Big Fish Golf Club is a Pete Dye design in the north woods of Hayward, Wisconsin, where an open links-style front nine gives way to a forested back nine with dramatic elevation changes. Named to Golf Digest's Top 10 Best New U.S. Courses in 2005, the 7,231-yard layout blends bent grass fairways and strategic bunkering with the rugged character of Wisconsin's Northwoods.
History
Big Fish Golf Club in Hayward, Wisconsin, opened in 2000 as a links-influenced design by Patrick Albanese situated in Sawyer County's lake country — a course whose name celebrates the fishing culture that defines the Hayward area, where the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame honors the region's identity as one of America's most celebrated freshwater fishing destinations. The course serves both Hayward's full-time residents and the substantial summer tourism population drawn to the Northwoods for the combination of muskie and walleye fishing, boating, and outdoor recreation that the area's hundreds of glacially formed lakes provide. Patrick Albanese's design applied links-style principles to the northern Wisconsin landscape — open fairways, native grass rough areas, and the wind exposure that the relatively open terrain provides. Unlike the heavily forested terrain that characterizes most of the Northwoods, the links-style portions of Big Fish use open ground to create the wind and weather exposure that links-influenced courses depend on for strategic character.
That design choice distinguishes Big Fish from the tree-lined resort courses that many northern Wisconsin facilities employ, creating a different playing experience for golfers who find links-style strategic complexity more engaging than target golf through forested corridors. The course plays to par 72 at approximately 6,839 yards from the back tees — championship yardage appropriate for the golf-focused summer tourism market that Hayward attracts from across the upper Midwest. The Hayward area draws visitors from Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago for the Northwoods lake experience, and the golf market among these visitors is substantial.
Big Fish Golf Club competes for this market alongside the other outdoor recreation activities that bring visitors to northern Wisconsin, positioning itself as a quality golf option for the significant portion of Northwoods visitors who play golf as part of their recreational portfolio. Hayward's identity as a Northwoods resort community is anchored by its fishing heritage — the Muskie Capital of the World designation reflects the area's historically exceptional muskie fishing. The National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame's giant muskie building, a 143-foot structure shaped like a muskie that visitors can climb inside, is among Wisconsin's most distinctive roadside attractions. That fishing culture permeates the Hayward community's recreational identity, and Big Fish Golf Club's name connects it directly to this tradition, reflecting a community that knows what makes it unique and embraces that identity in every aspect of its tourism infrastructure.
Sawyer County's tourism economy, while dominated by fishing and boating, includes golf as a significant recreational component for visitors who want activity variety during multi-day Northwoods stays. Big Fish Golf Club serves this function as one of the Hayward area's primary golf facilities, providing a course whose links character and championship length justify a golf day that many Northwoods visitors incorporate into their lake-country itinerary. The combination of Albanese's design quality, the northern Wisconsin natural setting, and the Hayward area's established tourism infrastructure gives Big Fish Golf Club a solid position within the Northwoods recreational economy. For golfers who want links-influenced strategic challenge within easy reach of one of Wisconsin's premier fishing and outdoor recreation destinations, Big Fish delivers both the design quality and the setting that make a day away from the lakes worthwhile.