Deer Player,
- Mackenzie Puryear
- Jan 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 30
The rain beat down in hard pellets on the umbrella that I was huddled under. The ping of everyone’s phone at once stole our attention away from the impending weather --
Rain moving through will be quick. Shelter in place. Will update in 15 minutes.
They weren’t wrong. Roughly 15 minutes later, I was standing on the tee looking at my yardage book, awaiting my turn to tee off on my 16th hole of the day, a par-3. I played the back nine first, so it was actually hole number seven. My yardage book said 135 to the front, and as I paced off the yardage to the actual hole, something seemed off. I gazed at the flag in the distance, which looked a lot longer than 135 some yards. My playing partner hit a solid shot to the middle of the green, and I watched her put her 5-iron back into her bag. Something was definitely off, but I didn’t have much time to deliberate. I looked back and saw Nelly Korda arriving at the green behind me; I certainly didn’t want to hold her up. I made an executive decision and pulled a 6-iron, stepped up to the ball, and ---
Wait, did I say Nelly Korda… behind me? Have you guessed where I am yet?
It’s actually not an LPGA event; it was a Symetra event (now called Epson) at Brown Deer Golf Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Some of you may have heard of it being the first course Tiger Woods ever played as a professional. It’s also home to a Symetra Tour event, and it happened to be one of my favorite tournaments. And yes, that was Nelly Korda’s first and only year playing on the Symetra Tour because, as in typical Nelly fashion, she won a few tournaments at the end to catapult herself into the top 10 for an LPGA Tour card, and well, you know the rest of her story.
Back to Brown Deer. The course is beautiful, and it’s public. It’s an all-around great course with tree-lined fairways, thick rough, and a river running through the middle of it all. The course features lush bent grass and four sets of tees to accommodate golfers of various levels.
The signature hole is number 18, a par-five with the river running across the tree-lined fairway and bunkers guarding the green. It tempts the player to go for it in two, which could present a reward, but not without the appropriate risk. I distinctly remember on this hole, I hit my drive left into the trees, and a young spectator found my ball and picked it up because she thought the Golfdotz cupcake marking was cute! Anyone know the rule on that? Relax, this isn’t a test (believe me, I’ve taken the Rules of Golf test, and it isn’t easy). But I was allowed to replace my ball without penalty under Rule 9.6.
Another iconic hole at Brown Deer, perhaps one of the most widely talked about holes, is number 14. It’s a par-3 that Tiger Woods made a hole-in-one on during his professional debut. It’s a fairly straightforward hole with bunkers guarding the green, and like most holes out there, trees line the fairway. It’s said that Tiger played a knock-down 6 iron which carried about 200 yards. The start of an iconic career.
So, speaking of par-3s, and unfortunately not as iconic as Tiger’s, allow me to finish my earlier story. It turned out that my 6 iron was the perfect club. I actually hit a great shot about 15 feet from the pin, and I didn’t realize until the next hole that I was on the wrong page in my yardage book (major face palm). But it had been a long day. We were probably on hour 10 of being on the course at that point. The round was plagued by rain delays, and the confusion came because holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 mirror each other in a par-3, par-5, par-3, par-5, par-3 sequence. After breaking for the rain and heading back out, mixed with the delirium of the day, I was still on hole five in my yardage book, which did in fact play 135 yards to the front.
Yet, the moral of the story is, sometimes guesstimating the yardage with minimal deliberation and committing to the club in hand is all you need to get back on track. I’m not saying play every round or every shot without knowing the yardage, that would be silly. Yet sometimes you just need to relax a little and know you’ve got it.
Oh yeah, and if Nelly Korda is ever behind you in the fairway, don’t hold her up.
Course Details
Par 71
Back Tees: 6,759 Yards
Slope/Rating 134/72.3
Course Designer: Originally designed by George Hansen and then partially redesigned by Andy North and Roger Packard.
Opened in 1929
Grass Type: Bent
Course Type: Public
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