In the early 2000's Craig Haltom began scouring the state of Wisconsin with his wife, looking for an ideal piece of land to build a golf course. Haltom, a construction executive with Oliphant Golf Construction, came across the land on which Sand Valley now sits and knew he had found what he was looking for. In 2012 Haltom connected with Mike Keiser via KemperSports President Josh Lesnik. One site visit led to another, and another, until Mike Keiser decided, with his sons Michael and Chris, to purchase 1700 acres of land in 2013.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were hired to design the first course, Sand Valley, and began designing a routing through the tumbling sand dunes in 2014. Sand Valley opened in May 2017 and was honored by Golf Magazine as "Best New Course You Can Play - 2017."
Two additional courses will open in early summer of 2018: Mammoth Dunes, designed by David Kidd (designer of Bandon Dunes), and The Sandbox, a 17-hole Par-3 course designed by the team of Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw.
Craig Haltom and his partner, Mike Oliphant, were hired to construct all three of the golf courses at Sand Valley Golf Resort and have been a critical part of the overall development of the resort.