I've played Lost Dunes about ten times and I haven't played Kingsley or Wuskowan and I'm a member of the Dunes Club and therefore have an inherent bias, but I'll still try to offer some commentary on Lost Dunes and Dunes.
Lost Dunes is a terrific course on an interesting piece of property that has the unfortunate circumstance of being interrupted by an interstate highway. Fortunately, Tom Doak still managed to come up with an inventive routing, so the golf course feels like one, integral piece. It is easy, I suppose, to criticize the putting surfaces, because a knee-jerk reaction is that they are tough and/or quirky to the point of being silly, but the more times one plays the course, you begin to realize that the greens have safe and unsafe areas to hit to. With all of the option-slobs on this site, one would think that this type of design would be appealing. To me, the greens are phantasmagoric, with deceptive slopes and furrows, humps and bumps. If you're in the wrong quadrant, you surely can four-putt, but if you put the ball on the proper part of the green, the surfaces are quite manageable indeed.
As for the Dunes Club, it's one of my favorite places on the planet. Much of this is due to the simple vibe of the place. You warm up on a mat and hit to a screen. The putting green is best used after golf and after a few heinekens, since it's just plain wacky. The clubhouse is about 2000 square feet and is as simple as it gets. You can't get a cart unless you're Mike Ditka or somebody who is missing a lower appendage.
As for the golf course, it is scenic, bucolic and very demanding. You might call it a poor man's Pine Valley, but then you have to remember that Mike Keiser, no poor man, is the owner. It is reminiscent of the sort of scruffy dunescape that is characteristic of the pictures I've seen of Pine Valley, but beyond that, I can't comment. I can say that each and every one of the nine holes is simply beautiful and seriously difficult if you don't keep the ball in play. The heather and the soft, natural sand in the hazards will jump up and beat you senseless. There is a wonderful variety of landforms and elevation changes to keep visual interest and the greens are subtle, sinister and beguiling.
It is only a nine-hole course, so no matter what you do with alternate tees and newly cut holes, you're playing the same hole twice if you're playing 18. In that respect it is a little difficult to compare Dunes Club to any 18-hole course, but in other respects, there are very few courses that can compare to the charms of this one.
Mike Keiser and Dick Nugent collaborated quite nicely and ingeniously on this little gem of a golf course. If you're in the neighborhood and can get on, you'll never regret your time there.