The man who first imagined the grassy Wisconsin cattle farm as a potential piece of the U.S. Open’s hallowed history will see that vision come to life this week.
Steve Trattner will be watching on TV from his prison cell, 40 miles away from Erin Hills.
Trattner, 55, is the one-time software programmer whose passion for golf led him to call a Milwaukee-area millionaire businessman, Bob Lang. He persuaded Lang to look at the farm on what’s known as the Kettle Moraine, a land formation in east-central Wisconsin shaped thousands of years ago by buried glacial ice.
Lang, who had long dreamed of building a golf course, fell in love with the location and bought the territory, but would go on to lose millions in developing and eventually being forced to sell the 11-year-old layout.
Through all that, Lang and Trattner fulfilled their mission of building a course to host a U.S. Open. And the existence of Erin Hills puts to rest the notion that a major championship course needs decades’ worth of golf stories to enjoy a rich history.