USHO 2016 dates change to Sept. 22-24

In order to avoid a conflict with a pre-existing tournament, the 2016 USHO organizers have moved the date of the 2016 tournament to Sept. 22-24. Below is a press release created for the event.
For immediate release

Contacts:
Bill “Ernie” Ernst – Bernst@new.rr.com  920-858-8578
James Davis, Secretary, Society of Hickory Golfers  – jdavis2364@gmail.com

Wisconsin Hickory Golfers awarded 2016 U.S. Hickory Open

The Wisconsin Hickory Golfers ( www.hickorykummelcup.com) are proud to announce that the 2016 U.S. Hickory Open will be contested Sept. 22-24, 2016, at the historic Lawsonia Links Golf Course in Green Lake, Wisc.  

The U.S. Hickory Open is the premier annual tournament of the Society of Hickory Golfers. As many as 100 hickory players from throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe will participate in this event using authentic wood-shafted clubs from the era of 1900-1932. Approved replica hickory clubs are also allowed in the event.
 
The Wisconsin Hickory Golfers will serve as hosts for this international tournament. The Wisconsin group consists of more than 50 players who sponsor hickory golf events around the state. Interested players are invited to join the group and loaner sets are made available for new players to use.

The Wisconsin Hickory Players are affiliated with the Society of Hickory Golfers.

Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG) www.hickorygolfers.com
The SoHG coordinates competitions, establishes standards for play, and brings together fans of the “royal and ancient” game from around the globe. Members share an enthusiasm for the rich history and traditions of golf. They enjoy the distinctive feel of golf with hickory-shafted clubs and the connection provided by the SoHG to a wealth of resources on equipment, history, a handicapping service, access to regional hickory play groups, a bi-annual magazine, and a calendar of hickory events throughout the country.

The Links Course – Lawsonia
Construction started in 1928 and was completed in 1929, even though it didn’t open for play until the following year. Designed by William B. Langford and Theodore Moreau, ASGCA, the course was built on the former Victor Lawson estate, one of the Chicago Daily News founders. Langford and Moreau traveled to Scotland to sketch and photograph famous golf holes at other links style courses and then laid out a course with multi-tiered greens, 90 bunkers and deep rough atop a windswept plateau above Green Lake, Wisconsin’s deepest lake at 237 feet. The Links Course took $250,000 to construct, almost an unheard of cost in those days.

In The Golden Age of Golf Design, Geoff Shackelford quotes William Langford: ‘Hazards should not be built solely with the idea of penalizing bad play, but with the object of encouraging thoughtful golf and of rewarding the player who possesses the ability to play a variety of strokes with each club.’ Shackelford provides examples of Langford’s love of alternate route holes and the importance he placed on strategy.

Purists who love links golf, as well as recreational golfers, will really appreciate this course. Wind comes into play due to green elevations and the open nature of the land. Although the routing has a number of fairway and greenside bunkers, the greens are open in front to allow the traditional bump-and-run shot. While bunkers on some holes are placed 60 yards in front of the green, they are more a visual than an occupational hazard. Greens are elevated, multi-tiered, moderately fast, with unique mounded collars. There’s an interesting stretch of holes 9-14, with respective pars of 5-3-5-3-5-3. The course was laid out with the land as it was, instead of trying to balance out the scorecard. The course has five par threes, five par fives, and eight par fours.

Given the overall quality of the design, it’s not surprising that Walter Hagen was in the first group to play the course when it opened. In the 1930s the course hosted the Little Lawsonia Open, which drew Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson.
Lawsonia’s Links course was ranked No. 52 in the U.S. by Golfweek Magazine and No. 85 on Golf Digest’s “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.”