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FEATURED COURSE
Among Wisconsin best known – and just plain best – golf courses, SentryWorld celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007. The course was created in the early 1980s thanks to the vision of John Joanis, then CEO of Sentry Insurance, and the design talents of architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr.
SentryWorld opened on land adjacent to the Sentry Insurance headquarters in Stevens Point in August 1982, and it quickly earned a place among Wisconsin’s favorite golf courses. Jones once called SentryWorld “very possibly my Mona Lisa,” and that’s fitting since it has put smiles on so many golfers’ faces over the last quarter century.
The par-72 routing plays 6,951 yards from the back tees as it wanders through stands of pine trees and lots of water. The property was primarily a wetland, but it was reshaped during the construction process and now features creeks, ponds, two manmade lakes and smaller wetlands and bogs.
Several holes skirt the edges of the lakes and/or play over the water, including the par-5 fifth hole at 507 yards. Reachable in two for long hitters – at least according to the yardage – No. 5 has twin doglegs to the left as it wraps around the shoreline making the green a frightful target with a long club.
Of course, the most famous hole at SentryWorld, and perhaps in all of Wisconsin, is the par-3 16th, known as “the flower hole,” where more than 40,000 flowers are planted around the putting surface. But the par-4 18th at 448 yards might be better. A great finishing hole, No. 18 is an uphill, dogleg left that plays to a green surrounded by sand bunkers.
Contact: www.sentryworld.com; (866) 479-6753
Directions: From I-39, take Exit 161 (Business Highway 51). Turn left on North Point Drive, then left on Michigan Avenue.
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