Sand Valley "Biggest sand barrens restoration in Wisconsin history"

Gary D'Amato with an update on Sand Valley, the Mike Keiser development in rural Wisconsin where the 165 people who paid $50,000 each got to play some sand golf on Coore and Crenshaw's routing.

The course is not slated to open until 2017 but a second course architect search is already underway and I was fascinated to learn how much of a dunes restoration component is part of the project. I hope more is shared on that going forward.

There is also this on the future...

Plans already are in place for a second course, likely to be designed by Tom Doak, a name that resonates with architecture geeks. There is room for three more courses after that, but expansion will be dependent on the success of the first course.

"We're very deliberate and we're just focusing on making the first course as good as we can make it, because we know if the first one doesn't exceed your expectations, there won't be a second," Keiser Jr. said.

Fully realized, Sand Valley would join a redesigned SentryWorld in Stevens Point, two fine courses at nearby Lake Arrowhead in Nekoosa and Northern Bay in Arkdale to make north-central Wisconsin one of the best golf destinations in the Midwest, if not the nation.

Tiny Rome, population 2,720, would be at the epicenter.

"Wisconsin, we're finding, is very welcoming," Keiser Jr. said. "The Town of Rome has been so supportive. Day 1, they got it. They knew what this could mean for the poorest county (Adams) in Wisconsin."