I do think some skepticism is still warranted, not just for Sand Valley but for its potential effect on the Wisconsin golf landscape overall. Kohler, Erin Hills, Lawsonia, Sentry World, the courses around Wisconsin Dells, and now Sand Valley will all be places that rely heavily on intrepid out-of-towners traveling to play them. Depending on their price point and overall package, Sand Valley will inevitably end up competing in a certain bracket of that traveling-golfer market within the region. It's feasible that if the courses and accommodations are good enough, Sand Valley will increase traffic to the area overall and boost those other courses in the region. However, it's equally feasible that Sand Valley could siphon play away from other courses in its same bracket.
Sand Valley will clearly be geared toward traveling golfers with more "sophisticated" tastes - guys who care about playing architecturally notable courses and are willing to pay a hefty green fee at a walking-only resort. Up to this point, Wisconsin's most noteworthy public destinations for that crowd could easily be played on a single trip without ever venturing too far from the Milwaukee area. Now, here comes a resort that's a little further off the beaten path and that will offer, presumably, somewhere between 2 and 5 courses within the next 5-10 years. As a result, those taking the average weeklong Wisconsin golf trip may have to make a choice about which of the "big courses" to leave off their itinerary if they don't feel like scrambling wildly to play 8 or 10 courses in a week.
Maybe those golfers will skip a round or two at Kohler, it's probably no great tragedy. But it does seem to me that Sand Valley will make Wisconsin an unusual golf destination. Thinking of Erin Hills, Kohler, and Sand Valley, I wonder if there is another location in the US with three resorts that are:
* High-dollar
* Traveling-golfer reliant
* Walking-only (at least at each resort's most noteworthy course)
* Located in the same general geographic region but just far enough apart that travel between them is inconvenient
* Located in an area with generally little out-of-region tourism otherwise
It's certainly an unusual market if not a totally unique one, and I can see the possibility that another major resort geared toward a similar target audience will oversaturate it. It seems that there's an obvious chance these three competing destinations cannibalize business from each other. However, the bigger worry for me would be the little guy - does Lawsonia become a bit of an afterthought for the target market as the cheaper course with cart tracks all over the place and lacking fabulous onsite accommodations and stuck in the middle of nowhere?
I don't necessarily THINK that Sand Valley is going to be the tipping point that oversaturates the Wisconsin high-end traveling golf market, but it's at least a possibility right? My hope is that it will bring more attention to the region and more money to the little guys - not just Lawsonia but some of the other daily fee courses in Wisconsin that deserve a little more recognition. But I can also see the potential of those less expensive, less heralded courses becoming further marginalized by tourists who represent a smaller but crucial percentage of their overall business. It'll be interesting to follow.