I recognize Pete Dye's importance in bringing back Strategic Golf Architecture.

However, the penalty for not being in the optimal place in the fairway and, even worse, missing the green is immense here. Couple that with the fact that this is a Bucket List course and you have a difficult course being played by people who might not play a lot of golf or rarely play golf. The end result is rounds that take well over 5 hours (mine waw about 5:40). It is due to this fact that I can only suggest playing here once and trying to get out first. Even then, there is nothing to say that you won't be spending the day looking for other people's golf balls or watching them go through sleeves. Unless you are a very low handicap, you will lose a sleeve yourself. There is Dye that is more strategic and the cost of a miss is not as punitive, unfortunately, with the courses that host the pros (here, Whistling Straits, Ocean course, etc) that is not the case. My "home" course is a Dye design and does have many recovery options after the tee shot so I know that he can build courses for the masses and not just for the pros. Surprisingly, I only shot a couple more than my handicap here, so my review is not based on trying to get back at the course. I just can't give more than a 4.5 to a course that is designed to be a torture test. Not my type of golf-I think the possibility of recovery should be part of a design.

TV doesn't give you an idea of the routing-so I will. The course is two nine hole loops. The front nine is a counterclockwise loop. Every hole is a change in direction so the wind comes into play. The back nine is a clockwise loop, however, on this side consecutive holes are often switchbacks in direction of each other-still brings wind into play a bunch. All in all, you will hit a tee shot in every direction on a compass.

The greens are famously contoured. They need to be approached from a certain angle or they will reject shots and leave you in one of the many hazards. Off the greens, there really is only the flop shot for recovery (unless it is one of the rare times you miss a green in front and are still on short grass) The fairways are relatively wide. Strategic golf does take place here on the par 4s with lines off the tee and sides of the fairway to approach the green from. The par 5s have those elements as well as routes for playing the holes in 2 or 3 shots.

Seeing that it is on TV, you are familiar with the holes-definitely the final 3. There is variety in the par 4s. Not everything will need to be played with a driver. The holes dog in both directions, have hazards in different areas and also are or aren't protected by water near the green. Most of them also don't have a hazard right in front so lesser players can run one on. This is also true of the par 5s. The par 3s vary in length by 100 yards from the tips. They each do play in a different direction. Other than 17, there is place to best miss. One thing all holes, regardless of par, have in common-they can be very difficult if out of position.