Lost Dunes Golf Club

Favorite Hole

No. 15, par 5, 510 yards

The 15th is one of three par 5s that’s more like a par 4.5 (also Nos. 4 and 10) and boasts a green almost as unhinged as the fourth. The hole is tucked in the back corner of the property between a large lake left over from the mining operation and the massive natural dunes on the west side. Here you are at the furthest point from I-94, providing a tranquil retreat from the white noise of the buzzing interstate.

Deciding how aggressive of a line you want to take off the tee will dictate whether you can go for the green in two, like a cape template. Undulations throughout the fairway and layup zone create more frequent uneven lies than the rest of the course. The green sits up on a high point and is divided into three prominent sections. A small, steep-sided front bowl, a large back plateau, and a small protected shelf create a variety of pins, all of which require specific positioning to attack. The front bowl pins are extraordinarily fun as they funnel balls severely, allowing for plenty of hole-outs. They also eject balls off the green just as frequently.

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Overall Thoughts

Tom Doak has built his career by mastering two of the most crucial aspects of designing a golf course; routing and green design. Routing a golf course over an individual parcel of land is like solving a puzzle where all of the pieces are scattered around your house. You must walk and search for the key aspects (edge pieces) that will create a complete and compelling picture. As for designing greens, they need to have variety and independence from one another because as C.B. Macdonald once famously said, “Putting greens to a golf course are what the face is to a portrait.”

These two aspects without a doubt create the identity of a golf course. But what happens when the land is so boxed in with constraints that there’s little room for adventure or selection of where holes can go? Well, you just build insanely wild greens so that people forget about the routing … just kidding (kind of).

In Lost Dune’s case, there were seemingly more constraints than not, which made Doak’s job of creating a captivating sequence for the golfer a lot more difficult than most of his other routings. Due to the sand mining operations I spoke of previously, the land on the main paddock west of I-94 is essentially a big bowl with a flat bottom. Sand dunes 60-plus feet high surround this 150-acre section on three sides and all of the natural dunescape inside the bowl was wiped away by the mining equipment. Mining also led to two large lakes and several areas of environmental easements that could not be touched.

All of these constraints resulted in crossing a multi-lane interstate highway, having water in play on nine holes (the most of any of Doak’s courses), and needing to create intrigue in some fashion within the center of the site. Doak’s well-thought-out solutions to these constraints are why he’s such a revered designer and why Lost Dunes is such an enjoyable golf course to play, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances.

In order to minimize the player interaction with the interstate, Doak decided to place the first tee and driving range on the eastern side of the highway as opposed to near the clubhouse on the western side. Now golfers only cross under the busy road once during the actual round, creating a more seamless flow. As a result, the longest green-to-tee transitions occur during this crossing, plus from the eighth to the ninth hole and then the ninth to the 10th hole. While these are certainly a nuisance for the walking crowd, they come strategically in the middle of the round when golfers are expecting an interruption at the turn. This routing solution greatly masks the boisterous nature of I-94, making it an afterthought throughout the round versus feeling like a pesky mosquito that keeps following you around.

While the routing and I-94 are prominent features of the course, it would be impossible to talk about Lost Dunes without diving into the wildly contoured green complexes. Many of the greens have large heaving movements thanks to Jerame Miller, a novice shaper and art student who had a knack for building greens on the wild side. The boldest greens include Nos. 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 16. Most of the greens have very distinct sections that tend to accept shots best from certain positions in the fairways, creating a wonderful dynamic for repeat play which is key for a member’s course. On the flip side, finding the wrong section or backside of a slope creates long and sometimes nearly impossible putts and recovery shots.

In many ways the greens at Lost Dunes are similar to those at Ballyneal, where finding the correct section or tier of the green significantly boosts birdie probability while missing these correct portions greatly increases three putts and bogeys. What makes this style of shaping work so well is the supreme width of the fairways, fairness off the tees, and sandy soils which promote firm turf. This combination allows for certain daily pin positions to be extremely strategic while letting higher handicap golfers get around smoothly despite the abundance of water hazards.

All things considered, Doak was able to make a pretty cool golf course from something riddled with misfortune. This pre-Pacific Dunes design may never rank highly or gain notoriety in a state packed full of great golf, but it’s a case study in routing problem-solving and showcases how a great set of greens can do the heavy lifting. Lost Dunes is a course that one would never tire of playing because of the immense character in the greens and its serene setting.

1 Egg

(How We Rate Courses)

The land on the east side of I-94 provides the most interest but that’s home to only seven of the holes. The combination of inventive greens, artful bunkering, and firm playing surfaces make this course better than the rest. The routing mishaps in the middle of the round certainly leave a sour taste in the mouth, but the wildly fun greens and concrete strategy throughout the course outshine the inherent issues of the site.

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