On the first tee at Mammoth Dunes, the land seems to keep going. A sand ridge close to 100 feet high runs through the property like the spine of something old and asleep. Below it, the fairways spread so wide that the eye gives up trying to find their edges. Even from that first tee, the scale is enough to blow a golfer away, and it is hard to imagine a larger-looking golf course anywhere than this one at Sand Valley in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. The course opened in 2018, the second layout on a 1,700-acre site where Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's Sand Valley had barely settled in. Mike Keiser gave the commission to David McLay Kidd, the architect he had appointed twenty years earlier to design the first course at Bandon Dunes. The years between were not simple. After Bandon, Kidd built courses that drew criticism for their difficulty, and he seems to have drifted out of favor with the developer who launched him. Then came Gamble Sands in Washington, where Kidd had a revelation about the game and put playability first. The Keisers took notice, and Kidd was brought into the bake-off for Sand Valley alongside Tom Doak, Rod Whitman and Dave Axland. Mammoth Dunes is the result of that second chance, and it carries the best of what Kidd first did at Bandon into something new. Its idea is easy to state and bold to build. Most courses defend par. Kidd set out to defend birdie. The fairways stretch as much as 120 yards across, opening several lines from tee to green, and a drive that drifts left or right still leaves an approach from another angle rather than a heavy penalty. The greens average 10,576 square feet and corral shots that other courses might punish. The whole thing covers 500 acres, with 107 acres of maintained grass, almost equal to the entire property at Merion. It plays to a par of 73, with five long par fives that let the scale stretch out. Some holes linger. The short par four 6th runs to a boomerang-shaped green inspired by the half-moon putting surface on the 7th at Crystal Downs. At the par three 13th the green sits at an offset angle between a large sandy waste area and a tree-covered ridge. Then the 14th, a dramatic downhill short par four, came from the winner of an armchair architect contest. Brian Silvernail sketched it on paper, and Kidd's team brought it to life with a few small tweaks. It has produced holes in one, eagles and birdies, and very few scores worse than five. Even the routing has a story of easy improvisation. When Kidd had settled on his routing and clubhouse site, the Keisers loved it but asked whether the clubhouse might go somewhere else. His team thought about a reroute, then simply renumbered the holes to fit the new location. Not everyone in golf architecture embraced the result, and its merits still stir great debate. The course is so friendly that some wonder whether an ideal resort course is also a great one. Yet it became the most popular course at Sand Valley almost immediately, and thousands of golfers have set their career-best rounds here. Underneath it all is the land itself. This was commercial timber forest, and much effort went into bringing it back to a pine-oak savannah, part of Mike Keiser's larger plan for a pine barrens resort spreading out in every direction. Kidd spoke of being thrilled that his team had a chance to be part of it. Walking these huge open corridors, it is easy to share the feeling, with the game a little lighter and the sand stretching wide beneath an open Wisconsin sky.