Sand Valley Golf Resort - Lido Course

The Resort Complex is nice but the over priced Lido course was the disappointment of our stay. The club house is small the prices were high. The course has no shade and no facilities around the course. Water was pumped from three wells by hand. No cart girl. The caddy we had was not much help. After playing Erin Hills the day prior the Lido was a big disappointment. Won’t be back.

When the concept of Lido – revive and transplant, with painstaking fidelity, a long-lost links from the south shore of Long Island – was unveiled, it was understandable to be a bit skeptical. But Tom Doak, Renaissance Golf and a cast of golf history buffs pulled off the cross-generational feat of bringing a pre-World War II golf course into the 21st century.

Lido comes as close to approximating the mystique of The Old Course at St. Andrews as any latter-day design. Seemingly random and often frustrating fairway and green contours and occasionally draconian bunkering turn a round into a test not just of golf shot execution, but of will and even humor. The odd routing of two side-by-side counterclockwise loops adds to the quaintness of it all, while several utterly unique individual holes and features turn it into as much a piece of land sculpture as sporting field. Its one arguable flaw is that it can brutalize middle- and high-handicappers, but for any avid golfer, it is as engaging a set of 18 holes as America offers. Best of all, Sand Valley resort guests can arrange to play it. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I am dreaming of the opportunity to try to qualify for and compete in the 2026 United States Mid-Amateur there.

Seeing Lido for the first time is so disorienting. You step off the resort shuttle to a mostly flat and treeless landscape that allows you to see what feels like the entire course. It looks so ... uninspiring ... until you get a club in your hand. This one blew me away. I had so much fun playing its template holes. There were so many optical illusions that would have led to missteps if the caddie wasn't guiding me where to hit it or, most important, where to miss it. It's hard to pick my favorite Tom Doak course, but this one's on the short list of contenders.

This course feels and plays like nothing I have experienced to date. The simple fact that they were able to restore CB Mac's long lost masterpiece is astounding. The layout was unchanged other than widening or separating some of the holes for safety reasons. I am sure many will not understand why the 18th hole finishes where it does - not getting that the original Lido Lodge was just behind the 18th / 8th tee on the ocean.

I know many purists will not like the aiming stones / rocks they have added to many holes, but boy am I glad they did as a first time player of the course. The size and undulations of these greens can not be aptly described and must be witnessed in person. I believe the 18th green is 25,000 SF alone.

The Lido has many of CBM / Raynor's templates and even three new holes that were entries from a golf architect competition: one by Alister MacKenzie and one by Tom Simpson. The Biarritz 8th hole is one of the most difficult I have ever played.

The course is private, but does allow some resort play. However, I have heard they are booked through 2024 already. If you get the chance, it is a must play for the golf purist.