diff --git a/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1603.v2.yml b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1603.v2.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4994491f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1603.v2.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+type: fix
+fix:
+  description: Disable `WhitespaceAround` Checkstyle rule when palantir-java-format
+    is applied.
+  links:
+  - https://github.com/palantir/gradle-baseline/pull/1603
diff --git a/gradle-baseline-java-config/resources/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml b/gradle-baseline-java-config/resources/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml
index 2be3288d7..72b51818f 100644
--- a/gradle-baseline-java-config/resources/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml
+++ b/gradle-baseline-java-config/resources/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml
@@ -81,14 +81,7 @@
         </module>
         <module name="AvoidStarImport"/> <!-- Java Style Guide: No wildcard imports -->
         <module name="AvoidStaticImport"> <!-- Java Style Guide: No static imports -->
-            <property name="excludes" value="
-                com.google.common.base.Preconditions.*,
-                com.palantir.logsafe.Preconditions.*,
-                java.util.Collections.*,
-                java.util.stream.Collectors.*,
-                org.apache.commons.lang3.Validate.*,
-                org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.*,
-                org.mockito.Mockito.*"/>
+            <property name="excludes" value="com.google.common.base.Preconditions.*, com.palantir.logsafe.Preconditions.*, java.util.Collections.*, java.util.stream.Collectors.*, org.apache.commons.lang3.Validate.*, org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.*, org.mockito.Mockito.*"/>
         </module>
         <module name="ClassTypeParameterName"> <!-- Java Style Guide: Type variable names -->
             <property name="format" value="(^[A-Z][0-9]?)$|([A-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*[T]$)"/>
@@ -138,12 +131,12 @@
         <module name="IllegalImport"> <!-- Java Coding Guidelines: Import the canonical package -->
             <property name="id" value="BanShadedClasses"/>
             <property name="illegalPkgs" value=".*\.(repackaged|shaded|thirdparty)"/>
-            <property name="regexp" value="true" />
+            <property name="regexp" value="true"/>
             <message key="import.illegal" value="Must not import repackaged classes."/>
         </module>
         <module name="IllegalImport">
             <property name="illegalPkgs" value="^org\.gradle\.(internal|.*\.internal)"/>
-            <property name="regexp" value="true" />
+            <property name="regexp" value="true"/>
             <message key="import.illegal" value="Do not rely on gradle internal classes as these may change in minor releases - use org.gradle.api versions instead."/>
         </module>
         <module name="IllegalImport">
@@ -397,7 +390,7 @@
         <module name="SuppressWarnings">
             <property name="format" value="serial"/>
         </module>
-        <module name="SuppressWarningsHolder" />  <!-- Required for SuppressWarningsFilter -->
+        <module name="SuppressWarningsHolder"/>  <!-- Required for SuppressWarningsFilter -->
         <module name="TypeName"> <!-- Java Style Guide: Class names -->
             <message key="name.invalidPattern" value="Type name ''{0}'' must match pattern ''{1}''."/>
         </module>
diff --git a/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java b/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
index 6191d71d0..a6a66471f 100644
--- a/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
+++ b/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
@@ -16,18 +16,30 @@
 
 package com.palantir.baseline.plugins;
 
-import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.palantir.baseline.plugins.BaselineFormat.FormatterState;
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
-import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.Optional;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+import javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys;
+import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
+import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
+import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMSource;
+import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
 import org.gradle.api.Action;
 import org.gradle.api.Project;
 import org.gradle.api.Task;
 import org.gradle.api.artifacts.Configuration;
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
+import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 
 /** Extracts Baseline configuration into the configuration directory. */
 class BaselineConfig extends AbstractBaselinePlugin {
@@ -96,25 +108,29 @@ public void execute(Task task) {
                 Path checkstyleXml = configDir.resolve("checkstyle/checkstyle.xml");
 
                 try {
-                    String contents = new String(Files.readAllBytes(checkstyleXml), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
-                    String replaced = contents.replace(
-                                    "        <module name=\"Indentation\"> "
-                                            + "<!-- Java Style Guide: Block indentation: +4 spaces -->\n"
-                                            + "            <property name=\"arrayInitIndent\" value=\"8\"/>\n"
-                                            + "            <property name=\"lineWrappingIndentation\" value=\"8\"/>\n"
-                                            + "        </module>\n",
-                                    "")
-                            .replace(
-                                    "        <module name=\"ParenPad\"/> <!-- Java Style Guide: Horizontal whitespace"
-                                            + " -->\n",
-                                    "")
-                            .replace(
-                                    "        <module name=\"LeftCurly\"/> "
-                                            + "<!-- Java Style Guide: Nonempty blocks: K & R style -->\n",
-                                    "");
-                    Preconditions.checkState(!contents.equals(replaced), "Patching checkstyle.xml must make a change");
-                    Files.write(checkstyleXml, replaced.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
-                } catch (IOException e) {
+                    DocumentBuilderFactory builderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+                    DocumentBuilder builder = builderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
+
+                    InputSource inputSource = new InputSource(new FileReader(checkstyleXml.toFile()));
+                    inputSource.setEncoding("UTF-8");
+                    Document document = builder.parse(inputSource);
+
+                    XPathFactory xPathFactory = XPathFactory.newInstance();
+                    XPath xPath = xPathFactory.newXPath();
+
+                    removeNode(document, xPath, "//module[@name='Indentation']");
+                    removeNode(document, xPath, "//module[@name='ParenPad']");
+                    removeNode(document, xPath, "//module[@name='LeftCurly']");
+                    removeNode(document, xPath, "//module[@name='WhitespaceAround']");
+
+                    TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
+                    Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
+                    transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.ENCODING, "UTF-8");
+
+                    DOMSource source = new DOMSource(document);
+                    StreamResult result = new StreamResult(new FileWriter(checkstyleXml.toFile()));
+                    transformer.transform(source, result);
+                } catch (Exception e) {
                     throw new RuntimeException("Unable to patch " + checkstyleXml, e);
                 }
             }
@@ -133,5 +149,11 @@ public void execute(Task task) {
                 });
             }
         }
+
+        private void removeNode(Document document, XPath xPath, String expression) throws XPathExpressionException {
+            xPath.reset();
+            Node node = (Node) xPath.compile(expression).evaluate(document, XPathConstants.NODE);
+            node.getParentNode().removeChild(node);
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/gradle-baseline-java/src/test/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/BaselineConfigIntegrationTest.groovy b/gradle-baseline-java/src/test/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/BaselineConfigIntegrationTest.groovy
index 7dcb53b31..809d9a45a 100644
--- a/gradle-baseline-java/src/test/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/BaselineConfigIntegrationTest.groovy
+++ b/gradle-baseline-java/src/test/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/BaselineConfigIntegrationTest.groovy
@@ -152,5 +152,11 @@ class BaselineConfigIntegrationTest extends AbstractPluginTest {
         !new File(projectDir, '.baseline/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml').readLines().any {
             it.contains '<module name="ParenPad">'
         }
+        !new File(projectDir, '.baseline/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml').readLines().any {
+            it.contains '<module name="LeftCurly">'
+        }
+        !new File(projectDir, '.baseline/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml').readLines().any {
+            it.contains '<module name="WhitespaceAround">'
+        }
     }
 }