Grass Roots

Each of the five golf courses at Sand Valley is an outright winner, but the pleasures of the place aren't limited to one sport. For tennis obsessives, the sprawling Wisconsin resort is aces too.

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THE KEISERS MAY BE the closest thing to American golf royalty, but their sporting roots are at least as deep in tennis. Chris and Michael Keiser, sons of Bandon Dunes founder and 2025 USGA Bob Jones Award winner Mike Keiser, grew up visiting their paternal grandparents in East Aurora, N.Y., near Buffalo, where there were always family tennis matches as well as golf outings and hikes—anything to enjoy the great outdoors while the weather was, briefly, good.

In 2017, just after the eponymous first course at Chris and Michael’s Sand Valley resort in Wisconsin opened, Mike Keiser looked over from the 9th green to the adjoining practice range with his boys. “Dad says, ‘Guys, that looks like a perfect lawn tennis court,’” recalls Chris, a former doubles specialist on his high school team. “‘Put up a net, leave some rackets and balls over there, and see what happens.’”