While the recent U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills drew top golfers from 30 countries to Wisconsin, the championship golf course didn’t have to look far for its behind-the-scenes talent. From a student intern to the co-general manager, Erin Hills and the successful tournament it hosted relied heavily on talent from University of Wisconsin-Stout’s golf enterprise management program.
The strong connection between Erin Hills – ranked as one of the top 10 public courses in the United States – and UW-Stout has been developed over many years, thanks in large part to Professor Emeritus Kris Schoonover.
“I really enjoyed that everybody, meaning the world, had their eyes on Erin Hills and saw what we see each day,” Schoonover reflected. The tourney drew an estimated 45,000 attendees to the course, which is about 30 miles from Milwaukee.
After four days of competition, May 29-June 1, Maja Stark of Sweden bested the 156-player field at Erin Hills, winning her first major title.
Schoonover, longtime director of UW-Stout’s GEM program, was recently promoted to co-general manager at Erin Hills, where she’s held a variety of roles since the course opened in 2006. Now several former students are close colleagues at Erin Hills.
Among them are Sam Ohnesorge, Erin Hills’ director of food and beverage, a 2016 graduate of UW-Stout. “There’s a buzz and an excitement around the property,” Ohnesorge said about hosting an event as high-profile as the U.S. Women’s Open. “It’s not a regular day at work: You see the flags flying, you see people buzzing around. You see all hands on deck, and that’s the enjoyable part, just seeing the whole operation.”
During the Open, Ohnesorge oversaw food and beverage operations that multiplied to three locations: the clubhouse, which served as many as 700 people daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner; and two hospitality tents on the course, one for Erin Hills guests, the other for employees and vendors.
Meanwhile, Robert Leist, Erin Hills’ director of lodging and golf and a 2014 UW-Stout graduate, focused on overseeing the competitors’ practice area, which was busy from 4:30 a.m. until late at night.
“You know what you’re signing up for when you get a major championship,” said Leist, who also worked at Erin Hills when it hosted the U.S. Open Championship in 2017. “I think the enjoyment comes when the job’s done.”
Among those ensuring the competitors had a positive experience in the practice area was UW-Stout sophomore Calvin Neff, a GEM major and Erin Hills summer intern. Neff checked out golf carts, set up ropes, gathered golf balls and otherwise supported the practice range team.
“I definitely had some good experiences,” Neff said, including chatting with one of the competitors as well as seeing the pros play – although he acknowledges that the latter was a “little humbling.” Working behind the scenes at the Women’s Open added to Neff’s golf resume, which also includes two pre-college summers working at Erin Hills, which is about half an hour from his hometown of Juneau.
Neff said he was attracted to UW-Stout because it is the only university in Wisconsin to offer a golf management degree. As a bonus, he also likes the campus and community. “It’s the environment for me honestly,” he said. “This year, I got a little taste of the program, so in the next three years I’ll be able to get a lot more experience in elements of the golf industry: club fitting, analysis, turf maintenance, professionalism, operations and retail.”
UW-Stout GEM Program Director Andrew Delong said he’s grateful that top courses help deliver real-world lessons to students such as Neff.
“The experiences provided to our students through world-class facilities such as Erin Hills, Kohler Golf and Sand Valley – icons of Wisconsin tourism – are truly second to none,” Delong said. “These opportunities culminate in a deep understanding of gracious hospitality and guest-focused service.”
GEM graduates Ohnesorge and Leist said their own careers benefited from UW-Stout’s applied-learning approach, which focuses on connecting students with co-ops, internships and other practical experience in their fields.
“The most important thing that Stout does is get students out into the world through those co-ops,” said Leist, who had two internships at Erin Hills during his college career. “I probably learned the most through those two internships. They get students outside their comfort zone and into the workforce sooner, and help them begin networking and building relationships, which in the hospitality field is extremely important.”
Ohnesorge remembers being challenged by courses such as turfgrass management, then having that learning be reinforced by stepping outside the classroom. “We would go out to local golf courses and see it in real life and get our hands on it,” he said. “That experience brought more than anything we could learn in a textbook.”
Schoonover said these former students shined at UW-Stout, which is one of the reasons they’re now colleagues. “They were very passionate about the work that they did. They really set themselves apart from other students,” she said.
Schoonover’s own career at UW-Stout began in 2006. Initially, she split her time between coaching the women’s golf team and teaching in the GEM program, both of which were new. While she stepped away from coaching after two seasons, Schoonover continued to teach, and she retired from UW-Stout in 2024.
Schoonover also began working at Erin Hills in 2006, and she balanced parallel jobs for nearly two decades. She’s had multiple titles at Erin Hills – including director of operations and assistant competitions director – and earlier this year became co-general manager.
“Our hope is to continue to open the doors for UW-Stout students to be a part of Erin Hills, and to use these two as mentors in the future,” she said, referring to her former students. “Our goal is to come up to campus and to recruit.”
