Open, rugged and windswept terrain defines the walking-only, links-style Straits Course sculpted along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.

The Straits Course is modelled on British and Irish links courses and features vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes and winds that sweep in off the lake.

At 7,514 yards, it is the second longest course to host a major. It also has more than 1100 bunkers, only 10% of which are sculpted and raked. The rest appear more like waste areas but are classed as bunkers under the local rules – a fact which famously led to Dustin Johnson missing out on the 2010 PGA Championship playoff after he grounded his club in one on the 18th hole and was penalised two shots.

The seventeenth named “Pinched Nerve”, the unofficial signature hole, is the most difficult par-3 on the course. At 223 yards, with towering sand dunes and the lake to the left, golfers have no option but to go straight for the green.

The course also features eight holes hugging Lake Michigan, a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, elevation changes of approximately 80 feet and three stone bridges at holes 9, 10 and 18.