Though he didn’t use the phrase “problem,’’ Tom Ferrell clearly threw down the gauntlet (or golf glove) when he not too long ago instructed me this at Sedge Valley – Tom Doak’s latest creation right here at Sand Valley Golf Resort. “I wager, in relation to par, your scoring common at Sedge Valley isn’t decrease than every other course right here.’’
I didn’t take that wager. I’m guessing most gamers who do will lose. At 5,800 yards, par 68, Sedge Valley is greater than sufficient golf course for gamers no matter handicaps or skills. Doak has made certain of that with deceptively thick underbrush off the fairways and slender, undulating greens.
“The directive had all the time been to search out the most effective greens websites,’’ mentioned Ferrell, vp of communications for Sand Valley mother or father Dream Golf Resorts. “The purpose is to discover the property (via) golf. That is very distinctive piece of property.’’
Sedge Valley, little doubt, ups the ante for Sedge Valley as a premier golf vacation spot for golfers from throughout the nation. Positioned in the midst of Wisconsin – lower than a three-hour drive from Milwaukee and fewer than two hours from Madison – Sand Valley Golf Resort all the time has appealed to critical golfers within the Midwest and Higher Midwest. However as the recognition of high-end vacation spot golf resorts continues to develop, so does Sand Valley’s status nationally. With Wisconsin’s average summer time daytime temperatures, cool evenings and lengthy days of summer time daylight, Sand Valley is a perfect vacation spot for South Floridians to get away from the summer time warmth and humidity.
Whereas some gamers would possibly chuckle at a 5,800-yard, par 68 course, listed below are a few issues to recollect about Sedge Valley: One, your swing doesn’t know the distinction between 5,800 yards and seven,300 yards; two, the Keiser household, proprietor of Dream Golf Resorts, doesn’t construct golf programs simply to be constructing them. Whether or not it’s The Lido at Sand Valley or Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes, every course is constructed with a function. Within the case of Sedge Valley, that function was to construct a sub-par 70 course that rivals the highest “brief’’ programs within the U.S. (par 69 Wannamoisett in Rumford, RI) and the UK (assume Crail’s par 69 Balcomie Hyperlinks in Fife).
Reality is, there may be nothing “brief’’ about any of these programs besides the numbers on their scorecards.
“Every time I see (Sedge Valley) I stroll away with totally different descriptions,’’ mentioned Sand Valley Director of Advertising and marketing Brandon Carter. “It’s intimate and it’s brawny. It’s completely totally different than the rest we now have right here in the present day.’’
What Sand Valley has are two giant–than-life programs – Sand Valley (Invoice Coore and Ben Crenshaw) and Mammoth Dunes (David McLay Kidd) that every sweep throughout the Wisconsin sand hills. The Lido is Doak’s (profitable) try at time journey that transports gamers again to C.B. Macdonald’s “misplaced’’ basic of the early twentieth century. The Sandbox, in the meantime, is Coore and Crenshaw’s par-3 course that pays tribute to the basic designs of golf “golden age.’’
All of which brings us again to Sedge Valley, which in contrast to Sand Valley and Mammoth Dunes, hugs the terrain just like the heathland programs south of London (assume Sunningdale).
With two par-four holes (Nos. 6 and 12) measuring lower than 300 yards lengthy every, Sedge Valley assessments a participant’s ego as a lot as his or her abilities. The back-to-back par 3 holes (Nos. 7 and eight), with the eighth measuring 227 yards from the information, are the highlights of the entrance facet.
Sedge Valley’s solely par-five is the eleventh gap, which performs a troublesome 542 yards from the information. Any last ideas about Sedge Valley being a “brief’’ course dies on the twelfth gap.
Ferrell smiled and gazed towards Sedge Valley’s first tee.
“I feel lots of people will come right here licking their chops and go away licking their wounds.’’
