The Club at Lac La Belle

I literally cannot say a bad thing about my experience at this course. Staff was great pace of play was wonderful course conditions were impeccable first thing I did when I was done was booked around for my guys for Labor Day and I’m driving up from Chicago. Visually stunning reminds me of a Monterey Peninsula style course mixed with some Carolina send belt style. Greens were some of the truest I’ve putt it in a long time. The undulations were severe but obscenely fun. Think of watching the pros putt at Augusta aiming some away from the hole to come back on a slope. Last time I felt this positive about my first round at a golf course was last year at Sand Valley. It’s not inexpensive at $150 to ride but there are plenty of courses that charge much less but are not near the value.

It's fun to get in on the ground floor of something great. That's how I felt playing The Club at Lac La Belle. Kohler and, more recently, Sand Valley and Erin Hills tend to soak up much of the publicity (for good reason), but my favorite courses tend to be a little under-the-radar, and that's true of Wisconsin. Lawsonia Links in the middle of the state is a stunner, and now, so is Lac La Belle, totally redone in the last couple years by Craig Haltom, one of the best architects few golfers have heard of.

Where courses like those at Kohler and Erin Hills tend to brutalize golfers, Lac La Belle is relentlessly charming. You can get into some trouble here, but you'll rarely lose a ball thanks to the generous corridors. What will propel the course up the various ranking lists in the coming years, though, is the greens. Haltom gives golfer a set of 18 putting surfaces of practically unmatched variety in size, shape and contour, from the smallish pushed-up 7th to the supermassive, surreally shaped 4th, 15th and 18th. The last of these will stop you in your tracks; it forms the largest expanse of maintained putting surface I've seen this side of St. Andrews, as it connects to the club's undulating putting course. From end to end, it's more than 150 yards.

At $125 (walking - and you should definitely walk the course if you can), Lac La Belle is an incredible value when compared to the more famous courses within an hour's drive. And with 12-minute tee times, you'll enjoy a good pace of play. The Morse family has some exciting plans for the future which should raise Lac La Belle's profile even further. Make arrangements to visit as soon as you can.

A Must Play! This place is amazing starting with a a warm welcome of customer service at the bag drop and also checking into the pro shop. The Clubhouse is super neat with historical references and showcasing of the of old clubs, balls, photos, and trophy memorabilia all over the building. The Rivalry Bar & Grill opens up on 2 sides with full retractable walls providing a feel of being outside. The outdoor patio is totally decked out with premium tables, chairs, firepits by Sister Bay brand and overlooks their roller coaster 18- cup Practice Green area (which is a course within itself). The Bar features private label Lac Labelle Lager off the tap and also in can that you can get from the beverage cart and it is very tasty! When you are ready to get started golfing warm up on the Practice Range, which has premium wooded fixtures by Prestwick as well (bag stands, ball trays, benches, divider tee spaces, etc.) and also a neat self serve water and ice station. On to the 1st Tee with brand new golf carts decked out with premium accessories. Every holes on the course is unique as its own hole carved out of the trees and landscape. The layout takes you on a journey with bunkering that is amazing steering you around each hole with twists and turns. The natural fescue grasses also outline most of the bunkers and fairways. All in all every hole is very memorable. It is difficult to pick your favorite hole(s), since they all are great! You will EnJoy Golfing here!

We had our final round of our trip at CLLB and it was a great experience. Very different course from what we experienced at other stops. Scale felt intimidate, but not confining. Great green complexes with a true roll and fairway contours that made a big impact. Bunkers uniformly in great condition.

We took the caddies offered through their training program. Both were nice, but it was literally their first time looping ever. It would have been nice to have a little more experience with targeting landing areas and strategy having never seen the course before. But it was great to start to give them tips on how to make a good experience for the golfers. Also a perk that there is no caddie fee and that the recommended gratuity for caddies is the same as a cart fee!

Great course with a challenging yet fair layout for golfers of all levels. Greens were consistent, shot values held throughout. The course is a bit raw currently, meaning it is not fully grown out due to the recent renovation. Tests all clubs in the bag. First class staff. I look for a golf digest best 109 public within 6 years.

First time playing here and man did it not disappoint. They have done a marvelous job with the renovation. The practice facility is great, putting green/putting course is so much fun, and the clubhouse is a beautiful modern design and feel.

The course is great too. I loved the first 4 holes that are brand new. They have well placed bunkers and sight lines that really make you think. The 4th hole is a 175 par 3 with a green that is like 50 yards long it is huge. I would love to watch them cut greens.

They rest of the course is dynamite too. It has an Erin Hills type feel. Big fairways not alot of rough then knee high fescue. The course still needs some growing into do. Been a lack of rain this spring or this place would be crazy hard. Green complexes are amazing. So many humps and bumps and huge slopes.

This is a place I highly recommend getting too. I think the price will go up a little more but the course is gonna get better too. Definitely a place to go and spend the whole day with their great food and amazing putting course.

PS 12 min tee times so pace is outstanding.

First time played.. was interested to see how the major renovations worked out. WOW!! They met their goals.. improved drainage, dramatic/ memorable holes, removal of many lesser trees to feature a variety of majestic specimens. In particular the HUGE undulating greens and well thought out bunkers with high quality sand are highlights. The clubhouse is beautiful..pub/restaurant great food and atmosphere.. and the service and hospitality all first rate. There's a massive putting course adjacent to the clubhouse reminiscent of the Himalayas at St Andrews. Eager to get back..enjoy!

First time here and I had a blast. I will definitely return.
The greens are are real fun and the putting course was a challenge.

A fantastic layout. They are strict on spacing tee times so pace of play was good. They have recently top dressed the greens. They are very undulating and demanding. This course will take another two years to mature. But when it does it should be a course any golfer would love to play

Great golf course and amenities. The new owners have done an incredible job with the course re-design.
Beautiful bunkers, fescue, and design. It's a classic with a modern twist. The course is also a joy to walk. Carts are available, but not totally necessary like so many newer courses.

This was my second time playing it this year, had played earlier in the summer before the grass was fully growing in. In another year or so, this place will be pristine!

Fantastic layout with challenging but fair obstacles, modern greens which are large, undulating, but playable. You can really decide how you want to make shots. Plenty of risk reward opportunities to choose your path!

All in all, a great layout that will definitely host some State Events! The staff and ownership is dedicated to making this a course worth the trip to for a round, event, and food!

When arriving the staff seemed very unorganized which can be chalked up to the course recently being reopened. The layout was decent with some beautiful holes but a few did not make much sense. The greens rolled well. The upkeep of the fairways and rough were about on par with your average muni but the tee boxes were a mess. Difficult navigating the course while walking as you had to walk through a ton of fescue and the signage was not great. This course needs a year or two of upkeep to be worth the price.

My first visit but hoping it's not my last to Lac La Belle. I agree with the other reviewers on a lot of their points. I'll be somewhat detailed with my review since it's a newbie for everyone - remember I do tell it like it is unvarnished.

Let's tear some skin off Wisconsin's "newest" addition.

Staff - each and every one of them I interacted with want you to have a great time and excellent experience. Smiles, helpful info given that's needed but not requested, etc, etc. The GM Tyler is training staff right. Kudos.

Facilities - a little confusing.....they have a bag drop but the the parking lot isn't signed very well. I don't even know if they have a locker room. It wasn't offered (if they do have one) and it should be because I changed in the lot after a 2 hours plus drive....do I have to ask? Not complaining but weird that I couldn't find a locker room wandering around on my own after I went to the pro shop to check in. And watch out! There's a step up from a doorway that most will use to get to the pro shop - pretty weird/bad planning. Nice bar area with an outside patio that overlooks the 15 hole putting course downhill to the 18th green connected to the putting course. Some interior history walls to read and a couple of trophy cases of old stuff to take pictures of and browse. Didn't try the food but a nice value surprise was $14 for a six pack of La Belle Lager made for them by a local micro brewery. It's a decent orange whip and worthy to take out & quaff on the putting course post round which is sneaky tough, has drink holders and I do recommend a tour of it post round.....always free to play!

To walk or to ride that is the question - they do have caddies by pre arrangement for additional cost. They also have some very nice golf carts. It was 95 degrees plus the day I played so walking was a bit out of the question for me. In hindsight even if was 70 degrees I would have been glad I had taken a cart. The course is on very low lying land in a lot of areas and frankly is a bit swampy off or near all grassed areas. Cart paths aren't paved - a whole bunch of wet mosh pits of wood chips.....so even though Lac La Belle wants promotes walking w/caddies it's a bit difficult for me to fathom why you'd spend 30K to join a place to take consistently muddy slippery paths to and from many greens and tee boxes. And very apparent there was really no attempt or good planning to make it even remotely convenient to drive or even the use motor carts around the range, clubhouse or many areas of the golf course itself.

Course Layout - it's simply jaw dropping. Fun and some really well designed course architecture. I already want to go back. Needs to grow in and get settled a tad. Greens are in good shape and roll well but need to soften/age a bit as several are like concrete pads right now. Good sand in the traps but as with many new courses these days it seems the very last thing these course designers/supers pay attention to are tee boxes. Many need additional grow in - some too small for the amount of play they will receive.

Other issues - course is not currently "Garmined." Bring your rangefinder if you want yardages - however the flags aren't set up to laser.....or get a caddie. The carts do have GPS but I had a few too many issues where I hit stock shots and yardages were 10 to 15 yards off in either direction in several areas of the course.. Many of the greens are just plain HUGE (3 or 4 clubbers)....they might be the largest greens you have ever played absent of maybe Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley. The flags aren't color coded (they really really should do that) and without a caddie/local knowledge as a first timer you're pretty much completely clueless - that's even with the cart gps which can't get near some tee boxes and some approach shots....perhaps providing you a daily PIN SHEET might make sense?

Overall I felt it was worth the C-Note cost to play Lac La Belle....perhaps it's little bit too pricey for it's current shape....$75/$80 w/cart would likely get less complaints at the current time....if you're spending a c-note (even more with a caddy versus motor cart) as a public golfer you should expect close to perfection. The course itself is absolutely fantastic with an added putting course bonus. I hope they take note of the issues above and correct or mitigate some of them. Course aging and growing in a couple of years - I wouldn't hesitate to play it again. If they fill their membership rolls and it turns private and I don't get to play it again so be it. I''ll gladly return there next year if at all possible.

I was fortunate enough to visit this course while on a golf trip to Wisconsin in August. The newly renovated course was difficult in all the right ways and the greens will challenge a golfer of any level. The pace of play and conditions were excellent. The putting course was a huge plus for our group as we spent an extra couple hours just playing that! The staff stole the show and if there was a 6th star available then they'd get it! Highly recommend this course for anyone able to play it.

To start off, the course has a phenomenal layout and each hole is visually appealing. The grass in tee boxes, fairways, and greens will need awhile to mature. Very sandy at the moment. Poor signage to tee boxes, especially the back tees. Found ourselves having to walk through fescue to get to multiple tee boxes. Inconsiderate construction workers and grounds crew while golfers are playing through. The course has unbelievable potential but if it wants to become a private club in a few years, these negative experiences (though minor) cannot happen.

Was looking forward to playing this new track as the Facebook ads made it very enticing. The story behind the course and the renovation is pretty neat. The clubhouse and bar are top notch. The practice putting green was very impressive and is laid out to have a fun match after your round with a beverage in hand. I will start off by saying the course layout is phenomenal and is a golf nerds dream visually. I do have some negatives to share from my experience though. First, there was still a lot of construction going on, especially the first couple of holes. These construction workers were not considerate of when golfers were playing through, They would be yelling at each other in middle of our backswings. They also had some high school grounds crew employees that lacked self awareness. They were screwing around on their lawn equipment no more than 30 yards away from us as we were putting. Those are experiences you don't expect to happen on a course that you paid triple digits to play and planning to be a country club in a few years. There was very poor signage from hole to hole, especially if you played the tips, like we did. We also found ourselves having to walk through fescue to get to a lot of the tee boxes. The fairways, tee boxes, and greens definitely need some maturing to do. I think the course conditions wise will be immaculate in a year or two. Overall a fantastic golf course with some minor negative feedback which might be just summed up to the course only being open a few weeks.

The Club at Lac Labelle recently reopened after a massive renovation. While I did not play the original course, my understanding is that the renovation was so extensive that you might really consider it a entirely new golf course. The design is spectacular - winding fairways, deep bunkers, wildly undulating greens... truly fantastic architecture! However, the course conditioning is not up to par. The is not unexpected given its newness, but in truth, they probably should have waited until 2021 to open (the first four holes are especially rough). I know that's probably not feasible financially, but buyer beware. If the course' ownership invests in maintenance in the coming years then The Club at Lac Labelle will rival Erin Hills as the best course in the area. But as of July 2020, this course is not ready for prime time.

Lac La Belle is going to be something special. The renovation done by Craig Holtom gave me memories of playing Sand Valley where he was part of the shaping crew. The course offers plenty of dramatic opportunities (the par 3 4th being one of the primary examples) while never letting down throughout the entire round. The greens are some of the best I've seen for a modern design outside of a top 100-type project and really make the course something special. The only complaint is that the grass was bare in some areas and very wet as the course had received several inches of rain in the days leading up to when I played it. I cannot wait for it to finish growing in and playing it again next summer.