Lazy J Sporting Club

Lazy J Sporting Club combines an 18-hole Craig & Coyne-designed course with guided pheasant hunting, a 10-station sporting clay range and an extreme long-range shooting facility on a single 20,000-acre ranch in Tripp County, South Dakota.

The golf course occupies 440 acres of family-owned land that has been farmed and ranched by the Jorgensens since Martin Jorgensen Sr. homesteaded near Ideal in 1909.

History of Lazy J Sporting Club

The Jorgensen family have operated a cattle and pheasant hunting business from this Tripp County land for over a century, with Jorgensen Land & Cattle developing into one of the United States' largest Black Angus bull producers. Pheasant hunting from the property began in 1983, and the Lazy J Grand Lodge opened in 2012 as a dedicated sporting facility.

Discussions about adding golf to extend the club's seasonal reach beyond the 90-day pheasant hunting window began around 2018. In November 2023, Oklahoma City-based Craig & Coyne — the design firm of golf course architect Colton Craig and author-golfer Tom Coyne — visited the site for a feasibility assessment. Landscapes Unlimited was appointed as development and construction manager; the firm had previously delivered Sutton Bay in central South Dakota under the same model.

Groundbreaking was scheduled for autumn 2024, with the 18-hole course and a 12-hole companion short course targeting an opening in summer 2027.

Course Layout & Playing Experience

Craig & Coyne's design for Lazy J plays as a par 72 stretching to over 7,200 yards from the back tees across 440 acres of Tripp County terrain. The front nine follows a linear out-and-back routing while the back nine operates on a more axial plan, with a central ridge anchoring multiple greens and tees in the manner of a wagon wheel's hub.

Thunder Creek — a natural waterway running through the site — dictates several key moments in the routing, including a carry over the creek on the planned par-4 third hole. That hole, playing alongside a natural rock formation to the left of the fairway, has been described by Craig as a candidate for one of the finest bunkerless holes in the world.

The design philosophy prioritises minimal earthmoving to preserve the property's native character: naturalised bunkers, inventive green complexes and short connections between greens and tees are intended to allow the layout to feel as though it has always been part of the land. The terrain sits in what Craig describes as a "Goldilocks zone" — rolling enough to create interest without requiring manufactured drama. The course is expected to be fully walkable.

The on-site 42-bedroom lodge will be expanded and refurbished to accommodate golf groups alongside the existing hunting clientele. Membership is capped at approximately 350 across full, corporate and golf-only categories, with stay-and-play packages also available to non-members.

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Lazy J Sporting Club: The Verdict

Lazy J Sporting Club represents a deliberate attempt to extend a century-old agricultural and sporting operation into a year-round destination golf.

Craig & Coyne's routing across Thunder Creek and through Tripp County's natural ravines and ridgelines keeps earthworks to a minimum and positions the project alongside a generation of naturalist American courses that treat the land as the primary design material.

The 2027 opening, when it arrives, will bring private destination golf to a corner of South Dakota that currently has no equivalent within the vicinity.