SENTRYWORLD MAKES LONG OVERDUE DEBUT AS 103RD STATE OPEN HOST

BY ROB HERNANDEZ

The 103rd Wisconsin State Open might not be the biggest golf championship on the marquee at SentryWorld in Stevens Point during 2023, but its stop carries some historical significance.

For a facility that pioneered destination golf in Wisconsin when it opened in 1982, SentryWorld has never been the destination for the State Open or the Wisconsin State Amateur. The Robert Trent Jones Jr. masterpiece has played host to a State Women’s Open (2011), a State Senior Men’s Amateur (1993), a State Senior Women’s Amateur (2010), the WIAA state boys golf championship Steve Stricker won in 1984 and the

2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

This year, just 43 days after the U.S. Senior Open Championship wraps up its week-long stay in central Wisconsin, the State Open – annually the premier event on the state golf calendar – will take center stage Aug. 14-16 for its 72hole run at SentryWorld. The storylines are abundant.

The course’s famed “Flower Hole” –the 176-yard, par-3 16th hole featuring more than 33,000 flowers around its green – will be in full bloom. Its latest set of renovations ahead of the Senior Open, which shuttered the course in 2020 and 2021, will test a 156-player field on a course that will not open to the public until after the Senior Open has concluded in early July and even then will revert to a tee sheet that features 20-minute intervals for optimal playing conditions.

Daniel Mazziotta, a caddie at Sand Valley Golf Resort in nearby Nekoosa, intends to be back to defend his championship after outlasting former Marquette University golfer Hunter Eichhorn in a three-hole playoff at Ozaukee Country Club in Mequon to win the 2022 title. But it remains to be seen how golf’s global calendar impacts the availability of challengers to his throne.

The 2023 State Open will be played opposite the U.S. Amateur Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver, Colo., which last year attracted 2021 State Amateur champion Piercen Hunt of Hartland and 2022 Wisconsin Men’s Player of the Year Jack Schultz of Milwaukee. PGA Tour Canada, which has not released its 2023 schedule, had an event opposite the State Open in 2022 that kept 2020 and 2021 State Open champion Harrison Ott of Brookfield and 2020 State Amateur champion Thomas Longbella of Chippewa Falls, among others, from competing.

Madison golfer Steve Stricker, one of four five-time State Open champions, told Wisconsin.Golf last August that he’d like to take at least one more shot at a sixth title before he retires from the game. This year’s State Open, while on a course he would have played earlier in the summer, falls between the Boeing Classic near Seattle, where Stricker had his only finish outside of the top 10 in

2023 WISCONSIN STATE OPEN QUALIFYING SITES

AUG. 14-16

WISCONSIN STATE OPEN

SentryWorld, Stevens Point

QUALIFYING SITES

JULY 11: SITE #1

Morningstar GC, Waukesha

JULY 14: SITE #2

Brown County GC, Oneida

JULY 21: SITE #3

La Crosse CC, Onalaska

JULY 24: SITE #4

Whistling Straits (Irish), Haven

JULY 26: SITE #5

The Legend at Brandybrook, Wales

JULY 26: SITE #6

Lake Arrowhead (Lakes), Nekoosa

July 28: SITE #7

Nakoma GC, Madison

AUG. 7: LAST CHANCE

Watertown CC, Watertown

2022 (T-21), and the Shaw Charity Classic in Calgary, Alberta, which he skipped.

“Hosting the State Open is something that is really special to us at SentryWorld,” said Danny Rainbow, the director of golf at the Sentry Insuranceowned facility. “Ever since we completed (initial) renovation work back in 2014 and reopened to the public in 2015, we’ve kind of been on a mission to sort of resurface as a top premier facility in Wisconsin. We’re not really seeking out tournament (hosting) opportunities, per se. But knowing if we provide an impeccable product, those opportunities are going to come along and we want to be part of that tournament scene and be a venue that has some reputation to be able to host some memorable championships.”

Indeed, SentryWorld’s debut as a State Open venue comes just one month after Erin Hills near Milwaukee – another destination venue with a history hosting USGA events – plays host to the Wisconsin State Amateur Championship. In recent years, the Wisconsin PGA has alternated between classic and modern courses with its assignment of the State Open, going to classics such as North Shore Country Club in Mequon (2017), North Shore Golf Club in Menasha (2018), Blue Mound Golf & Country Club in Wauwatosa (2020) and Ozaukee Country Club (2022) in and around stops at newer layouts like The Bull at Pinehurst Farms in Sheboygan Falls (2014), University Ridge Golf Course in Madison (2015), Geneva National Golf Club in Lake Geneva (2019) and Blackwolf Run in Kohler (2016 and 2021).

“The golf is just so deep in Wisconsin,” said Mazziotta, a 30-something minitour veteran who has competed in all corners of the hemisphere and is working his way back to competing on a full-time basis. “From magical old country clubs with great architecture (to) truly epic public golf experiences. I can’t say enough about how fun and unique Sand Valley Resort is. I’m partial because I think it’s a big reason I’ve stayed working toward a future in golf.”

Future venues for the State Open show that the Wisconsin PGA tournament policy board, which selects courses to host the championship, isn’t afraid to add new destinations to the mix.

While this year marks the first time the State Open has been played north of Portage since 2008 when it was held at Eau Claire Golf & Country Club, it will make its northernmost stop in 2024 at Minocqua Country Club.

“In my time, I don’t think it ever came up,” Joe Stadler – beginning his 29th year as executive director of the Wisconsin PGA – said of SentryWorld hosting the State Open. “I don’t think they ever told us no so I don’t think we ever asked. Part of it is we only go north so often. Stevens Point Country Club hosted it (in 2000). (SentryWorld) had some really good events when it opened. You would’ve thought … before I even got here that it would’ve been booked (for a State Open).”

Stadler played college golf at UW-Stevens Point from 1985 through 1989. He remembers the strong first impression SentryWorld made on him when he played there for the first time.

“It’s stunningly beautiful and that’s not something I typically recognize,” he said. “I remember playing there my senior year. I was walking to the first tee and one of my buddy’s sisters or girlfriends was there. They made a comment like ‘Oh, my God! This place is beautiful.’ I looked up and I’m like, ‘Wow, it really is! I’ve played it 50 times in my life already and never noticed.’”

It was the first course Mazziotta played last fall after winning the State Open at Ozaukee Country Club.

“I’d been caddying like a crazy person (at Sand Valley, with) nearly no days off from August to October, but I loved it,” Mazziotta said of SentryWorld. “(You) have to drive it well and hit some good mid-to-long irons into greens. The condition was incredible. I think that it will be a great venue and (I) hope they bring it to the edge — long rough with some bounce in the greens.”

How SentryWorld will play for the State Open remains to be seen. The course can be stretched to 7,300 yards, which would be nearly 600 yards longer than Ozaukee CC played for the 2022 State Open, and Rainbow anticipates that the WPGA will monitor the set-up for the U.S. Senior Open and apply some of the USGA’s best practices in preparing the course for the State Open.

“It’ll be a unique opportunity coming pretty freshly on the heels of hosting a U.S. Senior Open,” Rainbow said. “When we hosted the U.S. Junior Girls’ Championship, we essentially prepped the course like we would for regular play. Maybe a little extra emphasis on green speed and firmness and a little less water just to help the course play firmer and faster than normal.

“That’s what good players are looking for; they’re looking for those firm, faster conditions. That’s probably also what the governing bodies are looking to provide, that good test of golf. I anticipate we’d want to shoot for all the things that you would typically expect in a tournament that is trying to test some of the best players in the state. Greens that are firm and fast, weather permitting. Fairways that are firm and fast, weather permitting. And I guess we’ll see what happens with the rough length. For the Senior Open, it’s going to be quite juicy; no doubt about that. We’ll probably speak with the WPGA and see if there is a preference for how we prep it for the championship.”

His preference is to provide a set-up that will identify the best golfer in the state for 2023.

“To me, it’s absolutely the pinnacle of tournament golf in Wisconsin,” Rainbow said of the State Open. “I love seeing the caliber of player that is being drawn to this event. … This is the State Open and it’s for the best players in the state. It’s a who’s who of golf in Wisconsin.”