Gary D'Amato, the great reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is one of the few scribes in the Midwest that writes frequently about golf.

His asked a number of prominent Wisconsin golfers "What is your favorite Wisconsin course?"  To preface this, most of the people he asked were amateur or professional level players with pretty good resumes like Eddie Terasa, Joyce Malison and Bob Brue.

Most of the courses that they choose seemed obvious for their skillset: Brown County in Oneida (public), Milwaukee Country Club (private), Whistling Straits (public), Maple Bluff Country Club (private), Rivermoor Country Club (private), Nakoma Golf Club (private), Bishops Bay Country Club (private), Ozaukee Country Club (private), Beaver Dam Country Club (private) and University Ridge (public).

Of the 10 courses, only three were publics, one is the very pricey Whistling Straits (only $340 with caddie), but two are right in the range for us hackers:

University Ridge (only $79 w/cart)

and Brown County ($33.75 + cart).

There is still hope for hackers that we can play a public course that's consider tops by professionals, and not get our lunch money beaten out of them (okay maybe at Whistling Straits we would).