Restoring genius
By Robert Thompson
It was Tom Doak’s job to recreate the famed long-lost Lido course from Long Island in Wisconsin. What he found was the reality was even greater than the legend.
CB Macdonald
Greatness disappears—that’s an unfortunate side effect of time.
London’s Crystal Palace, a masterful piece of architecture designed for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and heralded as one of the world’s greatest buildings, burned to the ground 80 years later. Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field and even the original Yankee Stadium—The House that Ruth Built—were both torn down, the victims of the evolution of sport and commerce. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo decayed over time before it was torn down in 1967.
For golf, that lost masterwork is The Lido, the creation of CB Macdonald, one of the founding fathers of golf in the United States. The course, built at Lido Beach in Long Island, NY, starting in 1914, had considerable backers, including Cornelius Vanderbilt who dreamed of golf on the difficult 200-acre sandy property. Macdonald, who had established himself as the father of American golf, initially thought the project was impossible. In the end, working with engineer Seth Raynor, Macdonald’s team moved two million cubic yards of sand to create the course, including building a lagoon for one hole. The course even had its own design contest—in Country Life magazine—where amateur golf architects submitted proposals for potential holes.
The course opened in 1917, and a survey of prominent golf professionals in the years that followed indicated the course was one of the best in the world, sitting alongside Pine Valley and National Golf Links of America. The Lido wasn’t just good—it was great. But that greatness didn’t stop it from disappearing. It ceased operations during World War II, and when it reopened, most of the course had been moved. The Lido, at least as Macdonald envisioned it, was gone.
That’s until the Keiser brothers, Michael and Chris, elected to have Tom Doak recreate it at Sand Valley. Following a plan developed by golf historian Peter Flory, Doak’s team rebuilt one of the most famed courses in the history of the game. With preview play expected by the end of the 2022 golf season, Doak, a designer celebrated for his knowledge and interest in the history of golf architecture, provides an insight into some of the key holes of this incredible recreation.
What’s in A LOGO?
Finding the appropriate way to capture a club with an image is never easy. The best course logos are widely known throughout the golf world. But what did it take to create them? What were the thoughts and ideas that went on to paper that led to the creation of something that encapsulates a course?
In the case of The Lido, we reached out Olivia Herrick about the process of designing the logo to gain an understanding of the process that brought the latest Sand Valley course logo to life.
Design Inspiration
"Michael and Chris approached me to design the logo for the Lido in March of 2021. As a competitive amateur golfer and having worked on a variety of different design projects for the property, including the logos for the Sandbox, Sand Valley Tennis, Sand Valley restaurants, as well as the food truck, I was honored to team up once again and help them bring the Lido back to life through a timeless, yet original logo.
Our design process is very collaborative, and Michael and Chris are incredibly creative. They had a variety of unique concepts that they were interested in pursuing. After several design rounds, one of their original ideas was proving to be a strong and symbolic frontrunner: a Siren. Sirens are a recurring symbol in ancient mythology, known for beckoning sailors to shore to crash their ships.
Ultimately, after many iterations of our Siren, we landed on a mark that is simple, original, and timeless. We hope you agree!"
Olivia Herrick is the founder of Olivia Herrick Design. To learn more: oliviaherrickdesign.com.