THESE PRO’S CAN PLAY-BUT BOY CAN THEY TEACH. The Mistwood professional staffer John Platt (L) and Andy Mickelson the 2021 Illinois PGA Section Champion (R) are both great players. But are even better instructors. Visit the Mistwood Golf Dome or the Mistwood Golf Club starting in April when it reopens for the season. Book a lesson at Mistwoodgolfdome.com or call the dome on Rt. 53 in Bolingbrook at (630)-739-7600.
THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation for Golfers on Golf. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy or connect on LinkedIn.
Welcome to the Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa Wisconsin.
THERE IS MORE GOOD NEWS that is coming out of Sand Valley.
Another 18 hole golf course is on it’s way.
Tom Doak one of the world’s top golf course designers who is already on property working on the recreation of the historic Lido Golf Club, will stick around a little longer.
Doak and his Renaissance Golf design team will build Sedge Valley an 18-hole course. Construction will begin this spring, with an expected opening date at some point in 2024.
Projected look down the left side of the 5th hole at Sedge Valley.
“The golf experience at Sedge Valley is completely different from anything on the property,” says Sand Valley co-owner Michael Keiser. “Tom Doak moves so easily from the large-scale engineering project of the Lido to this much more intimate design. Greens are the heart and soul of any golf course. Watching him identify and work his routing to these incredible natural green sites has been an amazing process. This is how the great ones have always done it.”
Green view 7th hole at Sedge Valley.
With the acreage that’s getting used for the building of Sedge Valley, being part of Sand Valley’s best rich and sandy soil, native ground cover, and distinctive rock cropping’s. Sand Valley owners Michael and Chris Keiser have allowed Doak a free-reign to build his inspiration for the Sedge Valley design.
Doak’s first task was to find the best green sites, the land could offer.
“When you don’t have to think about stretching a course to 7,300 yards, you can start thinking about finding cool green sites without worrying about how close together they are,” Doak said. “I don’t have to worry as much about a severe slope at the edge of an green being “unfair” if you’re hitting a relatively short approach into it. My idea is to bring back a more intimate scale and build classically styled holes that everyone can enjoy, but may require some comprises from the long and wild hitters.”
Having two courses on the design table at once, is fun for Mike Keiser.
“These are exciting times for Sand Valley,” Keiser says. “The Lido is growing in and will open in 2023. Sedge Valley will follow a year later, along with some significant additions to the resort experience, which we will be announcing soon.”
Tom Doak (R) does an interview regarding his renovation of Medinah’s No.1 course. (file photo).
THE SAND VALLEY TEAM did a Q & A with Tom Doak, here are a few segments of that session.
HOW DOES SEDGE VALLEY CONTRAST-With the two existing courses at Sand Valley?
TD: The first two courses at Sand Valley are among the biggest wildest courses ever built. They invite you to swing away, but you seldom think of the word “finesse” to describe them. My idea for Sedge Valley is bring back more of an intimate scale and build classically styled holes that everyone can enjoy, but might require some compromises from the long and wild hitter.
SEDGE VALLEY BORROWS from English inland designs. For the golfer who may be familiar with links designs, explain some of the characteristics they will find here.
TD: The heathland courses built around London in the early 1900’s were the first great inland courses, and Sedge Valley will integrate some of those characteristics-native groundcover as a strategic element, for instance. This property has sand, open expanses, good terrain and intriguing green sites-the fundamentals of holes that stand up over time.
WHOSE WORK HAVE YOU considered in the design of Sedge Valley?
TD: Harry Colt did hundreds of great courses on all types of property, including heartland and links courses, and he was one of the several designers whose best work remains relevant, interesting and challenging. The inspiration for Sedge Valley comes from a handful of courses that never expanded much from their original scope-Colt’s Swinley Forest and Rye, Sir Guy Campbell and C.K. Hutchison’s West Sussex, Woking by Tom Dunn, The Addington by J.F. Abercrombie, and Tom Simpson’s New Zealand Golf Club. These are designs that have remained essentially unchanged over time. I can’t think of a higher standard.
MICHAEL KEISER SAYS THAT SEDGE VALLEY may have the most interesting collection of green sites at the resort. So what does that mean to you as a designer?
TD: The fifth at Sedge Valley is a 290 yard par-4 with a skinny shelf of a green. It’s the kind of hole that gets longer hitters into trouble because they feel compelled to attack even when it’s not wise. That freedom from length also means that back-to-back par-3 holes are fine, provided they’re different. The sixth and seventh at Sedge Valley will be 150 and 220 yards respectively. So the overall design does allow us to focus more on the green sites themselves. But you look for great green sites. We found them here, and it’s a credit to Michael and Chris that they have allowed us to build around those sites.
But stay clicked in as more announcements about the resort experience are announced. Real estate is now available at Sand Valley with pricing starting at $1.1 million. Details at Sandvalley.com.