Dream Golf, owned and operated by the Keiser family produced Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley, announced plans recently to establish a world-class destination golf resort in East Texas.
Wild Spring Dunes will be a public golf resort and community developed by Michael and Chris Keiser, featuring golf, accommodations, homesites and dining facilities. Current Dream Golf properties include the award-winning Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Sand Valley in Wisconsin, along with Rodeo Dunes, under construction in Colorado.
Wild Spring Dunes occupies 2,400 sandy, secluded acres with 120 feet of elevation change and varied topography and ecosystems, including towering pines and hardwood forest; open, grassy meadows; rolling hills; and steep ravines carved by spring-fed creeks.
An ideal site for golf, two course routings are complete, with plans established for a short course and practice center.
“We were so fortunate to get a shot at this site,” said Michael Keiser of being invited to Texas by Dallas businessman Brett Messerall, who had pored over more than 1 million acres via satellite and on foot to find the land. “It was so good, so unexpected, we just had to go for it. The golf courses here will have such great diversity and character — I expect them to be among the best in the country.”
Tom Doak will build the first of two planned 18-hole courses. Bill Coore and Austin, Texas, native Ben Crenshaw have routed a second course.
“This land just has a different feel from anything I’ve worked on in the past,” Doak said. “That’s the attraction for me, and I think the course will be unique and interesting for golfers.”
Wild Spring Dunes is located in historic East Texas, approximately 20 miles north of Nacogdoches, the oldest city in the state. Both Dallas and Houston are roughly two hours away from the resort site, and Shreveport Regional Airport is just 73 miles away.
“It’s just a wonderful coincidence that this site is accessible to so many people,” Keiser sais. “The reason we’re doing it is because of the quality of the site. If it were 10 hours, 15 hours from Dallas or Houston, we’d still be doing it because the site is just that good.”
Golf construction on the Doak course is expected to begin this fall with an opening projected for 2026.
