Tom Doak has routed Old Shores on sand dunes near Panama City, Florida.
After news was reported last week that a development order had been approved by Washington County for a new course in the Florida Panhandle, Dream Golf announced Friday the name and designer for the 18-hole project.
Architect Tom Doak has routed what will become Old Shores, assuming all necessary permitting continues to be approved. The course will be built 30 miles north of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport that services Panama City.
The course will be an easy drive from the 30A region of beaches in South Walton County between Panama City and Destin, which has grown at an astonishing rate in recent years. The property is about a 30-minute drive north of Panama City Beach.
Speculation about the course has swirled in recent years, as happens with any project by Dream Golf. The collection of properties includes Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon and Sand Valley in Wisconsin, with new projects on the way outside Denver and another in Texas.
The first step in planning for Old Shores has been approved by Washington County in Florida. (Courtesy of Dream Golf)
The development order was the first step in receiving official sign-off to build Old Shores. As reported by the Washington County News, the development order was for 80 acres for the golf course amid 1,438 acres that have been acquired. No plans for further development have been announced or approved.
The name Old Shores is a reflection of the sandy dunes on the site, which used to be shoreline before the Gulf of Mexico receded to its current boundaries to the south thousands of years ago. Dream Golf said there is no set timetable for construction or completion.
“This land just makes you want to get to the next bend or over the next hill,” developer Michael Keiser said in a news release announcing the name of the course and Doak’s involvement. “There is so much variety – it’s hard to believe you could experience so many environments in one place. Every time I visit, I discover a side I had never seen before. This is an amazing and unexpected site.”
The site for Old Shores to be designed by Tom Doak for Dream Golf, assuming all permitting is eventually approved, is about 30 miles north of the Panama City, Florida, airport. (Courtesy of Dream Golf)
Micheal Keiser is the son of Mike Keiser, the developer of Bandon Dunes. Michael and his brother Chris are the developers of Sand Valley, the in-progress Rodeo Dunes in Colorado and the in-progress Wild Springs Dunes in Texas.
“We are grateful for the reception we received from Washington County, and we are eager to continuing the process of presenting our plans for this extraordinary property,” Michael Keiser said in the release. “I’ve walked the routing with Tom Doak numerous times, and I know this will be world-class.”
Doak’s extensive resume includes building the Pacific Dunes course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, which is ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the top public-access course in Oregon and the No. 3 modern course in the U.S. Doak recently completed the now-open Sedge Valley course at Sand Valley, and he also constructed the Lido at Sand Valley, which brought back to life a famous but lost course on Long Island.
Check out the photos of a new reversible nine-hole course by the team behind Landmand and Sweetens Cove.
One of the more interesting golf course openings of 2024 has been Crossroads at the private Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina. It’s fitting that it was designed by one of golf’s more interesting firms, King-Collins Golf Course Design.
Tad King and Rob Collins are the architects – and now co-owners – of the nine-hole Sweetens Cove, which for the better part of a decade has been the No. 1 ranked public-access layout in Tennessee. They also designed Landmand, which in two years has shot up to become the No. 1 public-access course in Nebraska. Their resume of courses continues to grow, including the new Red Feather in Texas.
At Crossroads, they went back to their nine-hole roots. Situated on 54 acres of rolling dunes alongside an extensive inland waterway, the layout features a mix of par 3s, 4s and 5s integrated into a reversible layout. Playing it in one direction sports the name The Hammer, and the other direction is called The Press as the course crisscrosses itself. Like Sweetens Cove, the layout was built with match play in mind and is a great venue for cross-country golf in which players pick their own holes, should they choose.
Crossroads opened in January of 2024, the second course at Palmetto Bluff following the Jack Nicklaus-designed May River course that opened in 2005. In keeping with a low-key vibe, Crossroads features a pro shop in an Airstream trailer and a food truck on site, plus a 34,000-square-foot Himalayas-style putting green near the first tee. The course is accessible by electric boat or kayak. The course plays anywhere from 1,000 yards to 3,100.
The Crossroads is mostly private, but there are a limited number of tee times available to guests of the onsite and upscale hotel at Montage Palmetto Bluff.
Check out a selection of the latest photos of Crossroads below.
New course at Buenaventura Resort will focus on fun and playability.
The firm of Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects has signed on to build a second course at Buenaventura Resort in Panama 90 miles southwest of Panama City.
The new course will top out at 6,810 yards with a par of 72, and it will feature long ribbon tees that allow players to choose their best distances. Instead of heavy earth-moving to build the course, the designers plan to rely on the varied natural topography to create interest and provide long sightlines and ocean views. Fairways will feature generous width, allowing players to choose strategic lines into the greens with an emphasis on fun and playability.
The routing plan for the second course, to be named No. 2, at Buenaventura Resort in Panama (Courtesy of Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects)
“As they play, golfers will journey through a variety of distinct environments,” Bruce Charlton, president of Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, said in a media release announcing the plans.
“The jungle holes will be surrounded by dense foliage and towering Guanacaste trees, punctuated by a series of running streams and offering an adventurous experience of navigating winding fairways. The meadow holes, with their wide-open spaces, provide expansive scale and invite bold, strategic play. Players will encounter the challenge a breathtaking beach and ocean-view hole, a one-of-a-kind challenge comprised of ocean breezes and sandy shores.”
Buenaventura is an 800-acre Central American beach resort and residential community, and its first course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2012.
Check out Tiger’s letter to perspective members of new course near Fort Worth.
This story was updated to include information about Mark Brooks at the new club.
Tiger Woods announced on social media Thursday that his course architecture firm, TGR Design, has signed on to build a course at a new residential community underway near Fort Worth, Texas: Bluejack Ranch.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because the developers behind the project – Andy and Kristin Mitchell – also built Bluejack National north of Houston in 2016. That is the site of Woods’ first course design in the U.S., Bluejack National.
The name Bluejack, by the way, references a bluejack oak, a tree native to Texas with one present at Bluejack National.
Bluejack Ranch in Aledo will be about a 30-minute drive southwest of Fort Worth. It is planned to be a residential club on 914 acres of working cattle ranch, according to the club’s website. Plans call for it to open in 2026.
Over a decade ago, I designed my first U.S. course at Bluejack National. I’m excited to announce that @tgrdesignbytw, @BluejackNation, and the Mitchell family are teaming up again to create @BluejackRanch, an exceptional new golf community in Aledo, Texas.… pic.twitter.com/k2nNCR82nB
Course details were not included in the social post, but Golf.com reported that the plans include a full-size course built by Woods and his design partner, Beau Welling. There also will be a lighted 10-hole, par-3 course.
Fort Worth native Mark Brooks, winner of the 1996 PGA Championship among his seven PGA Tour titles, confirmed to Golfweek that he is a senior advisor to the project and will transition into running the club’s player development programs. The club will include a full golf and fitness performance center.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years since we embarked on my first U.S. course design at Bluejack National in Houston. The response to that golf experience has been truly gratifying, and when I hear how much Bluejack means to people, I feel incredibly proud of the TGR Design team.
Now, we’re bringing that same Bluejack spirit and passion to Fort Worth- a city celebrated not only as Cowtown but also as a golf town. With legends like Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the love for the game here is genuine. I’m grateful for the encore opportunity to reteam with Bluejack National and home-towners Andy and Kristin Mitchell to design a course around this incredibly special property and community.
Bluejack National’s success has paved the way for this next chapter at Bluejack Ranch. Our shared vision of creating a space where families can enjoy the game and have fun inspires us all once again at The Ranch.
It’s extremely motivating for me to contribute to the golfing legacy of Fort Worth, and I’m excited to see what we’ll build together. We’ll share more after our next design meeting in Aledo.
Does Florida need more golf courses at the expense of protected land in state parks?
A proposal to convert sections of several protected Florida State Parks to golf courses, lodges and other non-traditional park amenities has started to garner plenty of opposition after the surprise “Great Outdoors Initiative” was announced on August 19 by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The most eye-popping changes might be the introduction of 45 holes of golf to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, an 11,500-acre park in Martin County near Jupiter in southeast Florida that features sandy dunes – the kind of land frequently coveted by golf developers.
The Department of Environmental Protection released the plans on social media after they were initially leaked. With no detailed description of the golf plans, a map included in the official release shows the proposed courses (shown in pink below).
A map released by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection shows the proposed areas of Jonathan Dickinson State Park that could be converted into golf courses. (Florida Department of Environmental Protection)
Equally eye-popping is that the proposals appear to many observers to have come out of thin air, with no public input in the development of plans to this point. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, a staunch environmental defender of the nearby St. Lucie River, told ThePalm Beach Post that park proposals came without any forewarning.
“Nobody that I spoke to in government had heard literally one thing about this,” Mast said during an interview at Jonathan Dickinson on Thursday. “Everyone was taken by surprise.”
After several days of silence, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s spokesman responded to criticism this week with statements on social media indicating the proposed changes are all about public access and utilization of the parks.
“The Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Parks are looking at recommendations for ways to enhance Florida’s parks to make them more visitor-friendly.”
This is not the first time golf was proposed in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Legislative initiatives in 2011 included a Jack Nicklaus-designed course at the park, but those plans were quickly swept away after substantial public criticism.
There are more than 1,300 golf courses in Florida, which has been dubbed in many marketing efforts as the Golf Capital of the World. The majority of Florida’s golf courses offer public access.
Florida operates 175 state parks within environments ranging from upland scrub to aquatic shorelines, with parks ranging in size from a handful of acres to more than 75,000 acres. Typical amenities might include campsites, cabins and trails, most constructed with a goal of minimizing human impact while providing recreational and educational opportunities. They are operated by the Florida Park Service, a division of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Some aspects of the Park Service’s historic mission could change if the new proposals are carried out. The proposed plans also include the introduction of pickleball, disc golf, paddling, cabins and lodges with as many as 350 rooms.
Changes have been proposed at nine parks around the state. As required by law, the DEP has scheduled a series of public meetings on August 27 in each county where park changes have been proposed. But those mostly simultaneous, in-person-only meetings will be limited to one hour with public speakers limited to three minutes of comments each. Opponents say the limited comment period indicates the rushed meetings are insufficient and that a wide range of comments isn’t valued.
DeSantis is a frequent golfer. Comments by Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, included the following:
“There will be multiple phases of public discussion to evaluate stakeholders’ feedback. The agency’s initial recommendations are based on public input and proposals—from pickleball to golf to additional bike trails and camping access; the proposals vary and may not all be approved.
“Finally, recommendations will be evaluated, and no final decisions will be made until the public comment and review process has been completed.”
100% of the resort’s net profits will go to charitable initiatives.
Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan, will open its new Cardinal Golf Course on June 22, with several other top-tier golf amenities having been constructed to complement the 18-hole course.
Golf architect Raymond Hearn was tasked with reimagining the old 27-hole layout at what was then the Inn at St. John’s on the west side of Detroit. His new main layout is a total rethink of the property to create an original experience across the rolling landscape.
“The land was a perfect setting for me to draw on my inspiration from previous Donald Ross, Tom Bendelow and Willie Park Jr. projects and one of my favorite courses, the Old Course at Sunningdale (in England) by Willie Park Jr., which I implemented on both the championship course and the short course,” Hearn said in a media release announcing the opening. “Our goal was to create a fun golf experience. I believe we have achieved that, and then some, with this project.”
The routing for the new Cardinal golf course at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan (Courtesy of Saint John’s Resort)
The project includes a seven-hole short course by Hearn named Little Cardinal, which plays across 7.5 acres with holes ranging from 44 to 112 yards. Also built was an 18-hole, 2-acre putting course – complete with food, drink and built-in music – that was themed after the famous Himalayas Putting Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. These are first-of-their-kind amenities for the Detroit area, and the concepts of alternative golf options have been proved at some of the top resorts in the U.S.
“These exciting golf attractions provide a relaxed environment focused on fun and offering a less intimidating introduction to the game, encouraging newcomers to want to participate, learn and improve,” Stan Witko, executive director of golf for Saint John’s Resort, said in the media release.
It’s all part of a renovation to the property formerly owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. The property was donated in 2021 to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation and has been rebranded as Saint John’s Resort. A $50-million transformation includes updated rooms at the resort’s hotel, a 6,200-square-foot pavilion, a ballroom and more. The charitable foundation has pledged 100 percent of net proceeds to educational and humanitarian initiatives in Metro Detroit and beyond.
Check out a selection of photos of the new courses and putting green below:
Allow us to geek out about bunker edges for a bit.
MYAKKA CITY, Fla. – The under-construction Miakka Golf Club has a lot going for it. A wide-open parcel of land with several interesting features. Two miles of frontage along a pastoral river. A former Ryder Cup captain as consultant. A successful developer with a proven track record, big plans and deep pockets.
Forget all that for a minute, and indulge this golf architecture nerd to geek out about one particular aspect of the work taking place inland between Tampa and Fort Myers on the western side of Florida’s peninsula. Because if all goes to plan, the private Miakka might have some of the coolest bunkers found in the United States.
Yes, after a tour of the property in its raw-dirt form, it was the bunkers that caught my eye. That’s because some of the best bunkers in the world caught the eyes of course architects Dana Fry and Jason Straka, who plan to model their traps at Miakka in the form of Australian Sandbelt courses.
A beautiful bunker’s edge is carved directly into a green at Victoria Golf Club in Australia. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Citing the style of bunkering at such international heavyweights as Royal Melbourne, Victoria, Kingston Heath and Peninsula Kingswood, Fry and Straka plan to build traps that reach deep into greens with the putting surfaces seemingly suspended in air above the sand.
Fellow architecture nerds are granted a gasp at the daring.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Straka said with a smile during a tour of the property.
The traps in Australia’s Sandbelt around Melbourne are largely the creation of or inspired by Alister MacKenzie, the famed designer of Augusta National and Cypress Point, among others. It was on a working tour of Australia nearly a century ago that MacKenzie introduced some of the best bunkers in the world to several courses.
The best Sandbelt greens and traps are split by a knife’s edge with no fringe, no separation. With graceful curves etched directly into the putting surfaces, they are among the most beautiful and frightening sand traps in the world, often falling back into a more rugged and natural design on the far sides of the traps.
But it’s almost impossible to build such traps at most locations. The Melbourne Sandbelt is graced with dense sand, which helps the traps retain their shape. They wouldn’t work at most American courses, as the edges of the bunkers would crumble under the weight of golfers and mowers on the surfaces above – such construction would be a liability and a maintenance headache. Instead, American bunkers are normally kept at least several steps off a putting surface. Us lot have grown accustomed to the American style, most of us never realizing what we’re missing Down Under.
Fry and Straka plan to utilize a modern construction method to change all that at Miakka.
Architect Jason Straka inspects a Loksand bunker edge at Miakka Golf Club. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The design team will lean on Loksand to construct bunker edges. With offices in Asia and Australia, the company Loksand has created a crimped fiber product that allows grass to grow atop it while resisting compression or shifting. The company’s methods provide the hardy bunker walls Fry and Straka need to carve Sandbelt-style traps into greens in Florida, where native sand is normally much looser.
Showing off a Loksand test bunker at Miakka, Straka threw a golf ball into the wall of the trap. It bounced off in a natural way, not some weird rebound that would be a turn-off to golfers. The Loksand bunker also supports plenty of weight. The company provided a green light for Fry and Straka to make bold choices.
“We had looked at the Sandbelt course and wanted to find a way to build bunkers like that, and this gave us that chance,” Straka said during our tour. “We tried several other options, and this just works.”
For the golf architecture nerds who have had the good fortune to play in the Sandbelt, it’s an inspiring choice.
But the property’s developer, Florida-based entrepreneur Steve Herrig, was not originally inspired by golf at all. This all started with horses.
Miakka Golf Club will be operated by the same family that owns the adjacent TerraNova Equestrian Center, which has grown into a world-class facility with incredible barns and event spaces. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Miakka Golf Club sits next to Herrig’s TerraNova Equestrian Center, which he built to accommodate the growing passion for horses shown by his daughter. Starting with small plans for a barn and a place to ride, TerraNova has grown into a world-class equestrian center capable of holding national events. Herrig has laid out plans for a horse-themed community adjacent to the equestrian center, with lots ranging from five to 20 acres, each with a private barn.
A frequent participant in golf games at Gator Creek Golf Club in nearby Sarasota, Herrig – who has built profitable businesses in insurance and human resources – said he was told by friends that he should add a golf course. “Here we are now,” he said at lunch before setting out to check on construction of his Miakka Golf Club.
One of those friends from the Sarasota club – known simply as Gator by locals – just happened to be Paul Azinger, winner of 12 PGA Tour events including the 1993 PGA Championship. He went on to captain the victorious 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup squad and feature as a prominent voice in golf broadcasting for 15 years. Herrig brought on Azinger as a design consultant at Miakka.
The property has a lot going for it. The course and its facilities will sit on 1,100 acres away from the planned homes. Overall, the land tilts on a plane dozens of feet down toward the Myakka River, and there’s a twisting creek bed that will be interlaced with fairways. Some 3 million cubic yards of sand will be pushed into landforms atop the site, that sand having been mined from an area that will become a lake nearer a rural highway that passes the course and sprawling clubhouse. Plans include a 12-hole par-3 course, a huge circular practice facility, cabins and a lighted putting course.
Some 3 million cubic yards of sand will be dug from a lake to sandcap the golf course at Miakka. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Unlike at most Florida courses, which rely on man-made lakes for irrigation as well as shotmaking interest, the lake at Miakka won’t be in play on the main 18. Azinger, ever an angler, said he can’t wait to cast for bass in its water.
The river and its offshoots will be in play on several holes, most notably a par-3 that plays along the waterway. Other than that and the creekbed, the course will rely on Fry and Straka’s shaping to provide strategic golf interest instead of water carries, similar to the way Australian Sandbelt courses don’t feature much, if any, water.
In a state experiencing something of a golf construction boom, especially for high-end clubs with six-figure membership fees, it all serves to set Miakka apart in some ways. There will be horses, barns, firm and bouncy golf, and plenty of luxury for well-heeled members.
Less is more as Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw replace outlandish length with a focus on playability .
It’s a case of addition by subtraction at The International in Bolton, Massachusetts, as the famed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have replaced an emphasis on outlandish length with a much-improved golf experience on the club’s Pines Course.
Known for decades as the longest course in the U.S., the Pines opened in 1955 with a design by Geoffrey Cornish and legendary amateur Francis Ouimet. The course originally stretched to 8,040 yards, an extreme length for that time period. Nearly two decades later, architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. stretched it to 8,325 yards in a renovation.
Coore and Crenshaw have scrubbed that focus on length and difficulty in their total renovation that began in 2022. Scheduled to reopen this fall to limited member play, the private Pines is a whole new golf course. And they have removed some 1,200 yards – the combined length of three mid-sized par 4s – as the course will now play to a much more reasonable 7,103 off the back tees.
Architect Bill Coore walks the Pines course at The International in Bolton, Mass. (Courtesy of Escalante)
Not a single playing corridor or green site remains from the old layout, as Coore and Crenshaw reimagined the course to better take advantage of interesting topography and mature vegetation. Instead of length and head-banging difficulty, the Pines will now offer playability with an emphasis on natural and strategic golf holes.
“Bill, Ben, shapers Ryan Farrow and Zach Varty, and the rest of the Coore and Crenshaw team have worked their magic, taking an exceptional site and crafting what we strongly believe will be considered one of the country’s best new golf courses,” Paul Celano, director of golf at The International, said in a media release announcing the upcoming completion of the project. “Their deep admiration for courses built during the early 20th century, the so-called ‘Golden Age of Architecture,’ is an ideal match for our vision of a golf-first experience at The International that preserves and honors the club’s 120-year history.”
Another addition: The Pines will now feature fescue turf tees, fairways and rough. Besides making for amazing aesthetics in the rough, fescue provides a firm and bouncy playing surface that should highlight the strategic opportunities intended by the design team. Add in sandy waste areas carved through the pine trees, and it will be an entirely new experience for golfers versus the old layout.
The Pines is one of two layouts at The International, along with the Tom Fazio-designed Oaks course that recently received a lighter renovation by Tripp Davis. The club was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2021 by Escalante Golf, owner of golf properties in 15 states, which has invested heavily in the New England club.
Check out a selection of photos from the Pines course as the renovation nears completion.
Tiger Woods’ TGR Design firm is building its first mountain course outside Park City, Utah.
Tiger Woods will tee it up next week in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, but in addition to practicing his golf game, the former World No. 1 took a recent detour to Utah for his other job as golf course architect.
Woods, along with design consultant Beau Welling (who runs a successful design firm of his own), recently visited Marcella Club near Park City. Woods’ TGR Design firm is building an 18-hole layout there that is scheduled to open in 2025. Plans for the mile-high-plus course, Woods’ first mountain layout, have it stretching beyond 8,000 yards.
“I was completely blown away by everything about Marcella,” Woods said in a media release discussing his site visit. “The amenities, the commitment to excellence, not to mention maybe the best views I have ever seen on a golf course. I told the team that this is the perfect canvas, and we just need to make sure we live up to the challenge.”
Marcella Club, laid out by Tiger Woods’ TGR Design, will be the former World No. 1’s first mountain course. (Courtesy of Marcella Club)
The private course will be situated in the Marcella Jordanelle Ridge, part of a masterplanned community that is a partnership between Marcella at Deer Valley and Marcella Jordanelle Ridge. The club, which will include private skiing, plans to cap its membership at 500.
In all, the club will offer membership amenities in three locations: Marcella at Deer Valley, Marcella Jordanelle Ridge and Marcella on Main. The club is a collaboration between Reef Capital Partners, Raintree Investment Corporation and Cross Lake Partners.
During is recent site visit, Woods and his team previewed the layout of all 18 holes, signing off on seven of them and discussing the others, as noted in the media release.
“Despite a snowy winter, we have made substantial progress on the championship course,” Beth Armstrong, managing director of Marcella, said in the media release. “The walkthrough allowed us to fine-tune the layout and features to ensure a challenging and enjoyable experience for all golfers.”
Plans for Marcella include a second 18-hole course by a designer yet to be named, a short course designed by Woods and a ski-in-ski-out lodge at Deer Valley Resort.
The Keiser family plans two new courses in Texas to be designed by some of the biggest names in golf architecture.
The Keiser family is at it again, this time with a new resort named Wild Spring Dunes planned for East Texas. Several of the biggest names in golf course architecture will bring the project to life.
Chris and Michael Keiser, sons of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder Mike Keiser, have acquired a 2,400-acre site not far from Nacogdoches that eventually will be home to an announced two courses at Wild Spring Dunes. Draw a triangle from Houston up to Dallas with the third point in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the resort will sit just north of the center of that triangle.
One of the layouts will be designed by Tom Doak, who has completed his routing with construction set to begin soon. The team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have routed the second course. There also are plans for a short course, a practice center, cabins and a clubhouse. The involvement of Doak, Coore and Crenshaw is an extension of a long relationship in which they have designed world-class resort courses for the Keiser family and at other world-wide destinations that have opened with financial backing from Mike Keiser.
The site for Wild Spring Dunes in Texas (Courtesy of Dream Golf/Jeff Marsh)
Wild Spring Dunes will be part of Dream Golf, which is the collective of courses and resorts operated by the Keiser Family. The collective includes Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Rodeo Dunes.
Chris and Michael Keiser hit a home run on their first swing with their development of Sand Valley in Wisconsin, and the brothers announced last year their plans for Rodeo Dunes to the northeast of Denver. Wild Spring Dunes is the next in line of a continuously swirling series of speculations and rumors about the family’s future development plans. The family recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of Bandon Dunes in Oregon, which set off a trend of developers searching for remote sandy sites.
Wild Spring Dunes looks to be one more such development. The sandy terrain features considerable elevation changes in four distinct ecosystems with pines and hardwoods, steep ravines and spring-fed creeks.
“This land surprised me,” Michael Keiser said on a website announcing the development to prospective early members. “I would never have imagined this kind of property in Texas. The pine forests. The steep ravines. The big hills surrounding it. You walk the site, and it’s always changing, and you can see golf holes on every part of it.”
Chris Keiser and Michael Keiser with their dad, Mike Keiser, at Sand Valley in Wisconsin (Courtesy of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)
As spelled out on the website, Wild Spring Dunes has solicited early members with an initial price of $65,000 until May 31, with that price then increasing to $75,000. Early members will not receive equity but will be the recipients of various perks, including having their green fees covered at what will be a public-access resort and early access to any possible real estate developments. The model is similar to how the Keiser brothers developed the popular Sand Valley, which has continued to expand and soon will be home to four courses.
Two of the courses at Sand Valley were built by Doak: the Lido, which is a re-creation of a century-old but defunct layout on Long Island, and the new Sedge Valley that is scheduled to open in July this year. As part of the communications with prospective members, Doak said he plans to make the most of 60 feet of elevation changes for his course at Wild Spring Dunes.
“The site in East Texas is not the sort of windblown dunes land we’ve worked on in Bandon and at Sand Valley,” said Doak, who recently opened a new course at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina named No. 10. “It’s more like Pine Valley, rolling land that falls off on three sides into deep barrancas. Reminiscent of Pasatiempo or L.A. Country Club (both in California). Pine trees abound, as does a heathery ground cover.”
Coore and Crenshaw built the original and eponymous course at Sand Valley for the Keiser brothers, as well as designing two full-size courses – Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch – and the popular Bandon Preserve par-3 course at Bandon Dunes for the brothers’ father. They also are building one of the first courses at Rodeo Dunes.
“It’s a marvelous place that feels as though it was destined for golf,” Coore said of Wild Spring Dunes in the communications with prospective members. “The site is thrilling, sandy, and the routing has come together very naturally. We can’t wait to see it come to life.”
