Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2018 - 21

A L
L E Y
B
* BY W.P. RYAN * PHOTOS BY W.P. RYAN
lame global warming
for Sand Valley.
About 18,000
years
ago,
leaving behind the vast
glacial
retreat pulled the
plug on a huge lake,
sandbox
now known as Wisconsin's Central
Sand Plains. Fast forward to 2012
when Craig Haltom, a Madisonbased
golf course designer and
builder,
saw the potential for
golf on a former tree farm near
Nekoosa, Wis.,
where massive
doses of sand measured up to three
hundred feet deep. Haltom tipped
off Mike Keiser, the Recycled Paper
Greetings magnate known for his
out-of-the-way golf destination
developments (namely Bandon
Dunes in Bandon, Ore., Cabot
Links in Nova Scotia, Barnbougle
Dunes in Tasmania, and Coul
Links in Scotland) and Sand Valley
Golf Resort was born.
One remarkable aspect of
Keiser's Sand Valley is its location:
more or less in the middle of
Wisconsin, and just a three-anda-half
hour drive from the Twin
Cities. (Cranberry country is not a
place one expects to fi nd 54 holes
of dramatic, links-style golf.)
Yet Sand Valley Golf Course,
Keiser's fi rst course at the resort,
immediately drew accolades from
the golf press when it opened in
2017, among them " Best New
Course " and " Best New Course
You Can Play. " Designed by Bill
Coore and Ben Crenshaw, its characteristic
velvety green fairways
snake their way through rugged
sandy waste areas gouged from
the prehistoric prairie. The aggressive
player can tack his or her way
around the layout by taking a more
direct approach to the target; the
straighter approach involves more
risk, naturally, while the bogey
golfer can play away from most of
the sandy perils, yet still fi nd the
short grass of Sand Valley's ample
fairways.
mngolf.org
Sand Valley's fi rst and last holes
sit below the halfway house, named
" Craig's Porch " in Haltom's honor.
Fare at the halfway house is delicious,
cheap and open to the locals
(served by a nearby access road
and public parking). Hot dogs,
bratwurst, chicken and breakfast
biscuit sandwiches are $3, beers no
more than $3, and treats, like the
nine fl avors of Nye's gourmet ice
cream sandwiches, cost just $4.
Sand Valley may soon be overshadowed
by its fl ashier sister
course: Mammoth Dunes, a David
McLay Kidd design that opened
this year. Mammoth Dunes features
mega-wide fairways and
broad vistas. Its main advantage
over Sand Valley? It's vastly more
memorable.
Two of my favorite holes are 13,
a short, 128-yard par 3 that is all
carry over a deep sand rampart;
and 14, a drivable, 318-yard par 4,
also known as the " armchair architect
hole. "
When
Brian
Silvernail,
a
48-year-old graphic designer from
Melbourne,
Fla., won the 2016
Golf Digest Armchair Architect
Contest, he spent a week with Kidd
designing the 14th hole, notable
for its elevated tee and right-to-left
fairway that sweeps dramatically
downhill to the green. (If hit to the
right spot, a good drive will bound
down the fairway and roll onto the
green for a potential eagle putt.)
Two decades earlier, Silvernail's
computer golf gaming designs
inspired Wisconsin Rapids computer
artist Brian Zager, who was
hired by Haltom to map the entire
property. In a story posted on golfdigest.com,
Ron Whitten writes
that it was Zager's contour mapping
software that helped Haltom
convince Keiser to develop Sand
Valley. In a further twist, Whitten
notes, Kidd used Zager's mapping
to prepare the routing of
Mammoth Dunes and chart a
walkable route. Whitten only disFall
2018 MINNESOTAGOLFER
21
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Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2018

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