Sand Valley September trip booked...tips/advice/experience please!

[ND2005]

On 9/9/2024 at 9:21 AM, miss0033 said:

I was there Labor Day weekend.  Conditions were great.  Sedge was a little patchy in areas, but expected with a course in its first full season.  

 

However, one person I got paired with was there for the first time and whined about the conditions compared to their private club at home.  It is not lush green, thick grass everywhere.  If you've been to Sand Valley, Bandon, etc. before, those are the conditions to expect, and are great to play on.  If you want it to look like Augusta, you will probably be disappointed.

 

EDIT:  Sand Valley did have a few "G.U.R." spots, but nothing obtrusive.  Most notably the large collection area short and right on Par 3 hole #5.

 

I would say the conditions were on a level way above Bandon. Not being on a cliffside exposed to Oregon coastal weather, and having lovely midwestern summers made all of the courses very lush by peak season. 

 

If you're expecting "country club" style conditioning meaning super tight fairways, crystal white bunkers, and greens cut to 12 or 13 just so members can brag about having the fastest greens in town, then no. 

 

But the conditions were excellent when I've been there. 

[NewGuy412]

3 hours ago, ND2005 said:

 

I would say the conditions were on a level way above Bandon. Not being on a cliffside exposed to Oregon coastal weather, and having lovely midwestern summers made all of the courses very lush by peak season. 

 

If you're expecting "country club" style conditioning meaning super tight fairways, crystal white bunkers, and greens cut to 12 or 13 just so members can brag about having the fastest greens in town, then no. 

 

But the conditions were excellent when I've been there. 

 

Appreciate the feedback!

 

Only asked a couple days ago because my buddies were asking around if anyone was there recently, more of excitement buildup. I don't have any expectations to be 100% honest. Even if a bunker is in bad shape or a fairway is spotty I very rarely complain. I'm just really excited to play some great tracks and take a break from work and my 3 other buddies going have the same feeling.

[aiyyer]

Has anybody done a trip in October? 
Conditions  and weather? 

[bcc624]

1 hour ago, aiyyer said:

Has anybody done a trip in October? 
Conditions  and weather? 

I think there is a little bit of risk in going in October, but value might be worth it. I went October 6-8 2022. The days before we got there the temps ranged from a low of high 40s to highs of 70. It looked beautiful. The weather turned upon our arrival. We had one day that didn’t go above 45 and the other two days had a high of like 55. Our last 2 mornings had frost delays for like two hours. The days after we left the highs hits the 60s again. 
 

the days that touched the 50s were very comfortable. The sun was out so we stayed warm. The day that hit the high of 45 was cold, with no sun, and windy. That day we had sandbox in the morning with a SV tee time after lunch.  Due to the frost delay, we were in the pitch black on 17. Didn’t even really get to play 18. 
 

Conditions were great though.  

Edited September 20, 2024 by bcc624

[aiyyer]

Thanks. 

[NewGuy412]

Made it on the trip and I’ll post some photos afterwards.

 

Erin Hills was amazing and I’d say worth any time/money for someone doing a trip up this way. We are currently trying to discuss how to make a tee time at Whistling work on the way back home but that’s TBD.

 

The courses are in great shape, played Sedge this morning and Mammoth this afternoon. I really like Mammoth, Sedge was a great course except I think 18 green is a little gimmicky as well as a couple holes. The greens on Sedge sound like trampolines. Everything on the property is very firm, not saying that’s a bad thing but just not what I’m used to. Overall, the SV property has been absolutely amazing and it’s very crowded this weekend. Also seeing their new “Commons” course being built is pretty awesome, supposedly going to be held at 12 holes for now until they figure out what to do with the maintenance shack. 

 

October trip wise the caddies we had said in a few weeks some stuff kinda shuts down a little bit and some caddies start migrating south for the winter. Might want to double check what’s open/available.

 

Also, I think I did hear correctly that in 3 weeks time they are punching the greens so just be aware anyone coming early October.

Edited September 21, 2024 by NewGuy412

[aiyyer]

Ouch re punching the greens.

Did you guys stay on property? 

[NewGuy412]

Correction on the green punching, caddies today said if they do punch they really do not know when it is but they typically use do the micro-tining and when they top dress the sand is usually gone in a day or so. Both caddies said it’s really hard to notice when they do it.

 

They are on track for an October 20th closure depending on weather. Most caddies are using that as the target date for migration. So if you are planning on an October trip keep that in mind.

[doc52]

I’ll be there in two weeks, hope to avoid the aeration. 

[sabram]

I was there two weeks ago. It was a great experience. Coming from the East Coast it's easier to get to than Bandon and the experience is just as good. The four courses are outstanding and very different from one another which is a big bonus. The conditions were excellent as were the lodging, food and service. It's expensive, but we got what we paid for. I have only two regrets about the trip. (i) I shouldn't have played 36 holes a day. It was hot, I'm in my 70's and 3 of the 4 courses are quite hilly. I was really exhausted half way through an afternoon round. We should have instead played a morning round and follow that with a round on the Sandbox short course and extended the trip in order to play each course rather than squeeze a second round in the afternoon. (ii)  I missed meeting up with Chanceman on my last day. 

 

 

As with Bandon, If you ask ten people to rank the courses in order that they liked them, you'll get ten different rankings. Here are a few thoughts on the courses:

 

My favorite course was Sedge Valley. Forget the fact that the yardage on the card tips out at 6,200 yards. It's a full size course except that it has only one par 5 and five par 3's. It has lots of elevation changes, lots of variety and really fun greens. Some of my favorite holes were the uphill ones such as 3, 6, 12 and 18. The greens differ significantly from the Lido. The LIdo greens are extremely hard to hold, despite being very large  due to their speed, firmness and false fronts and sides. Whereas, many of the greens at Sedge have backboards and sideboards that can feed your ball toward a pin. It was helpful to have a caddy who can tell you the right line on approach shots to take advantage of those features. The course was influenced by the English Heathland courses. I've played a couple dozen heaths in south and central England. They are among my favorites.  I can see a bit of that inspiration at Sedge, but without actual heather in play it doesn't really look or play like a heathland, but that doesn't matter as it's a very interesting and fun course to play.

 

I was not expecting to love Mammoth Dunes, but I did. Everything about the course is of mammoth proportion. If you've played Streamsong Black or Old MacDonald you'll have had some experience with such big greens, but a few of the ones on Mammoth Dunes are even bigger than those. I did sink a 100 foot putt. There are so many fun shots to try on this course. Again it was worth having a caddy, otherwise I wouldn't have figured out a few of the lines for some of my favorite shots such as the tee shot on the par 3 #4, the approach shot to the sloping boomerang shaped green on #6, and the best route to drive the green on #14. 

 

I think the Lido will be the course that has the most diversity of opinion. However, one thing that I think everyone will agree on is that it is a difficult course to score well on. It is definitely a good player's course. My buddy and I are bogey golfers and we got beaten up pretty badly on the Lido score-wise. It was worse  as it was our second round of the day and we were pretty tired.  There is a lot of deception even with a caddy showing lines of play. The lack of clear sight lines and difficulty holding greens (or getting close to the pin if you do hold a green) gets into your head. There are places where holes seem to cris-cross one another and we wouldn't have known where the next hole was without a caddy. I think it would take at least a half dozen rounds to get comfortable playing the Lido, so probably good for members, but not for one play visitors. Having said that, the course is an amazing feat and worth playing especially if you are into golf course architecture. The Macdonald style bunkers and plateau greens are very cool. The course is the least photogenic of the four and the only one of the four that is not hilly, yet they created lots of fairway movement with ripples, humps, hillocks and a huge dune of the Alps hole. If scenery is important to you, you may be disappointed with the Lido as compared to the other three.

 

I think the closer you are to scratch, the more you'll like Lido more than Sedge and the closer you are to a bogey (or worse) golfer the more you'll like Sedge and Mammoth

 

The Sand Valley course was good. I'm a big Bill Coore fan, but I didn't think this course was as interesting or unique as the other three courses at the resort or other Coore-Crenshaw courses I've played. I'm glad I played it, but I'd return to the other three before replaying Sand Valley. I did love the two finishing holes though.

 

On the last day of the trip we drove 90 minutes to play Lawsonia Links. If you plan a trip to Sand Valley you must add a day to play Lawsonia Links. It should not be missed. It makes for an interesting comparison to the Lido. It was designed by William Langford and Theodore Moreau, who like CB Macdonald designed courses in the 1920's and 30's. The bunkering is similar to  the LIdo both in size, shape, style and placements and is used to confuse your eye as to distances. The elevated greens have a similar feel to the Lido as well, yet the courses look and play very differently. The Links at Lawsonia has a very green and manciured look with lots of elevation changes, while the Lido is browner and more rustic looking and is on very flat land. It was an intersting exercise to see how the two are similar and how they are different. Lawsonia Links was a load of fun.

 

Click on a photo to see full photo tours of the courses

 

Sedge Valley

 

 

 

Mammoth Dunes

 

The Lido

 

Lawsonia Links

 

 

Sand Valley 

Edited September 23, 2024 by sabram
to correct typos and add link to Sand Valley course

[aiyyer]

Where did you fly into? 

[sabram]

7 hours ago, aiyyer said:

Where did you fly into? 

Milwaukee 

[ESOX ZO]

12 hours ago, sabram said:

I was there two weeks ago. It was a great experience. Coming from the East Coast it's easier to get to than Bandon and the experience is just as good. The four courses are outstanding and very different from one another which is a big bonus. The conditions were excellent as were the lodging, food and service. It's expensive, but we got what we paid for. I have only two regrets about the trip. (i) I shouldn't have played 36 holes a day. It was hot, I'm in my 70's and 3 of the 4 courses are quite hilly. I was really exhausted half way through an afternoon round. We should have instead played a morning round and follow that with a round on the Sandbox short course and extended the trip in order to play each course rather than squeeze a second round in the afternoon. (ii)  I missed meeting up with Chanceman on my last day. 

 

 

As with Bandon, If you ask ten people to rank the courses in order that they liked them, you'll get ten different rankings. Here are a few thoughts on the courses:

 

My favorite course was Sedge Valley. Forget the fact that the yardage on the card tips out at 6,200 yards. It's a full size course except that it has only one par 5 and five par 3's. It has lots of elevation changes, lots of variety and really fun greens. Some of my favorite holes were the uphill ones such as 3, 6, 12 and 18. The greens differ significantly from the Lido. The LIdo greens are extremely hard to hold, despite being very large  due to their speed, firmness and false fronts and sides. Whereas, many of the greens at Sedge have backboards and sideboards that can feed your ball toward a pin. It was helpful to have a caddy who can tell you the right line on approach shots to take advantage of those features. The course was influenced by the English Heathland courses. I've played a couple dozen heaths in south and central England. They are among my favorites.  I can see a bit of that inspiration at Sedge, but without actual heather in play it doesn't really look or play like a heathland, but that doesn't matter as it's a very interesting and fun course to play.

 

I was not expecting to love Mammoth Dunes, but I did. Everything about the course is of mammoth proportion. If you've played Streamsong Black or Old MacDonald you'll have had some experience with such big greens, but a few of the ones on Mammoth Dunes are even bigger than those. I did sink a 100 foot putt. There are so many fun shots to try on this course. Again it was worth having a caddy, otherwise I wouldn't have figured out a few of the lines for some of my favorite shots such as the tee shot on the par 3 #4, the approach shot to the sloping boomerang shaped green on #6, and the best route to drive the green on #14. 

 

I think the Lido will be the course that has the most diversity of opinion. However, one thing that I think everyone will agree on is that it is a difficult course to score well on. It is definitely a good player's course. My buddy and I are bogey golfers and we got beaten up pretty badly on the Lido score-wise. It was worse  as it was our second round of the day and we were pretty tired.  There is a lot of deception even with a caddy showing lines of play. The lack of clear sight lines and difficulty holding greens (or getting close to the pin if you do hold a green) gets into your head. There are places where holes seem to cris-cross one another and we wouldn't have known where the next hole was without a caddy. I think it would take at least a half dozen rounds to get comfortable playing the Lido, so probably good for members, but not for one play visitors. Having said that, the course is an amazing feat and worth playing especially if you are into golf course architecture. The Macdonald style bunkers and plateau greens are very cool. The course is the least photogenic of the four and the only one of the four that is not hilly, yet they created lots of fairway movement with ripples, humps, hillocks and a huge dune of the Alps hole. If scenery is important to you, you may be disappointed with the Lido as compared to the other three.

 

I think the closer you are to scratch, the more you'll like Lido more than Sedge and the closer you are to a bogey (or worse) golfer the more you'll like Sedge and Mammoth

 

The Sand Valley course was good. I'm a big Bill Coore fan, but I didn't think this course was as interesting or unique as the other three courses at the resort or other Coore-Crenshaw courses I've played. I'm glad I played it, but I'd return to the other three before replaying Sand Valley. I did love the two finishing holes though.

 

On the last day of the trip we drove 90 minutes to play Lawsonia Links. If you plan a trip to Sand Valley you must add a day to play Lawsonia Links. It should not be missed. It makes for an interesting comparison to the Lido. It was designed by William Langford and Theodore Moreau, who like CB Macdonald designed courses in the 1920's and 30's. The bunkering is similar to  the LIdo both in size, shape, style and placements and is used to confuse your eye as to distances. The elevated greens have a similar feel to the Lido as well, yet the courses look and play very differently. The Links at Lawsonia has a very green and manciured look with lots of elevation changes, while the Lido is browner and more rustic looking and is on very flat land. It was an intersting exercise to see how the two are similar and how they are different. Lawsonia Links was a load of fun.

 

Click on a photo to see full photo tours of the courses

 

Sedge Valley

 

 

 

Mammoth Dunes

 

The Lido

 

Lawsonia Links

 

Sand Valley (to be added)

Our whole group felt the same way about Sand Valley.

 

1. Sedge

2. Lido

3. Mammoth

4. Sandbox

5. Sand Valley

[NewGuy412]

I’ll get a full review of my trip in the next few days. Just finished our last round on Lido a couple hours ago. 
 

Overall the trip was amazing.

[aiyyer]

Anybody stay off property?

Edited September 24, 2024 by aiyyer

[eboettne]

On 9/21/2024 at 9:33 PM, sabram said:

I think the closer you are to scratch, the more you'll like Lido more than Sedge and the closer you are to a bogey (or worse) golfer the more you'll like Sedge and Mammoth

 

The Sand Valley course was good. I'm a big Bill Coore fan, but I didn't think this course was as interesting or unique as the other three courses at the resort or other Coore-Crenshaw courses I've played. I'm glad I played it, but I'd return to the other three before replaying Sand Valley. I did love the two finishing holes though.

 

 

 

Great breakdown, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head with the first comment.  The better the golfer you were in our group, the more you enjoyed The Lido.  It was my favorite course and squeaked into my top 5 favorites I've played anywhere.  Our buddy who plays golf a handful of times a year did not have a good time there.  He'd skip it if we go back.

 

Sand Valley is interesting. I felt the same way as you on our first trip, kind of a toned down not super interesting effort from C&C.  Now that I've played it 4 times I appreciate it much more as I understand how to approach each hole.  It feels more like a proper test where good swings are rewarded and bad ones are punished.  So I struggle to place it above or behind Mammoth.  If I want to play a good golf course and am swinging it well, I'd much prefer SV.  If I'm looking to have some fun and make birdies where I won't get punished too bad and more luck is involved, it's Mammoth.  

[doc52]

29 minutes ago, eboettne said:

 

Great breakdown, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head with the first comment.  The better the golfer you were in our group, the more you enjoyed The Lido.  It was my favorite course and squeaked into my top 5 favorites I've played anywhere.  Our buddy who plays golf a handful of times a year did not have a good time there.  He'd skip it if we go back.

 

Sand Valley is interesting. I felt the same way as you on our first trip, kind of a toned down not super interesting effort from C&C.  Now that I've played it 4 times I appreciate it much more as I understand how to approach each hole.  It feels more like a proper test where good swings are rewarded and bad ones are punished.  So I struggle to place it above or behind Mammoth.  If I want to play a good golf course and am swinging it well, I'd much prefer SV.  If I'm looking to have some fun and make birdies where I won't get punished too bad and more luck is involved, it's Mammoth.  

Did you play Lido as a 6-some?

[italianstallion]

53 minutes ago, eboettne said:

 

Great breakdown, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head with the first comment.  The better the golfer you were in our group, the more you enjoyed The Lido.  It was my favorite course and squeaked into my top 5 favorites I've played anywhere.  Our buddy who plays golf a handful of times a year did not have a good time there.  He'd skip it if we go back.

 

Sand Valley is interesting. I felt the same way as you on our first trip, kind of a toned down not super interesting effort from C&C.  Now that I've played it 4 times I appreciate it much more as I understand how to approach each hole.  It feels more like a proper test where good swings are rewarded and bad ones are punished.  So I struggle to place it above or behind Mammoth.  If I want to play a good golf course and am swinging it well, I'd much prefer SV.  If I'm looking to have some fun and make birdies where I won't get punished too bad and more luck is involved, it's Mammoth.  

 

Lido is hard, Mammoth is fun with lots of hero shots where you don't get killed if you don't pull them off, and Sedge is a fun thinking golfer's course. I wouldn't necessarily call Sedge easy but you can make it as easy or as hard as you'd like depending on your strategy on each hole. Sand Valley's identity is harder to identify just looking at the holes visually. Visually it's the least dramatic of the C&C courses I have played, but we also played it after having played Lido and Mammoth the day before. Either way, to me Sand Valley's identity are its greens and all their false edges and internal contours. Off the tee I found Sand Valley pretty forgiving, but it became quickly apparent to me this course was for good ballstrikers and good putters. Those are the two strongest aspects of my game, and I ended up shooting 5.6 strokes better than my handicap out there and it was the best round of the trip for me.

 

The thing I love about Sand Valley is that they have four distinct courses with four very different personalities. I give them high praise for achieving that.

[NewGuy412]

Alright so I’ll try to do a review by typing it thru my phone since all my photos are on here, so bear with me.

 

We left Pittsburgh 9/18 and drove up to Hartford, WI to stay at Cobblestone hotels. Accommodations were not available on Erin Hills and this is a close choice with a few bars and restaurants around. The drive took us about 9 hours and traffic was actually minimal thru Chicago since we were routed on 294 and bypassed all the main city traffic. We had a tee time at Erin a little after 10 on 9/19 and got to the course right after 8am. The course was amazing, everything from the practice range, facilities, pro shop and food/drink. First course nerves had us lose balls in the high fescue but for all of us it was the only lost balls of the whole week. I almost had a hole in one on 16 after a friendly bet with my caddy for closest to the pin. The greens and fairways were in really great shape and the fescue was actually cut down a good bit so it didn’t penalize us much. I shot very well for what the course is and the walk is very long but very much worth it. I think we would all rank this as the most favorite course of the weekend by far, I’d go back time and time again.

 

After we ate and hung out a good bit we made the over 2 hour drive to a rental house we got in Lake Arrowhead area since Sand Valley accommodations were not available. This is a really close by area to look for if you can’t get room on Sand Valley, it’s right down the street. We got some food from the Greenside Grill at the Lake Arrowhead golf course and slept early to prep for a day of 36 holes.

 

We headed over the next morning to play Sedge at 7:30. Sedge to us seemed to be a great opening course to SV, it’s the shortest of the bunch, has its share of challenges but nothing that will kill you too bad and also has a couple quirky holes/greens. We quickly found out the fairways will all be firm along with the greens just due to the sand base to everything. The greens sound like trampolines when the ball hits them. It’s controversial but with my group of friends and a mix of playing ability for the SV property we put this at #3 on the list. I wish we stayed another day to play it again but will just have to make a trip another time. Our caddies on this loop sucked, sorry to say, and we politely asked the caddy master to get some new guys for the next day but they ended up giving us new guys for the afternoon round. We headed to Mammoth bar and got some lunch, drinks and take a little break to play Mammoth in the afternoon. 
 

We had a tee time on Mammoth around 2 and it’s intimidating on its opening tee shot since the box is right on the practice green and the patio for Mammoth bar. Despite that we all piped drives in front of people and were off. I really liked Mammoth, there were times it penalized all of us but I think it’s a great course for the mix of friends that went. It’s definitely Mammoth in size, fairways are wide, some holes really long but it works if you play money games with your partners or the afternoon round. Personal feeling, I put this at #1 on property just due to playability. We all played really good, had great vibes with our new caddies and all shot really well. Was just a great afternoon round. Greens, fairways, bunkers were all in great shape. Still firm conditions that I just never got used to but used my thin shots to my advantage. We got some dinner at Aldo’s this night, the half chicken was amazing, and ended up getting a few drinks in the Mammoth bar afterwards for a bit.

 

Next morning we headed to SV. I’d put it as #2 going with the playability and fun factor. We all played really well again and its conditions were the same as Sedge and Mammoth. Its greens were different than Mammoth and Sedge but still awesome. I ended up spraining my hand around #16 but worked thru it. Got some tacos at Craig’s Porch afterwards($1 each is amazing!). Storms were moving in and the property gave fair warning to everyone via txt. We headed down to Mammoth bar to secure some seats to wait out what the weather did since we had an evening round on the Sandbox. Ended up being like a party at the bar while everyone waited but the weather passed, delaying tee times but everyone was excited.

 

Headed over to the Sandbox around 5ish after a 3 hour delay. If anyone is staying on property and has hesitation playing this I’d say don’t hesitate. It was a lot of fun walking barefoot having a few beers after a few long walking days. It’s actually a tricky 17 holes but we had a really great time on it. 
 

Played Lido the following late afternoon. 11:30 tee time we got breakfast at the Aldo breakfast buffet. The front desk or bag drop will not tell you this but you need to take the shuttle to Lido. If you have a car and try to drive there they will turn you back. We only tried to drive over because we were staying off property for that evening and checked out before we left to play. It was a colder, windier day and it was evident when we arrived that it would not be an easy course. We struggled a good bit on a the front but ended up still scoring good. The back 9 the sprained hand I had from the day before really sprained on #12 Punch Bowl. I finished that hole and somehow drove my longest drive of the day to the green on #13 Knoll but when I teed off on #14 I couldn’t hold the club or hit the ball. I ended up WD and walked with my buddies and kept the banter up with my caddy. I think we were all very tired and everyone said this was the least favorite course of the week, #4 for the SV property. I think the conditions were challenging and it’s very hard to know where to go. Greens are very firm and very hard to hold. I’d give it another run. 
 

All in all the SV property is very nice and well worth the trip. It was really clean, organized, the employees were great to talk to, food/drink was great and reasonably priced. We had a really special week and I’ll continue to ice my hand lol.

[jvincent]

6 hours ago, aiyyer said:

Anybody stay off property?

 

Yep. I went last minute last year and stayed off property.

 

Alternated between Lawsonia and SV for 4 days and then played Erin Hills on the way back to the airport.

[aiyyer]

Any recommendations for off resort accommodations?

Also aerating is after 10/20 when the course closes 

[vandyfan]

Seems so hard to book a stay that off-property might be the go to if you can still get tee times on SV and MD. 

[eboettne]

7 hours ago, doc52 said:

Did you play Lido as a 6-some?

No, foursome. Not sure I follow

[jvincent]

3 hours ago, aiyyer said:

Any recommendations for off resort accommodations?

Also aerating is after 10/20 when the course closes 

 

I had a place in Wautoma.

[NewGuy412]

3 hours ago, aiyyer said:

Any recommendations for off resort accommodations?

Also aerating is after 10/20 when the course closes 

Lodges of the Lakes is where we stayed for 2 different nights. Can search it on Google maps, just NE of main SV facility.

[NewGuy412]

Erin Hills: 

 

 

[NewGuy412]

Sedge:

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2024 by NewGuy412

[NewGuy412]

Mammoth (I don’t have a lot for some reason):

 

 

[NewGuy412]

Sand Valley:

 

 

[NewGuy412]

Lido: