Sand Valley — Hotel in Town of Rome

This review is for Monday, August 7, 2017. I'd like to first start off and say I'm very disappointed with most of the previous reviewer's. I think the majority of the reviews was based on the scenery and not actually the golf. The scenery is incredible the golf course looks beautiful. The locker rooms the pro shop the restaurant are fantastic. However this is for the true golfer not the weekend player. For $175 you would've expected nice fluffy fairways smooth greens manicure bunkers, not the waste area but the true greenside bunker's. Every bunker was different. One Bunker would be clay and hard immediately underneath the top sand and then the next bunker would be so fluffy you swing right under the ball and can't get it out. The fairway was hard as a rock and when you go to the driving range you can physically here the ball bouncing 100 yards out that is what is like throughout the whole course. There is still sod in some areas and it definitely needed to grow in some more. And the greens were ridiculously undulated and hard as a rock. You could bounce your putter off the ground and if someone was standing next to you within the 3 or 5 feet they could feel the vibration. It was almost a standing joke whenever we were putting we will drop the putter on the ground just to hear the thumping sound. Didn't need a divot tool today. Hitting gap wedges and pitching wedges into the green the ball will bounce 2 to 3 feet off the ground on the green and rollout 12 to 15 feet and you couldn't even find where the ball landed. Most of the greens had false fronts or if you were near the edge it would roll off into a waste area or bunker or chipping area. However with the greens being so hard trying to chip was crazy also. You would not get any check whatsoever. And obviously with the greens been hard as a rock they were extremely fast and with the greens being so undulating it wasn't even fair. I could never understand why these golf courses think big undulating and fast greens is fun. You can have undulating and you can have fast but you can't have both. We sat and watched a par three while waiting on the tee and two people putted the ball off the green because of the way the are designed. I truly truly truly wanted to love this course. Like I said it's extremely beautiful and the course layout is very spectacular. However it needs to grow some more and they need to tackle the greens. They definitely and I repeat they definitely SHOULD NOT be charging $175 to play this course. Right now with the true conditions this is a $75-$85 course. You're paying for the name and the recognition not the golf course and that's really really sad. This cough course should stand on its own merit and hopefully in the next 3 to 5 years it might be worth the money. I hope this review helps you decide on where to play because if I would've known how the course truly played we would not have traveled 3 hours to play. Hopefully the next few people who leave reviews will be honest and review the course not the overall experience because that is why you're mainly...

We stayed at Sand Valley Gold Resort for one night during a drive up from Chicagoland to Duluth. It was conveniently located, just about midway through the trip. Paradoxically we do not play golf, but the lodging looked enticing, the restaurant had a decent menu, and there seemed to be decent hiking. What sealed the deal for us, however, was indirectly related to golf: the opportunity to play tennis on grass. It was totally logical; outside of the tennis world who else would have the expertise, manpower, and equipment to create and maintain a natural grass court other than a golf resort. We generally play on hard court but have played on Har-Tru green clay here as well. We have played tennis on bare concrete and on crushed shell/sand in the Philippines. But we had yet to test ourselves on grass.||Booking on-line was a breeze. The resort responded quickly to emailed inquiries. It was a straightforward drive to the resort. ||As we approached the resort we could see the sand dune substrate on which the red pine forests were growing. These were actually plantations, red pine being particularly suited for growing on sand and harvested for use a wood pulp. As we reached the entrance we say bulldozers working on the terrain. The resort is apparently not just creating a new gold course but restoring the vegetation to its pre-plantation variety.||We visited in mid-October. Fortunately the weather was dry and unseasonably warm. We parked at the main lot in front of the main building. There were EV/Tesla chargers available. Check in was efficient. We confirmed that the grass tennis courts were available. ||The unit was on the lower level facing the Sandbox. The room bedroom and bathroom were spacious. The floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors gave great views. The wood porch was shared with the neighboring unit without a physical partition. If there were guests next door or upstairs they were quiet the night we were there. There was a little noise from a few guys playing night golf but thankfully they didn’t play too long into the night. We slept well and felt refreshed in the morning.||We enjoyed playing on the grass, our first time to do so. The courts did not look like they had been played on at all, at least recently. The grass immaculate, the surface evenly firm without any soft spots that we noticed. Once we adjusted to the ball bounce and behavior on the grass we had fun rallies. ||In terms of dining we took advantage of the food truck at The Sandbox, munching on cheese curds and brats. We had made dinner reservations at the resort’s restaurant, Aldo’s Farm and Table. Service was prompt and friendly, and we enjoyed our meal. For an early lunch the next day we joined Sand Valley employees and ate from another food truck, Stone Press Paninis.||We took the 2.2-mile long Ridge Trail the following morning for a pleasant hike around the grounds. ||I would definitely come back for another chance at playing on grass. Accommodations were comfortable and seemed to lend themselves to groups...

I am fortunate to have grown up in the neighboring county to Sand Valley, and have ridden snowmobiles, motorcycles, and have hunted on the land where the course is now located. The area is one of the most unique places to visit with the rolling sand dunes and fantastic views from the top of some of the larger hills. One would never realize that this type of landscape is there by just driving down one of the local highways. I have been fortunate enough to head out to Sand Valley Golf Course on multiple occasions. I was there the first month they opened to the public. It was amazing how the true layout of the land was exposed once all the industrial forest were removed. The dirt roads, storage trailers for a pro shop, and a lot of heavy equipment made me wonder if this course was going to be worth the hype. However, as soon as I met the staff, and was totally impressed with their friendliness, excitement and knowledge.. Their positive vision on how the course was going to change and what they had for the future plans was very impressive. The fist nine holes were quite notable, and I looked forward to how it was going to change even more as the course grew in. I have since been back to the course a handful of times. The course is not a hard PGA style course, but can be very challenging if you can't hit the ball straight. Needless to say I am always challenged. Every visit bring friendly staff, an amazing view, a challenging golf game and more growth and development at the course. In the fall of 2017, I took my wife out to eat for our anniversary and to get a tour of the course. The blacktop roads, driveway, parking lot, newer condominiums and cottages, and a new clubhouse/restaurant. We visited the pro shop, took a tour of the new course and some of the hiking trails, and were totally blown away. What a transformation. The resort is beautiful. We ate supper at the highly recommended restaurant. The waitress and waiter where very friendly, and the selection on the menu was impressive and most of all, the food was amazing! Compliments to the chef. I was told the restaurant is going to be remodeled and added on to this year, another reason to come back in the coming season! I would recommend this course to any golfer I meet. I am lucky it is in my backyard, but I would definitely make the trip at least once a year if not more if i lived out of state. One of my high school friends has come up to Sand Valley a couple of times from Texas. he and his group were very impressed with the course, staff, and other amenities and can't wait for a return trip! I am looking forward to another visit(s) this year at...