Kohler’s Whistling Straits and the Princeville Resort’s Prince course in Kauai are infamously known as two of the toughest resort courses in America.

I’ve had the pleasure to get sliced and diced on each in the last year.

They are similar in a lot of categories. They’re both magnificent, one-of-a-kind courses, but stressfully scenic, if you know what I mean. On each, there are countless vistas that will inspire its share of “oh wow’s” and “oh crap’s!”

I played each course from the second to back set of tees, both in the 6,900-yard range. In each instance, this was a bad decision. I should have played them from the 6,500-yard set. But get two foursomes of guys together and generally you end up playing tees further back than you should.

While the Prince has a few holes on the front side that give mortals a few shots at par, the back nine is a sheer beast. Not only is the 12th hole insanely tight, but the tee is elevated high enough, maybe 200 feet or so and above the tree line, so the trade winds will have their way with your shot well before it can get below the trees. On other holes, even if you can find the fairway, often times your stance is a little uneven, thanks to the tumbling, clifftop land the Prince is set on.

What probably makes the Prince course more difficult than the Straits is the wind. On the Straits, its main focal point Lake Michigan may look big enough to pass off as an ocean, but it can’t produce the potentially vicious trade winds of the Pacific.

Read more …

(Source: WorldGolf.com)