Brian Silvernail first developed an interest in golf architecture in the late 1980s, when Accolade released its first computer golf game. Not content just to hone his computer golf skills, Silvernail, trained in graphic arts, began designing golf holes on computer, then entire courses, becoming so skilled he beta-tested several Jack Nicklaus Golf games and even helped lay out some imaginary courses.

It was that background that helped Silvernail win Golf Digest's 2016 Armchair Architect contest...

Two hours north of Madison, tucked away in small Rome, Wisconsin, is the home to America’s next great golf resort, Sand Valley. Up until now, Rome’s fame has been the paper mills that employ much of the area and supply paper to the world. Sand Valley is the latest project by Mike Keiser, who has the goal of bringing the seaside links golf we see at the Open Championship to the heart of the midwest. I was able to make a trip up to Sand Valley with three buddies for preview play a few weeks ago, and we were all blown away at what’s being built. As of now, two courses are under construction with many more on the way.

The owner of Bandon Dunes wants your par 4 on his next resort.

Everyone who plays golf thinks they could be a golf course architect. It starts at an early age.  Tiger Woods was just 11 years old when he entered Golf Digest's first Armchair Architect contest back in 1987.  (Officially, he was too young to win, so he had his father mail it in.) His dream hole was a U-shaped double-dogleg par 5 with an island tee, island traps and an island green (see below or click here to view his design entry in large-PDF format). Even at age 11, he probably had the talent to cut the corner by smacking an iron from the back tee over his 120-foot-high hill and onto the green where he'd have a putt for a double-eagle 2. (If he avoided the bunker in the center of his green, that is.) The rest of us would likely take the long way around, dodging trees, bunkers, mounds, a creek and a bog. 

When a well-traveled golf course developer builds a world-class facility in a relatively undeveloped part of middle Wisconsin, a small township faces a world of…opportunity.

Chicago businessman-turned golf course developer Mike Keiser gravitates to naturally unique places to build.  The area near Nekoosa contains ancient sand dunes as high as 80 feet, left behind when some 15,000 years ago a glacial ice dam burst creating the inland dells of central Wisconsin.  Red pine plantations were carefully removed to make way for an almost seaside landscape of rolling dunes.  After the removal of tree cover, the open areas are showing some signs of primitive plant life that once may have grown in this part of Wisconsin, including a small cactus that blooms in spring.

They’ll also finish up Sand Valley starting in April with preview play on 13 holes this summer. “What I like about the site is it’s got completely different contours than what we work with generally,” says Coore. “It’s not really so much dunes as it is big sand ridges and valleys. It’s very aptly named. They created large situations for some really interesting golf holes. You look out over these long vistas and big rolling hills. It kind of feels like Shinnecock.”

A Magical Day at Sand Valley

September 20, 2015 by jwizay1493 8 Comments

My buddy Chuck was kind enough to include me in a visit to Sand Valley to tour the first course, which is under construction and set to open in 2017.  I expected to be in golf geek heaven, and yet what I experienced so vastly exceeded my expectations that I fear that trying to put it into words won’t do it justice.  I’ll do my best to share my impressions, along with photos.  If there is one thing that I hope you take away from this recap though, it is this – make your reservations now to visit this special place and play this outstanding golf course.

Sand Valley might be the most ambitious golf development project ever undertaken in Wisconsin, and not just because well-heeled clients will someday fly in to play as many as four courses at the destination resort.

That's all well and good. It is, after all, a commercial enterprise.

What makes Sand Valley special, though, is that it's also a habitat restoration project of immense size and scope. What was once a sprawling red pine plantation — a monoculture not unlike a cornfield — will be returned to a 1,700-acre sand barren, home to native plants such as prickly pear cactus and wild lupine, and endangered species such as the Karner blue butterfly and Kirtland's warbler.

David McLay Kidd discusses the new course plans for Sand Valley in Wisconsin.

ROME — Although construction on Sand Valley Golf Resort's first golf course is not yet completed, plans for a second golf course at the new resort have begun with an architect already chosen for the project, a Sand Valley representative confirmed to Daily Tribune Media on Friday.

The Sand Valley Golf Resort, which first was proposed in 2011 by internationally renowned golf developer Mike Keiser, lies on about 1,500 acres in the town Rome. The space could hold up to five golf courses.

Two decades after then-novice golf course architect David McLay Kidd teamed with developer Mike Keiser to create the first course at what would become the acclaimed Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon the two are collaborating again.

This time, the site is a 1,500-acre sand barren in central Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, Keiser announced that he had hired Kidd to design the second course at Sand Valley Golf Resort, just south of Wisconsin Rapids.

The first course, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2017.

Construction on Kidd's course will begin in the spring, and the course is expected to open in 2018.

Matt Ginella discusses the second course being built by David McLay Kidd at Sand Valley Golf Resort with David Kidd of DMK Designs and Josh Lesnik of KemperSports.

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/david-kidd-design-2nd-course-sand-valley/

Town of Rome — The bald eagle circled lazily over the handful of people standing atop a sand dune, seemingly checking out the strange interlopers, then banked and disappeared over a stand of jack pine.

It was a fitting end to a spectacular day of "wilderness golf."

Last week, about a dozen founding members of Sand Valley got their first look at what could be the most ambitious golf project ever undertaken in Wisconsin.

If all goes according to Chicago developer Mike Keiser's plan, someday there will be five courses and lodging on 1,500 acres a few miles south of Wisconsin Rapids — a resort that would provide hundreds of jobs in depressed Adams County and further enhance Wisconsin's reputation as a world-class golf destination.

Over the last two decades golfers have been fortunate to live through a renaissance period in terms of golf course architecture. One of the key figures in this era has been a Chicago businessman with an intense love for the game of golf, Mike Keiser. After selling a very successful greeting card company Keiser decided to try his hand at golf course development and quickly discovered he had a knack for it. Over the last two decades Keiser has helped introduce golfers toBandon Dunes in Oregon, Cabot Links in Nova Scotia and Barbougle Dunes in Tasmania . . . not a bad resume. Mike and I caught up a few days ago to chat about his new project in Wisconsin, Sand Valley, as well as golf in general. The following is the transcript from our conversation. 

he story of Sand Valley begins with an apology.

While on a weekend hike with his wife, a construction executive named Craig Haltom came upon an area in central Wisconsin with giant sand dunes. He thought: This would make for a great golf course.

He contacted Mike Keiser, the Chicago greeting-card magnate who had turned a remote stretch of Oregon coastland into one of the world's great golf destinations by celebrating the origins of the game — walking with caddies, links play affected by the elements.