The Bull at Pinehurst Farms tells a good story.
This public golf course in Sheboygan County is aesthetically pleasing, but even more narratively satisfying. There should be no surprise it was designed by one of the game’s greats, Jack Nicklaus, the only course with his signature in the state. Through 418 acres of a former dairy farm along a slow-flowing tributary of the Sheboygan River, good design and impeccable landscaping take Wisconsin’s casual and amateur golfers on a mythic 18-hole journey. A lot of courses that the PGA cares about are beautiful and immaculately gardened with superb lakefront views.
But not even the most elite courses tell a story through their architecture. The Bull does.
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The first three holes are a forgiving par-4, a simple dogleg around a pond, and a par-3 along that same pond. They appear uninspired, and that’s the point. They trick golfers into thinking this is going to be a relaxing afternoon.
The fourth hole likewise appears simple. Its fairway is wide open with a slight incline. But upon cresting the hill, the putting green comes into view – a tiny little thing in a gully encircled by unfriendly, ensnaring sand traps. Here, the fourth’s dangers have been uncloaked, primed to quickly ruin a good front nine.
After persisting through this initial test, the even more malevolent fifth hole awaits. Flanking the left wing of the fairway is an imposing 40-foot-deep ravine. (Acrophobics like myself choose not to peer down.) For your second shot, if you didn’t pull your drive left and plummet in already, the ravine gives an ultimatum: take the safe route and lay up, or attack the green by trying to precisely coast your ball over the depths without sailing too far into the trees surrounding the putting surface.
The Bull is a fable. The first three holes are set in a quaint little village. They’re familiar. The fourth hole is the inciting event, the first brush with danger that sets the hero on his journey. But the fifth hole is when the villain reveals himself – Hannibal Lecter’s first “Hello, Clarice.” The course’s devilishness is finally unobscured.
Even after the first quintet of challenges, the protagonist of this fable (you, the golfer) still must battle through the unforgiving undulations of Hole 7, survive the ravine’s precipitous returns on 16 and 17, and come out muddier-but-no-worse-for-wear atop the waterlogged and often-fog-covered escalator that is the course’s concluding 18th. The Bull isn’t just a collection of 18 diabolical golf holes. It has a beginning, middle and an end.
A friend, after he played The Bull for the first time (and got his butt whooped by it), said, “If I told you it only took me 10 swings to get out of the sand trap on the fourth hole, I would be lying. … I can’t wait to play it again.”
Bull-et Points:
- The Bull at Pinehurst Farms: 1 Long Dr., Sheboygan Falls
- Opened: 2003
- Designer: Jack “The Bear” Nicklaus
- Golf Digest Ranking: 88th best public course in the U.S. and third-best in Wisconsin (behind the Straits Course at Whistling Straits and the Erin Hills Golf Course, each of which have hosted major professional championships while The Bull has never hosted a PGA-level tournament)
- Cost per round: $69-$165
