71 done for Lido,” says Doak. “Ultimately, we didn’t do so much of that, but we did move more dirt to make the short parfour finishing hole something special. The eighteenth is modelled after the fourth hole at Barnbougle Dunes, one of my all-time favourites.” The back nine may feel slightly more conventional than the front – but still includes two short par fours, a par five that could probably stretch to 600 yards. There is also the delightful, while quite long, par-three fifteenth with a generous green that nestles sublimely against the rock outcrop but incorporates a small back-right plateau that will be an extremely challenging target when the pin is placed there. Sedge Valley certainly feels distinctly different to the other eighteens at Sand Valley, and that in part is due to the more restrained presence of sand. The fourteenth, for example, has a completely bunkerless green, protected by contour alone. “The first two courses at Sand Valley have sandy wastes surrounding nearly every hole,” says Doak. “At Sedge, we were trying to do something on a more intimate scale, and there was a lot of native sedge and other plants worth saving. But some of it can present difficulties in finding your ball, so we bunkered the course fairly liberally as a buffer between the target areas and the native plants. Eric Iverson spent a lot of time working on the margins of the course and trying to incorporate the native stuff as much as we could without it becoming too difficult.” Sedge Valley opened for public play in July, and some early observers feel it could quickly become the most popular at the resort. Those with an interest in golf design will surely be enthralled by it, but it will be fascinating to see how the wider US golfing public responds to a layout that is a par 68 (we think – we’ve not seen a scorecard yet and wouldn’t it be great if the resort didn’t bother listing par?) and close to 6,000 yards. Those figures haven’t stopped Colt’s Swinley Forest from becoming one of the most-loved layouts in the UK. “We are very curious to see how the American audience receives the course,” says Doak. “In the UK, that doesn’t matter much, because most casual golf is played in matches, and nobody really cares about the score. Americans tend to post a score, and we think we’re going to have a course where it’s a real challenge for good players to break par, but where breaking 80 or 90 is a bit easier, because you have more shots in hand. And I’ve always thought that would be the ideal for both groups. “It’s possible some low-handicap golfers will look down on the course because it isn’t longer, and dismiss a good score as misleading, because the course is short. But it’s also possible that a lot of people will enjoy the chance to better their usual score!” SEDGE VALLEY Photo: Brandon Carter The L-shaped green of the eighteenth, which Doak modelled on one of his favourite creations, the fourth at Barnbougle Dunes
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