"We wanted to build a nice, inexpensive, lay-of-the-land style course."

Matt Ginella files a sad but compelling Golf World cover story on Bob Lang and the Erin Hills saga that now sees the course on the verge of receiving a U.S. Open despite the founder's money problems and a subsequent sale.

Last year, however, only months before the USGA was to decide if Erin Hills would get that coveted Open in 2017, Lang faced the prospect of selling his creation. His goal of snagging the championship had become a passion, but his passion morphed into an obsession.

"For Bob Lang," says USGA executive director David Fay, "Erin Hills hosting an Open became a bad obsession."

The story makes a case that it was Lang and his obsession with the Open that cost him so much money and ultimately, the course. But there is also this:

Hurdzan and design partner Dana Fry have a combined 70 years of experience. They've built more than 350 courses worldwide -- among the most recognizable are Bully Pulpit in North Dakota and Naples National in Florida. Hurdzan added a third person to the design team: Ron Whitten, the experienced golf course architecture editor at Golf Digest and Golf World. Whitten had dabbled in design, and he and Hurdzan, longtime friends with a mutual respect, had often discussed working on a project together. Given the original plan and Whitten's views as a "purist," Hurdzan thought it would be a good fit.

By 2004 a rough course layout was done. "We wanted to build a nice, inexpensive, lay-of-the-land style course," says Hurdzan. Because the land was perfect for a links-style layout, the designers moved only a few feet of dirt for the original set of greens.

The problem I continue to have with this saga is not with Lang and his obsession to perfect the course, but the question of why the initial "minimalist" construction tab ended up costing $10 million (the number Lang cited to me). The place had no chance with a price tag like that, no matter how much fiddling he did after that.