses and their owners, but says he believes there is a market for another destination golf course in Wisconsin and that Trinity Hills could be the best in the state.
“Taking nothing away from the great golf courses that are (in Wisconsin), my vision is to make this land the very best that it can be,” Lang said. “In my opinion, the result will be for Trinity Hills to be the number one golfing destination in the state of Wisconsin.”
