HAVEN, Wis. — Before Whistling Straits was a golf course, all the shots fired on the property plummeted to the bottom of adjacent Lake Michigan. Antiaircraft guns, machine guns and tanks fired at targets high above the water, part of artillery exercises at Camp Haven, a military base from 1949 to 1959 that was transformed into the setting for the P.G.A. Championship.
Some would say the site is still a place of destruction, where hopes are dashed and errant shots are met with gloomy expressions and demerits. Like Camp Haven, Whistling Straits is no idyllic walk in the park.