BY JOHN STEINBREDER
KOHLER, WISCONSIN | With all that he has accomplished in life, Herbert Vollrath Kohler Jr. is not exactly in need of affirmation.
After all, this is a man who transformed the farm implement business his grandfather founded in 1873 from a modest family enterprise producing some $100 million in annual sales four decades ago into one that today records roughly $7 billion in revenues, largely from plumbing products, engines, generators, furniture and golf.
But business acumen is only one part of his vast skill set. As a young man, Kohler studied physics and advanced mathematics at the University of Zurich. In German. He later majored in theater at Knox College in Illinois and in business administration at Yale. Through the years he also amassed a portfolio of some 200 design and utility patents.
The man also has traded lines on the silver screen with Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall (in the 2003 film Open Range). An avid sportsman, Kohler has long enjoyed bird hunting, fly fishing and driving coaches powered by Morgan horses from his stables.
Among his most successful ventures since becoming chairman and chief executive officer of Kohler Co., in 1972, was undeniably his most audacious. That was creating a hospitality division. It started in the early 1980s with the conversion of a dormitory for employees into a five-star hotel that opened as the American Club and continued with the construction of four superb Pete Dye golf courses – the Straits and Irish tracks at Whistling Straits, and the River and Meadow Valleys layouts at Blackwolf Run. In the process, Destination Kohler, as the venture was dubbed, not only added a revenue stream that poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers each year but also raised the profile of the company and the goods and services it sold around the world.
“I have loved the Ryder Cups I have attended over the years. I love the excitement the event stirs, the competition between the two teams, the energy among the spectators and how nationalistic everyone gets. And I know that Pete (Dye) loved it, too.”
Herb Kohler
In addition to his golf resort becoming a favorite among recreational players, it also evolved into a regular site for major championships. Blackwolf Run, for example, has hosted the U.S. Women’s Open twice, while the Straits has been the venue for three PGA Championships and a U.S. Senior Open.
Now comes the Ryder Cup, which with all due respect to those competitions previously held at Kohler is bigger than any staged here before.
That makes this year’s matches an especially sweet affair for Kohler and his wife, Natalie Black, a Stanford-educated lawyer who served for years as the company’s general counsel. They married in 1988, the year that the first course at the resort, Blackwolf Run, opened, and they have been together for every part of his golf adventure ever since. Another factor is that Kohler is now 82 years old. Though he remains very involved as executive chairman in the company that his son, David, has led as chief executive officer since 2015, Kohler is understandably slowing down.
Then, there is the lack of another major golf event on the Destination Kohler docket. In addition, the company is fighting legal battles in its effort to construct a fifth, 18-hole course on dunes land it owns just outside of town.
Throw in the year-long delay in staging the Ryder Cup due to COVID-19 and the fact that he spent hours on the course during its construction, talking and occasionally arguing with Dye about where bunkers and greens should be built, and it is easy to understand how this year’s edition of these matches is such a big deal.
But it’s not about affirmation. Rather, it’s putting a bow on a remarkable run in the world of golf and savoring just how special Kohler’s creation turned out to be – and just how much he has given to golf since getting into the game 33 years ago.
In many ways, it makes Kohler the man of the match, even before a single putt has been holed.
“The Ryder Cup is finally here, and it is really quite exciting,” he told Global Golf Post earlier this summer. “Financially, it’s the Big Daddy of golf, and Natalie did the negotiating. It’s 30 to 35 percent bigger than any major championship in that regard.
“But that’s only part of the appeal. I have loved the Ryder Cups I have attended over the years. I love the excitement the event stirs, the competition between the two teams, the energy among the spectators and how nationalistic everyone gets. And I know that Pete (Dye) loved it, too.”
Kohler also loves what Dye did with the Straits, a scenic gem that runs along Lake Michigan and officially opened in summer 1998, just hours after Se Ri Pak won the U.S. Women’s Open at nearby Blackwolf Run in a 20-hole playoff. Many in golf regard the Straits as among his best works, and Dye designed it as much for match play as he did for medal. Given the daunting challenges of each hole, they most likely will be won or lost, not halved, especially if the wind blows. And it has a tendency to blow harder and more often in late September than in mid-August, when the Straits has hosted its PGAs.
As for what Kohler will be doing during the actual matches, he will have a presence on the Straits. “I am fortunate to have a cart, and I intend to be all over the course, watching golf and being among the masses,” he said.
That will be a great way for him to enjoy the Ryder Cup – and a good time for golf to celebrate the success of his improbable involvement in the game and all it has given to those who enjoy the sport.
Man of the match, indeed.
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