By Nia Fredrich
Since 2019, Mass Golf Member Trips have connected our state’s golf community with the world to unify shared interests of seeing new places and playing some golf. In partnership with Delta, Mass Golf has been able to provide itineraries that include non-stop flight options to golf destinations globally because of Delta’s wide range of flight options, and that’s just the beginning of these meticulously planned adventures. They’ve consisted of domestic and international travel to play the courses you read about in Golf Digest’s Top 100 and the ones you may see on your TV for some kind of glamorous championship for professional golf.
The itinerary also allows for you to immerse yourself in the surrounding culture and divine cuisine. And most importantly, it’s built on the same principles that built the partnership between Delta and Mass Golf: Connecting Communities. The member trips are different from the calendar of events hosted each year. There are no handicap limitations or club affiliation status, and while there are perks and prizes, there’s no trophy or big exemptions on the line. Instead there’s a new connection for a community of people with a fresh shared experience, laughter, and great golf. Over the long weekend and across six courses, I had the privilege of doing what I do best: capturing golf from behind the lens. Only this time, it was on grounds that are deeply rooted in who I am.
Here’s the thing about this specific trip: For most it was a first chance to explore a handful of Top 100 courses on storied sand dunes in central Wisconsin, but for me? It was a trip home. Just 10 minutes down the road is the quaint weekend cabin now turned permanent residence to my grandparents. It’s the host site to my favorite weekends as a child, many family reunions, and just recently, my own wedding. And this trip became the perfect connection of my two worlds.
So while I gathered photos of these beautifully crafted courses, I also gathered insights from 26 Mass Golf members on why this place in the middle of nowhere would capture their attention and their vacation time, because to me, these sand dunes represented ATV rides through the pines and weekends on the lake, before I slowly watched the area transform from a cabin town into a golfer’s dream destination. And while a slow-pace cabin town still represents the surrounding community, historic sand dunes have become a golfer’s paradise tucked right in the middle of it all, transporting visitors to an alternate universe of rustic, modern prairie-style buildings that blends wood, glass, and low-profile lodges into the surrounding sand dunes, keeping things clean, simple and emphasizing panoramic views of the central Wisconsin landscape.
After regrouping on the experience as a whole, my main takeaways fall into two categories:
While growth has been rapid ever since Sand Valley debuted in 2017, the modern development doesn’t necessarily make this so different from the architecture throughout the Bay State. Of the now six courses that provide unique experiences at Sand Valley, each has its own similar attributes to those we see on our own turf.
The namesake course is a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design that blends into the natural landscape, an approach also reflected back in Massachusetts at the new Pines Course at The International, which debuted in June 2025, as well as at Old Sandwich.
Coore and Crenshaw also built the beloved 17-hole, par-3 course called the Sandbox, which features a handful of the classic template holes. The template holes provided a sense of familiarity to the designs featured at Dedham C&PC, yet there was a sense of newness when seeing the templates and what has been resurrected on The Lido. C.B. Macdonald’s Lido course, an exacting re-creation of the lost Long Island gem, featured a handful of his ideal holes and invention of new construction methods which had a revolutionary impact on the game. Seth Raynor learned his craft from Macdonald, and those are the templates we see reflected across the Bay State from time to time.
The members got to experience one of the original designs that inspired a lot of golf around Massachusetts, as they teed off on the new Lido course in central Wisconsin. This brings me to the idea that golf is meant to be a unifying sport. With shared architectural features that remind you of home, yet present something new waiting on every fairway, it’s what keeps you coming back.
The thing about golf being a lifelong sport is that you can enjoy it anywhere and yet still find some kind of connection to home. For some it’s a hobby on the weekends, and for others, it’s a lifelong investment of travel experiences around the world to soak it in among all kinds of cultures. One of my favorite things about the game is how it always brings people together from different places and different stories, yet still has a magical way of being shared by them all. And while this opportunity was specifically taking in the culture of slower-paced lifestyles surrounded by farmland and Northwoods wildlife, and maybe enjoying a plethora of cheese, it brought a new kind of community connection.
Mass Golf’s travel adventures are presented by our partners at Delta, built on the same principles of connecting the golf community to the world. Did you know they offer approximately 20 domestic non-stop flights to golf destinations and roughly 12 direct international golf destinations? The world is your oyster when it comes to golf destinations right out of Boston.
The most unique piece about the community connection for this trip is how it brought together so many different people: Couples on a golf vacation, a trip with the girls, rounding out a cross-country extravaganza of two weeks of golf destinations, a place for the adventurous souls to thrive and the quietly observant to step out of their comfort zone in a pairing of not-so-strangers. Because at the end of the day, this group of people may have started as strangers, but with this one shared interest, the increased camaraderie shifted from cliques to communal gatherings.
Through my eyes and my lens it was a joy to witness. Each member of the trip seemed to have met a new friend, connected with a caddie working on their pro-golf journey, or in my case, reconnected with a few personalities that I worked with 5 years ago during a Wisconsin State Amateur who looked at me and said “I remember you”…the kind of stuff that sticks out when thinking you’re just a speck on the sand dunes. And for one, how can you not join together and laugh a little when the continuous group thought becomes “can you believe we’re in Wisconsin right now?” on repeat, because on every course there was another ‘wow’ factor that could make you easily forget the three-hour bus ride back to the airport that awaits you.
My biggest takeaway? Book yourself a golf adventure. Play with someone new. Immerse yourself into this incredible community.
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