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Low-stakes debates are fun. Tiger or Jack? M.J. or LeBron? Lido or Mammoth Dunes?
You don't need my opinions on the first two questions, but having played all six golf courses at Sand Valley Golf Resort - including the yet-to-officially-debut 12-hole Commons - I have some pretty strong feelings about them according to my own sensibilities as someone who has played nearly 700 golf courses and studied thousands more.
As a total property, Sand Valley Golf Resort is tough to top. Overseers Michael (Jr.) and Christopher Keiser have taken the principles their father, Mike, established at Bandon Dunes more than a quarter-century ago and animated them in the sandy midsection of Wisconsin. While it doesn't border an ocean, Sand Valley is hyper-focused on first-quality, diverse, walkable golf above all else, with solid lodging, hearty food and friendly service all combining to create a top-class atmosphere for buddy groups, couples and all other visitors. The "worst" course at Sand Valley (see below and feel free to disagree in the comments) is still comfortably better than more than 90% of golf courses anywhere else.
Having gone through this exercise with two other resorts in the past — Pinehurst and Reynolds Lake Oconee — I find it worthwhile for organizing my own thoughts about golf course architecture, and I think you'll find it interesting as a test of your own tastes. As other large American golf resorts continue to expand, they will come due for similar treatment in the future. (Looking at you, Streamsong...)
1. Lido is Sand Valley's best golf course (and one of the best overall courses in America)
At its best, golf is an adventure. The courses I gravitate towards feel like puzzles; they reward not only the hours a golfer has spent learning how to make the ball go more or less where he or she wants, but also less tangible skills like guile, strategic thinking and patience. There are a lot of aesthetically pleasing courses full of eye-candy that play more like open-book exams than true battles of wits. Lido - cloned and transplanted by Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf Design from a C.B. Macdonald original a thousand miles away in New York - is as inscrutable a golf course as I have found in America. It is closer in spirit to The Old Course at St. Andrews - my all-time favorite golf course - than anything on this side of the Atlantic. It is difficult, even seemingly unfair at times when out of position. But the mix of firm fairways and the steeplechase-like approach to bunkering and other features - including a full portion of blind shots and a sublimely odd routing of two concentric counterclockwise loops - makes it the most fully engaging and beguiling golf experience a Sand Valley guest can have.
2. Sedge Valley
Tom Doak has helped move golf course architecture forward as an art form over the course of his career by trusting his instincts and his experience, which includes as broad a portfolio of golf courses seen and studied as anyone in the history of his profession. Sedge Valley discards the arbitrary "rule" that a golf course needs to be more than 6,000 yards and have a par of 70 or higher in order to be revered - something that members and guests of overseas classics like Swinley Forest and Rye Golf Club in England (both par 68) have known for more than a century. But Sedge Valley is more than a gimmick or concept-course; the fact of its shorter yardage and lower par are mere results of a thoughtful routing of 18 individually high-quality golf holes. The least overtly sandy of Sand Valley's courses, Sedge Valley has been likened to England's heathland greats by others, but I would characterize it as an American Meadow course - distinctly Midwestern but benefiting from the unique gifts of the land on which it sits. Lido's world-class greatness and the quality of the resort's other golf makes second-fiddle a noble spot for Sedge Valley.
3. The Sandbox
It has been exciting to see par-3 and other short courses join larger-format counterparts at countless resorts and clubs, and while dozens have been built since the 17-hole Sandbox was added to Sand Valley in 2018, few have understood their assignment better than what Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and Jim Craig did here. Whereas many short courses feel like an experiment in features that would be too wild for a "big" course, The Sandbox's shortest holes feel perfectly miniaturized, while the longer ones feel right at home where they are while also making me think they could function well on any other course, too. Toting a bag of hickory clubs around the course this past summer is one of the best golf decisions I have ever made. You can scarcely get a better golf experience in 90 minutes.
4. Sand Valley
That Sand Valley's original course sits fourth in line is hardly an indictment of its own quality - I would never pass up an opportunity to play it - but more a function of how intensely focused latter-day architects have been on doing their best possible work. It remains the perfect introduction to the property as a whole, from the hilltop first and tenth tees beside Craig's Porch to the way it moves through subtly changing micro-environments on each nine before culminating at the fun punchbowl par-3 17th and brilliant par-5 18th, which is one of the easiest places to take a beautiful sunset photo in golf. The only relative nitpick I might drum up is that it's a somewhat taxing walk, and could take some energy out of your legs especially as a second course of the day. Nothing a Craig's Porch taco and ice cream sandwich can't fix, though.
5. The Commons
Sand Valley's newest course is a very promising and whimsical first solo design effort from longtime Coore & Crenshaw collaborator Jim Craig, who had considerable input on The Sandbox. Craig's willingness to diverge slightly from his mentors is to this course's benefit, as some bold bunkering and aggressive fairway folds greet players immediately, establishing Commons #1 as the best opening hole on the property. The course is full of half-par holes, which are always fun for smashing drives, but the shortness of the par 4s means you may not need much of the middle of your bag when you play. Golfers may be divided over their appreciation of this aspect of the course.
There is a fascinating key-change of sorts after crossing a road to the closing trio of holes, which are among the only moments across Sand Valley where water comes into play significantly. Groups are going to enjoy blasting drives towards the green of the short par-4 10th. The Redan par-3 11th is the most faithful recreation of the original hole at North Berwick that I have seen. The Commons could move up a spot or even two on this list as it matures. For now, it remains to be seen just how the experience will slot into group itineraries.
6. Mammoth Dunes
I have heard plenty of golfers declare David McLay Kidd's course to be their favorite at Sand Valley. I am decidedly not in that camp. Ultimately, the dimensions of the fairways and greens often feel more bloated than epic to me. I find myself wondering if even 20% more focus on the centerlines of each hole's corridors might have made things more interesting. All that space is very forgiving, to be sure, but it feels hollow to make a poor swing off the tee and still have a simple approach into an enormous green with mostly concave gathering slopes. In these moments, Mammoth Dunes teeters between "playable" and outright pandering.
Still, Kidd's routing is terrific; the way in which the course navigates some exciting terrain is its biggest strength, and individual holes like the 6th, 7th and 14th are among my favorites on property. Mammoth Dunes' best presentation would be in extremely firm and fast conditions with some wind to add some needed teeth. Otherwise, it is still enjoyable but the most open-book of any of Sand Valley's courses.
How would you rank your favorite Sand Valley courses? Let us know in the comments below.
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