64 Golf WorldAugust 2017
tisremarkablehowoftentheterm“visionary”isused
todescribeRobertALang,themanwhobuiltErin
HillsGC.Byanymeasure,Langisasuccessful
businessman–wasasuccessfulbusinessmanrather,
havingdecidedtoslowdown,startwritingnovels,and
spendmoretimewithhisgrandchildrenafewyearsago.
AftergraduatingfromNorthernIllinoisUniversityin
1967, Lang began real life by selling encyclopedias and
hearingaids.Buthehadmuchbiggerambitions,setting
uphisfirstcompany–LangHomes–in1975.He
built hundreds of new houses in Wisconsin’s Waukesha
County,thenin1982foundedacalendarcompany
calledLangGraphicsthatquicklygrewintoamulti-
million-dollarenterprise.Withinafewshortyears,
hehadamassedasizeablefortune.
Earlythiscentury,Langbegantransformingthe
town of Delafield, a suburb of Milwaukee, renovating
old buildings, constructing new ones, and giving it a
well-worn,CivilWar-eralook.Butitisthedevelopment
of Erin Hills, 40 miles north-west of Milwaukee, for
whichLangisbestknownoutsideWisconsin.Sadly
though,whentheUSOpeniscontestedthereduring
thethirdweekofJune,it’slikelyLangwillreceivescant
recognition,ifhisnameismentionedatall.
Simplyput,ErinHillsbankruptedBobLang.The
originalplanwastobuildanine-holeraccessibleonly
to friends and employees, but the project quickly
mushroomed into an uncontrollable craving to build
aUSOpenvenue.Langcan’tsaytoomuchowingto
anon-disclosureagreementhesignedwiththemanhe
soldthecoursetoinOctober2009.Butspend20
minutesonthephonewithhimanditsoonbecomes
obviousthatlosingitstillhurts.
Lang came by the rolling 200-acre property, situated
onanareaofglacialactivityknownasKettleMoraine,
in 1997. The asking price was $2.5m. Lang ended up
havingtopaythebankanon-refundable$100,000fee
toextendthedeadline90dayssohecouldsecurethe
necessaryfunding.Thefirstplanwassoondiscarded
infavourofan18-holepublicfacility.InApril2000,
LangissuedaRequestforProposal(RFP)inviting
architects to submit their terms and ideas. Among the
many interested firms was Hurdzan Fry Environmental
Golf. Although respected within the industry, the
owner,DrMichaelHurdzan,didn’thavetheprestigeof
Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer or Tom
Doak,eachofwhomhadsubmittedbids.
LangselectedHurdzanandFrylargelybecausehe
wanted to recognise Hurdzan’s military background
(hewasacommanderintheUSArmySpecialForces–
GreenBerets).Thedesignteamsoontookonathird
memberintheformofRonWhitten,Golf Digest’sArchitecture Editor and a long-time friend of Hurdzan.
Hopingtostartdesigningcoursesaswellaswriting
aboutthem,WhittenhadalsorespondedtotheRFP.
WhenHurdzansawhisnameonthelist,heasked
Whitten, with whom he had often spoken about
collaborating,iftheycouldjoinup.NeitherLangnor
Fry had an issue, so the trio got to work with the goal
ofbuilding‘thebest$50publiccourseinthecountry’.Fieldofdreams
Planning and design continued through 2005,
becoming increasingly complicated as Lang kept
purchasing additional land. The original 200 acres
became 650, giving the designers a similar problem to
thatfacedbyBillCooreandBenCrenshawatSand
HillsinNebraska.“Itwaslikea1,000-piecejigsaw,”I
‘UntilDavisvisitedandshowedgenuine
interest,Langhadn’tbeencertain100%
hewasgoingaheadwiththecourse’