When some television viewers watching the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits saw that magnificent links-like course sitting on a bluff above the sky-blue waters of Lake Michigan, they wondered where the golf course was located.

When told it was in Wisconsin, they responded incredulously, “No way.”

Get ready for a similar response when viewers have a look at Erin Hills, a majestic links-like course that will host the U.S. Open June 12-18. Although Erin Hills, which is 70 miles southwest of Whistling Straits, is inland, it’s yet another Badger State tribute to coastal Irish golf.

While Whistling Straits was a monumental dirt-moving project, Erin Hills came by its rolling terrain naturally, courtesy of the glacier that left behind the Kettle Moraine.

“Ninety percent of the land is the way it existed. It was not altered. It’s a tremendous piece of land,” said Dana Fry, one of Erin Hills’ three designers.

Despite appearances, neither course is a true links layout. Both lack the sandy soil of true links land, the defining bridge between the sea and tillable farmland.

“It is not a links course,” said United States Golf Association (USGA) executive director Mike Davis. “Yes, there are fescues out there. Yes, it’s windy. Yes, there aren’t a lot of trees. But that’s where it stops. We prefer, and the architects prefer, [to say] it’s a heartland golf course—and it is, in so many ways, an American original.”

Erin Hills continues several recent U.S. Open trends. Like Bethpage Black, Torrey Pines and Chambers Bay, it is truly a public-access course. Like Pinehurst No. 2 and Chambers Bay, it is a course that emphasizes sustainability, the environmentally friendly opposite of the well-manicured country clubs that once were the trademark of the U.S. Open.

It’s also appropriate that the course will break the USGA’s trend away from the heartland. This will be the first U.S. Open to be held in the Midwest since Olympia Fields in 2003. The next one won’t come at least until 2027. The U.S. Open has been awarded through 2026, and the closest it comes to the Midwest is Oakmont, which is outside Pittsburgh.

That adds up to only one U.S. Open in the Midwest in 24 years, and that’s an unfortunate trend. The problem is, potential hosts at private clubs in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and other Midwestern cities have fallen out of favor.

The West Coast not only has classic layouts such as Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines and others, but it also has West Coast daylight, which allows the U.S. Open to extend into primetime, a huge boost for television. The East Coast, with its vast population centers and a long list of historic venues, also is irresistible.

Davis did hold out hope, however, that Erin Hills won’t be a one-hit wonder.

“We historically go to many of the old tried-and-true venues that have been around in many cases for over a century, so this is really a welcoming party [for Erin Hills],” Davis said. “I suspect that this will be the first of many.”

The practical advantages of Erin Hills are many. It sits on a massive 650 acres, providing plenty of room for spectators and hospitality and merchandise tents. The USGA expects daily crowds in excess of 35,000, and Erin Hills could accommodate more. The dunes that overlook many holes are expected to provide excellent spectator sightlines despite the big crowds.

Because it’s less than 40 miles northwest of downtown Milwaukee and an easy daytrip for many fans from the Chicago area, Erin Hills has the lodging and spectator base that the national championship demands.

But most of all, it is expected to be a terrific golf course for the kind of demanding show the USGA likes to put on. Erin Hills will be listed at 7,692 yards, although it’s likely to play longer and shorter during the tournament. Blessed with four attractive par-fives, it also is the Open’s first par-72 course since 1992.

“Any golf architect will tell you this is the sort of land they dream about,” said longtime Golf Digest architecture editor Ron Whitten, one of Erin Hills’ three designers. “This is one of the top three sites I’ve seen in the world. As Dana [Fry] said, and I stole it in the title of my article in Golf Digest: ‘You can’t outdo God.’”

While problems with the greens became a major issue at Chambers Bay two years ago, the greens are expected to be a big positive at Erin Hills.

“If it is calm, the first comment out of the players’ mouths when they start playing here will be, they’ve never putted greens as good as they’re going to putt at Erin Hills,” Fry said. “They’re virtually 99.9 percent perfect bent grass. If you give them calm conditions and greens that good, they’re going to make a lot of putts. If it stays calm, they’re going to get to 10-under. But historically, it’s not calm here.”

The story of Erin Hills is an improbable one. Original owner Bob Lang was interested in building a $50 public course that would be attractive to the employees of the greeting card/calendar business he had founded nearby.

By the time Erin Hills opened in 2006, the project had escalated wildly. Lang’s desire for perfection, including the purchase of surrounding land, left him overextended and forced him to sell. That allowed current owner Andy Ziegler, a Milwaukee-based money manager, to step in.

This will be the third USGA championship contested at Erin Hills in 12 years, following the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and the 2011 U.S. Amateur.

Davis credits the vision of his predecessor, David Fay, who brought the U.S. Open to Bethpage Black in 2002, for starting this era of innovative Open sites.

“We relish the idea of occasionally introducing a new golf course,” Davis said. “[Fay] came up with at the time what was perceived as this wacky idea, ‘Let’s go to this municipal state-owned course called Bethpage.’ He knew what he was doing, and all of a sudden, you introduce this public access. It was a great story. There’s risk going to new venues because you just don’t know how they’re going to come out. But we’re excited about this one. We really think this is a fabulous site for a lot of reasons.”