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PGA Championship

Quail Hollow Club



    Sand Valley: The Lido

    Sand Valley: The Lido

    1697 Leopold Way

    Nekoosa, WI 54457-9200

    United States

    Telephone

    Primary: (888) 651-5539

    Overview

    The Lido at Sand Valley in central Wisconsin opened in May, 2023, and is a down-to-the-inch recreation of The Lido that C.B. Macdonald built on Long Island from 1914 to 1917. Heralded as one of the country’s greatest courses, it went extinct in the 1940s when the U.S. government converted the land to a naval base.

    Rebuilding The Lido has been the fantasy of many historians, but doing so accurately became possible when Peter Flory, a financial consultant and architecture enthusiast, developed a detailed computer simulation of the course based on scrupulous study of old photographs and other material. Sand Valley proprietors Michael and Chris Keiser discovered Flory’s computer model, then asked architect Tom Doak if he could use it to rebuild the course.

    First the animated contours had to be translated into a physical GPS topographical blueprint, a technological hack accomplished by digital mapping specialist Brian Zager. The GPS map enabled Doak and his associates to reconstruct Lido holes like Plateau, Alps, Cape and Long in exquisite detail, along with originals like the Dog's Leg sixth and the Home 18th, making only minor adjustments for drainage and adding longer tees for modern play. Though there’s no Atlantic Ocean crashing near the Biarritz eighth green or stiff coastal winds swatting around balls, the ”new” Lido is a stunning representation of Macdonald’s groundbreaking accomplishment and a vivid throwback to a more daring era of architecture. Using the spacious hole corridors to explore different routes into the giant greens is half the fun. Contemplating players navigating holes like the Channel fourth, with an alternative island fairway for daring hitters and a green perched behind a high rampart bunker, using hickory shafts and Haskell balls, is the other half.

    About

    Holes 18
    Length 7027
    Facility Type Public
    Year Opened 2023
    Designer Tom Doak/C.B. Macdonald

    Golf Digest Logo Panelists

    Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

    4.5

    100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

    Shot Options
    7.8317
    Character
    7.8481
    Challenge
    7.6632
    Layout Variety
    7.773
    Fun
    7.574
    Aesthetics
    7.3391
    Conditioning
    7.4595

    Reviews