The catawba Island club in Ohio has completed many recent changes, including a complete course renovation..

Golf in the Great Lakes region is a lot like Denny’s. Bear with us here. During a recent trip to Wisconsin Dells to visit Wild Rock, the stunning new course by Hurdzan-Fry, we discovered something truly unique. Take Exit 92 off I-90, and follow Highway 12 through the Dells for a mile or so, and you’ll come to Denny’s. Not the chain with the red and yellow motif, but Denny’s Diner, a decades-old dive serving Lake Superior-sized omelettes. The national chain has all the name brand recognition, but ask the locals, and they’ll tell you to visit “the other Denny’s.” There’s no question that the original is better.

Much of golf’s originality comes from the Midwest. Jackson Park in Chicago opened in 1899 on landfill from the World’s Fair, and was the first public course in the Midwest. Downers Grove in Illinois was the site of the nation’s first 18-hole course. The Western Open, now the BMW Championship, was the first tournament in what would become the PGA Tour.

Our 2008 Season Preview-By The Numbers proves that the Great Lakes not only has beloved originals, but exciting new additions as well. From the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, to Wild Rock, the most anticipated course opening in the Midwest this year, there is plenty to talk about. And who better than Great Lakes Golf Magazine, the region’s original golf publication, to preview what’s to come.

Set to open in May, Wild Rock Golf Club in Wisconsin Dells, designed by award-winning firm Hurdzan-Fry, is the most anticipated new course in the region. Built atop a quarry, this leggy beast (nearly 7,400 yards) is nothing short of breathtaking (the elevated sixth tee offers a panoramic 30-mile view). And the designers are nothing if not confident. “The new course is guaranteed to be one of the top five courses in the state when completed,” says Dr. Mike Hurdzan. “It will not only fulfill the challenging and strategic expectations of the individual golfer, but also blend in with the natural assets of the land.”

We’re off to the North Chagrin Reservation in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland, to face down the notoriously unforgiving Manakiki Golf Course, where canyons, water hazards and back-to-back par 5s are the easy part. Try your hand at the 443-yard eighth hole, considered one of the most difficult par 4s in the region.

We visit Hayward, Wisconsin, for a round at Big Fish Golf Club, which GolfWeek named one of the Top 10 Public Courses in the Badger State. Designed by Pete Dye, the man behind Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run, this par-72 championship course was also named one of the Best New Courses by Golf Digest in 2005.

Notre Dame Stadium isn’t the only Irish battlefield in South Bend, Indiana. Just consider Blackthorn Golf Club, which will headline our yearly remodel and restoration roundup. Not only is the logo a silhouetted leprechaun, but the 7,136-yard course features holes named Belfast, Kilmallock, and Greyabby. Even more unique is that Blackthorn is a 19-hole course. The extra hole is the Blarney Hole, a short par four known by locals as “the ultimate mulligan.”

The 32nd annual Memorial Tournament, established by Jack Nicklaus and presented by Morgan Stanley, will take place May 26-June 1 at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Designed by Nicklaus in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, Muirfield was the first course in the world created with the spectator in mind (his creative use of “mounds” and amphitheaters” became a model for tournament courses worldwide). Naturally, Nicklaus is a tournament regular (a whopping 30 appearances in 32 years).

World Golf Championship, Bridgestone Invitational is one-third of the WGC triad (the other two events being the CA Championship at Doral and the Accenture Match Play Championship). Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, which claims to have “the finest 54 holes of golf of any private club in the country,” will host the event for the eighth time. GLG visits the course and previews the event, which takes place July 28-August 3.

In 2008, the PGA Championship comes back to the Midwest. Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, welcomes the 90th installment of the season’s last major. The six-day tournament begins August 6th, and expect Tiger Woods to vehemently defend the Wanamaker Trophy. Plus: While in the neighborhood, we take a fresh look at Detroit, the megapolis in our backyard.

It’s off to Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan, for the 2008 Buick Open (June 23-29). In addition to the gallery at 17, home to the rowdiest crowd on the PGA Tour, players must contend with the long-standing record that has loomed over the event for two decades: the 262 Robert Wrenn shot at the 1987 Buick Open, only one stroke off the all-time PGA Tour record for a 72-hole tournament (set by Ben Hogan in 1945).

On July 14th, the US Bank Championship returns to Brown Deer, one of the 15 courses managed by the Milwaukee County Park System (it’s also one of the few Tour stops where greens fees are only $35). While last year’s field was cannibalized by the British Open, which took place the same weekend at Carnoustie, there was plenty of SportsCenter-worthy shots including 17-year-old Tony Finau’s 370-yard drive at 16.

Both have aces, clubs, and chips: check out the ever-growing connection between golf and gaming with a visit to Chip-In’s Island Resort and Casino in Harris, Michigan. Besides the 1,400 slot machines, guests will also enjoy Sweetgrass Golf Club, set to open this summer. GLG also highlights other golf-centric casino resorts throughout the Midwest.

It’s appropriate that the Ryder Cup (September 16-21) takes place at a course named for the great hall in Norse mythology where the souls of Vikings feasted and celebrated with the gods. The Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, set along the Kentucky-Indiana border, hosts the event’s 37th edition, where Captains Azinger and Faldo will lead the current pantheon of American and European golf gods. And there’s plenty of room for us mortals: the natural amphitheater at 18 can handle 20,000 spectators.

The confetti and firework detritus will have just been cleaned up by the time the John Deere Classic kicks off July 7th. The event is held at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, formerly the site of one of the nation’s top Arabian horse breeding operations. The tournament is one of the Tour’s most charitable events: last year the John Deere Classic helped raise $4.6 million for 600 area charities, an increase of $700,000 from 2006.