MAY/JUNE 2007
SentryWorld turns 25

It’s been said that anything John Joanis did, he did right, and SentryWorld GC was no exception.

When SentryWorld was built in Stevens Point in the early 1980s, Joanis, then chief executive officer of Sentry Insurance Co., had a vision. The man knew exactly what he wanted and wouldn’t settle for anything less.

That’s why he interviewed numerous acclaimed golf course architects before deciding that the design philosophy of Robert Trent Jones Jr. was perfect for his gem in central Wisconsin. In turn, Jones developed what many would call the first modern golf course in the state and what Jones himself dubbed “very possibly my Mona Lisa.”

The par-72, 6,951-yard course with its famed flower hole was rated the best new public golf course in America by Golf Digest in 1984, the first year the magazine presented that particular award.

The buzz leading up to SentryWorld’s opening resonated statewide. Now, nearly 25 years later, Joanis’ course still has the same appeal it did when it opened to the public on Aug. 30, 1982.

When Joanis, a 14-handicap golfer who had a personal interest in the game, decided to use $10 million in corporate funds to transform 200 acres of swamp into a championship golf course in the early 1980s, not everyone thought he was making the best move. Some insurance regulators questioned whether he was endangering the company’s financial health. Joanis, however, knew better.

There were few high-end public golf courses in the state at the time, especially not in central Wisconsin nor the small community of Stevens Point. Joanis thought the course and adjacent sports complex would be enjoyed by both Sentry Insurance employees and the general public, and he was right. To this day, SentryWorld is consistently ranked among the country’s top public golf courses.

The opening of SentryWorld was hyped by the local media, and according to participants in the course’s inaugural opening, it didn’t disappoint.

“It’s difficult to recapture the romance of the whole thing,” said Tom Nisbet, a friend of Joanis’ who in the late 1970s designed the building which houses the Sentry Insurance headquarters.  

According to Nisbet, Joanis gave directions to Robert Trent Jones Jr. for how the course should be designed. Nisbet, quoting Joanis directly, said the insurance executive told Jones, “There will be new girls playing golf for the first time out there, and I want them to enjoy the game.”  

Perhaps that’s why Joanis developed his idea for the flower hole. Though flower beds serve as colorful accents along much of the course, the 16th hole is by far the most spectacular. More than 42,000 individual flowers surround the green. Golfers who hit into the blossoms are typically assessed a penalty stroke – though the rule changes from time to time – and balls may not be retrieved.

The first golfer to be assessed that penalty stroke was former Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, when he hit into the flowers during the course’s opening. Starr is said to have had his ball replaced by an attendant, yet somehow it was replaced with the exact same ball that went into the flowers.

“But you weren’t (supposed) to go into the flowers to get it,” laughed  Nisbet, who along with 43 others played in the course’s grand opening.

The course and sports complex were built near the Sentry Insurance headquarters building, on land that was once a swamp. Gary Tanko, current course superintendent, was on the crew that constructed the course, and perhaps he knows the course better than anyone.

Tanko and the building crew spent two years clearing trees and backfilling the land to make way for SentryWorld. They left plenty of white pines, birch and oak trees. The result was a fairly flat, mature golf course that today has a 74.4 rating and 142 slope from the back tees. The boulders lining the creeks and surrounding lakes were blasted from the bedrock when SentryWorld’s lakes were created.

“The design . . . gives the golfer the ability – whether he’s a beginner or advanced player – to play the hole the way it’s designed,” Tanko said. “If you’re competitive and you think you want to go for a better shot, it gives you opportunities and windows to cut corners, and if you make the correct good shot, you have an opportunity for a lower score on that hole.”

There are five tees from which to choose on each hole, so SentryWorld can be as wild or tame as players want it to be. The front nine poses quite a challenge for golfers, and the most difficult hole might be the par-5 fifth, a 507-yard dogleg around a lake and island. On the back nine, wide-open fairways give way to a spring-fed lake and white sand bunkers.     

When SentryWorld was designed, Joanis meant it to be a walking-only caddie course, but that changed after a few years. Now, three and a half miles of paved cart paths wind through the grounds.  

Part of Joanis’ vision included SentryWorld hosting a professional tournament, perhaps a women’s event, but that’s yet to happen. In 1985, an exhibition match, the Sentry Challenge Cup, was played at the course. The team of Arnold Palmer, Betsy King and Dave Marr defeated Jan Stephenson, Miller Barber and Bob Toski for more than $50,000 in prize money.

Perhaps the closest SentryWorld came to hosting a major tournament was when the United States Golf Association’s Women’s Public Links Championship, featuring the country’s top amateur women at the time, was played at the course in 1986.

Tanko suspects the size of Stevens Point and its distance from any major airport were determining factors in keeping SentryWorld from hosting a professional tournament.

“Back then, Stevens Point wasn’t as big as it is now, and to hold a women’s major back then, we may not have even had the motel capacity,” Tanko said.

Things might also have been different had Joanis, who died at age 67 in 1985, lived longer to see his dream play out.

Doug Bisbee, former head golf pro at Stevens Point CC and a close friend of Joanis’, said from the time the course opened until his death, Joanis invited many Tour players to SentryWorld. The big-name golfers and the entertainment they provided wowed Sentry employees and area residents. Bisbee’s not sure that type of revelry could ever be recreated.

“I think John would be (happy with SentryWorld today). However, I think if he were still there it would be even better,” Bisbee said.

Regardless, current management must be doing something right. In recent years, the USGA has toured SentryWorld and told Brian Dumler, head golf pro and director of golf, that the course is the kind it looks for to host a tournament like the U.S. Open.

“So that’s the type of quality that the course is,” Dumler said. “Of course, being that good of a course and actually hosting are a whole different story.”

And SentryWorld, which has hosted countless state and local tournaments, showed the country that Wisconsin is capable of housing spectacular public championship golf courses.

“SentryWorld itself was a big plus for our state for tourism,” Dumler said, adding that it paved the way for courses like Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run.

Besides switching the numbering of some holes in the course’s early days, no major changes have been made to SentryWorld since its opening 25 years ago. According to the superintendent, Tanko, the course still has the same design as when it opened, though he is looking into renovating a few bunkers in upcoming years.

To celebrate its anniversary, in August SentryWorld will run special rates on golf and discounts in the pro shop. Susan Placzek, SentryWorld’s sales and marketing director, said the staff is putting together a customer appreciation event for some time in mid-August.