According to today’s article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online edition by Gary D’Amato, the Sand Valley golf resort’s course architect team for the initial course has been selected, and will be Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

Coore and Crenshaw have worked with Mike Keiser (developer of Sand Valley, and previously at Bandon Dunes and several other world-renowned sites) before, and have a wealth of relevant experience to draw from, including some of the world’s very best sand-based golf courses.

My personal favorite golf-related website is GolfClubAtlas, which is uniquely qualified for providing insight in to the golf course architecture of Coore and Crenshaw. The writers of GCA have the uncanny ability to dissect and review courses based on their design and architecture, yielding interesting reading and learning, as well as photography that goes beyond the traditional post card material.

I have not played any Coore/Crenshaw designs yet, so all the photos below were borrowed from the Internet.

With no further adieu, here are some of the Coore/Crenshaw duo’s courses, complete with links to their respective articles as provided by GolfClubAtlas:

Sand Hills (Mullen, NE): The #9-rated overall course in the country:

Riviera Country Club (Pacific Palisades, CA; restoration project): The #23-rated overall course in the country:

Friar’s Head (Baiting Hollow, NY): The #28-rated overall course in the country:

Pinehurst No. 2 (Pinehurst, NC; restoration project): The #40-rated overall course in the country:

Old Sandwich Golf Club (Plymouth, MA): The #68-rated overall course in the country:

Bandon Trails (Bandon, OR): The #70-rated overall course in the country:

The Plantation course at Kapalua (Kapalua, Maui, HI): The #97-rated overall course in the country:

Streamsong Blue and Red (Fort Meade, FL): The top two rated courses in the state of Florida, and two highest rated new courses in the country for 2013:

I can only hope to see some of their early design plans, etc. for the Sand Valley project, which is slated to begin construction this coming September, is scheduled to open to members in 2016, and to the public in 2017. The opening will be for one course, but the 1,500 acres being purchased has the potential to hold as many as four of five championship calibre courses. This was the same formula used at Bandon Dunes, Keiser’s first [and extraordinarily successful!] golf resort project.

Sand Valley will be located about 15 miles south of Wisconsin Rapids, adding to the area’s already stellar collection of golf courses like SentryWorld, Lake Arrowhead and Castle at the Bay.

Certainly, great times are ahead for Wisconsin golf fanatics, and Sand Valley – added to Wisconsin’s great lineup of Sheboygan area courses (Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, The Bull at Pinehurst Farms), Erin Hills, and others – is sure to make our great state second to none as a Summer golf destination.