In 2018, Sand Valley Golf Resort opened its second golf course, Mammoth Dunes, a David McLay Kidd design. Almost immediately, Mammoth Dunes became a smash hit and the most popular course at Sand Valley. A reason why could be the design philosophy behind the course. Kidd focused on “defending birdie” as opposed to the traditional “defending par.” This ethos has led to thousands of golfers setting their career-best round at Mammoth Dunes, and took the concept of playability, a domineering golf course architecture trend since the early 2000s, to a new place. Mammoth Dunes was not met with universal praise in golf architecture circles and its merits have produced great debates. Kidd executed his ideology through massive fairways and receptive greens that corral shots that other golf courses might punish.
Kidd’s commission at Sand Valley came two decades after his ballyhooed debut at Bandon Dunes with Mike Keiser. In the intervening years after Bandon, Kidd had allegedly fallen out of favor with the high-profile developer due to the difficult nature of some of his designs that followed Bandon Dunes. Kidd had a revelation about the game, which led to a change in philosophy at Gamble Sands. After the Keiser’s saw his work at Gamble Sands, Kidd reentered the rotation of potential architects for future work and thus was a part of the “bake off” at Sand Valley, which included Tom Doak, Rod Whitman, and Dave Axland.
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Take Note...
What if we move the clubhouse? When Kidd had settled on a routing and clubhouse location, the Keiser’s said, “We love it, but what if we put the clubhouse over here?” DMK’s team thought about a potential reroute but simply renumbered the holes to fit the new clubhouse location.
Got turf? Mammoth Dunes has a staggering 107 acres of turf, almost equal to the entire property at Merion. On top of the massive fairways, the greens are massive averaging 10,576 sq ft.
Design Contest. The 14th hole, a dramatic and downhill short par 4 that has yielded holes in one, eagles, birdies, and very few scores worse than 5, was the product of a Golf Digest Armchair Architect Contest. The winner, Brian Silvernail, sketched this hole on paper and then it was brought to life by Kidd’s team with some small tweaks.
