Sand Valley Golf Resort (Sand Valley)

Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Barnbougle in Tasmania, and Cabot in Nova Scotia are all world-class golf facilities developed by Chicago entrepreneur Mike Keiser since the mid-1990s and their dramatic oceanside locations plays a large part in their appeal.

The latest Keiser project in central Wisconsin, near the small town of Nekoosa, lies far from any ocean but it does have sand, some of it hundreds of feet deep in places, and it’s here, on a massive 1,700-acre site that you’ll find the Sand Valley Golf Resort.

Two hundred founders invested in the development and it was their decision to have Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design the first 18-hole course on the property, with David McLay Kidd selected to lay out the second course, Mammoth Dunes, which opened for play in 2018.

This course occupies a series of ridges and valleys, with one prominent dune formation known as “The Volcano” used as the start and end point for each nine, where visitors arriving can look out across the tumbling landscape and wonder at what lies ahead.

The shorter front nine lies across heavily contoured terrain, ending with a terrific short par four that brings the routing back to the foot of the Volcano, whilst the inward half is 500 yards longer, featuring strong opening and closing par fives at the 10th and 18th.