The Kidd Is Back! Keiser Names Architect For Sand Valley Course
/Matt Ginella reports that developer Mike Keiser and friends selected David McLay Kidd to design the second course at Sand Valley, his Wisconsin minimalist resort with a 2017 scheduled for the first course.
The decision came after a "bake-off" of sorts between Kidd, Tom Doak and the Rod Whitman/Dave Axland duo, though it sounds like the number of folks with input into the decision was not as extensive as originally thought. Perhaps related to the early winter arrival?
After Keiser had three submissions, he removed the names from the plans and solicited feedback from several founding members of Sand Valley, which included Mike Davis, executive director of the USGA, and Josh Lesnik, president of Kemper Sports, which manages more than 100 courses and resorts in America, including Bandon Dunes, Streamsong and Chambers Bay.
"What's amazing is that all three architects gravitated to three different parts of the property," says Lesnik, who was also 28 when Keiser named him the original general manager of Bandon Dunes in 1999. "Mike really likes all three routings, and with almost no overlap, chances are, he'll eventually build all three."
But for now, Kidd and Keiser are together again. The prodigal son has come back with lessons learned and an appreciation for the past. Kidd will break ground in the spring, with the plan to open the second course at Sand Valley in summer 2018. (Coore and Crenshaw's course will open in summer 2017.)
Doak, who recently graded Kidd's work at the Castle Course at St. Andrews a "zero," will be busy building a second course at Forest Dunes in Roscommon, Mich. Whitman and his partner, Dave Axland, will most likely be hired by Coore and Crenshaw to help shape the first course at Sand Valley.
**Brad Klein on the naming of Kidd..
At Gamble Sands and other recent designs, Kidd illustrated that he has re-embraced the simple, elegant ground-hugging elements that made Bandon Dunes such a success when it debuted in 1999.
It’s the kind of approach that will suit the land at Sand Valley well, because it’s not terrain with breathtaking views or oceanfront land. It’s basic Middle American land, with the local market defined by vacationing Midwesterners who are comfortable traveling in an RV and relaxing with a beer or three on their fishing boat. They already love their golf, though there’s nothing quite like Sand Valley out there for them – walkable, a bit on the rugged side, wide open and with windswept shot-making over a vast playing surface.
