Featured Stop: Sand Valley

The earliest and most devoted readers of GTG may remember that we’ve already covered Sand Valley in this space. We’re revisiting today not only for the newcomers, but to attach the latest pricing details and some of the “how” in booking a trip (some bad news on that front below, hate to say). Let’s start with what we wrote last year, which holds true today:

What do you get when you combine a few of the top golf architects in the game, the golf-mecca-minded ownership behind Bandon, and the sandy terrain of central Wisconsin? That would be Sand Valley, a resort that sprung up less than a decade ago but already is pushing into truly elite golf trip territory.

Like Bandon, Sand Valley doesn’t miss. GOLF has all three of its fully public, full-length offerings inside its top 26: the original Sand Valley by Coore and Crenshaw (No. 20), David McLay Kidd’s Mammoth Dunes (No. 26), and Tom Doak’s Sedge Valley (No. 22).

And then there’s semi-private The Lido, which debuted as GOLF‘s 4th(!!)-best publicly available course in America last year—but is available only to those staying on property, and only Sunday through Thursday. The Lido is an incredible story—a CB MacDonald routing considered to be “comparable in shot quality to Pine Valley and National Golf Links,” originally set on Long Island, lost to World War II, and rebuilt in the sand dunes of Wisconsin by Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf, who worked with a golf historian to create “acutely accurate” 3D designs and deploy “GPS-guided bulldozers.” It is not a tribute, the resort says, but a “faithful restoration.”

You’ll have your pick of surrounding AirBNBs and other accommodations if you plan to save a few bucks and stay off-resort, but that approach now comes with a catch—missing out on one of the most unique golf experiences in the world.

Of course, at $295 per 18 holes (ed. note: $325 in 2026), Sand Valley may actually be a steal relative to its peers in top-ranked, destination public golf. Consider that the average greens fees among top 25 public golf courses is nearly $500, our recent data shows. At less than $300 per round; with the ability to hit so many top tracks in a single, contained trip; and with plenty else to get into on resort property, including a 17-hole short course, racket sports, fat-tire biking, and water sports: Sand Valley is just about as good as golf travel gets.

Since then, the 12-hole ​The Commons​, built by Jim Craig, has also come into focus. Open for preview play and set for a grand opening this year, the course adds another imaginative and non-traditional design to the mix.

Ok, but here’s the bad news: If you’re interested in booking a trip in 2026 or even 2027, your odds are not good. The resort opened registration for next year earlier this month, and already the ​form collecting submissions​ has been closed. There are reports of a quite lengthy waitlist taking shape. After Bandon Dunes went to a full lottery system a couple years ago, one wonders how much demand that drove to its sister site in Wisconsin, and whether the latter—and this is pure speculation, to be clear—may soon adopt a lottery, as well.

That said, as with many of the most sought-after golf trips in America, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and you do still have some options. For instance, you can ​book individual tee times​ and stay off-site. As I look right this moment at a random Thursday in mid-August, there are still slots available at Sand Valley, Mammoth, Sedge, Sandbox, and The Commons. There are some weekend openings around then, as well. In other words, it’s not impossible to a-la-carte your way into experiencing most of the resort’s elite golf architecture this year.

If you want the full experience, of course, and assuming you’re not currently sitting on a waitlist, you may need to pencil in Sand Valley for further down the road.

This piece originally ran in the GTG newsletter. Subscribe here and get the weekly featured stop—plus news on openings, redesigns, and more—in your inbox each Thursday afternoon.