The Greeting Card Mogul That Transformed Golf Tourism

Like many hospitality entrepreneurs, Mike Keiser started his career far away from the world of "stays,” spending 38 years building America's 4th largest greeting card company.

Admittedly not his passion, but a great career.

So in 1991, he started chasing his real dream: bringing authentic Scottish links golf to America.

We've often dreamed of building an experiential hospitality project centered around golf, and Mike Keiser might have created the closest thing we've seen to perfection.

This is the incredible story of Bandon Dunes, what some consider the mecca of golf, and how it revolutionized golf tourism forever…

For decades, Keiser ran his greeting card empire, Recycled Paper Greetings.

They were one of the first companies to print cards on recycled paper, eventually generating over $100M in annual revenue.

If you ask Keiser, he attributes much of that success to Sandra Boynton, the artist whose humorous card designs became wildly popular.

Keiser himself said she "made me enough money to build Bandon Dunes."

But Keiser's real passion was golf, specifically the links courses he'd fallen in love with during trips to Scotland and Ireland. The minimalist design, the ground game, the way courses worked with natural terrain rather than against it.

American golf was the complete opposite.

Private clubs dominated. Real estate developments drove course design. Artificial features were everywhere.

Keiser refused to accept that as the future of American golf.

So, in 1985 he accidentally started testing his vision. 

Mike Keiser bought land in New Buffalo, Michigan, primarily to prevent high-density condominiums from being developed across from his family's summer cottage on Lake Michigan. 

Initially, he just wanted to preserve the area's natural beauty. But his love for golf took over…

He ended up building The Dunes Club on that land, a 9-hole links-style course on sandy shores that became America's highest-ranked 9-hole course.

Today it still thrives as one of golf's most exclusive experiences, with fewer than 100 members and hundreds of golfers writing letters each year just hoping for a chance to play. 

But another private course wasn’t his goal…

Keiser wanted to bring great golf to everyone.

The breakthrough came in 1991 when Keiser visited 1,215 acres of rugged Oregon coastline.

Two miles of Pacific oceanfront stretched before him. Massive sand dunes that looked exactly like Scottish linksland rolled toward the ocean.

It was land that most people saw as unusable… so wild and seemingly impractical that Keiser was able to buy it for just $2.4 million, less than $2,000 per acre.

Standing on what would become the 14th tee, Keiser saw his vision taking shape: bringing authentic links golf to America and making it public.

Even he called the project "crazy."

After purchasing the land, Keiser needed an architect who understood his vision. 

Instead of hiring a big name, he picked 26-year-old David McLay Kidd, an unknown Scottish architect who beat out established designers with a hand-drawn presentation on drugstore posterboard.

Four years of permit battles later, construction finally began.

Bandon Dunes eventually opened on May 2, 1999. Keiser's "unrealistic prayer" was 10,000 rounds in the first year.

The result? 24,000 rounds.

Golfers drove 11 hours from San Francisco. They flew in from across the country.

Remote Oregon had somehow become a world-class destination.

But Keiser quickly learned something crucial about destination hospitality.

The golf was incredible, but guests had nowhere to stay. Early visitors would make the long drive for a single round, then leave immediately.

Keiser realized he wasn't just building a golf course, he needed to create a complete destination.

So he built lodges. Simple, cozy rooms with cedar shingles just steps from the fairways. He added McKee's Pub for post-round stories over local craft beer.

Fire pits appeared outside every lodge for evening gatherings. The Punchbowl, a massive putting course, gave guests another reason to stay and play.

It wasn't just golf anymore.

It had become a pilgrimage.

The formula worked so well that Keiser kept expanding…

Adding five more courses to Bandon between 2001 and 2020. 

Including his personal favorite: Sheep Ranch, the most dramatic golf setting in America with pure clifftop links.

By 2023, Bandon Dunes was hitting 257,000 rounds and $125 million in revenue with 18-month waitlists just to stay.

At $350 per round (half of Pebble Beach's $675) Keiser proved remote destinations could thrive.

Then he took the formula global with his company “Dream Golf.”

Sand Valley in Wisconsin brought the concept to prehistoric sand dunes, led by his sons Michael and Chris. They added pools, tennis, lake swimming, large cabins – creating what feels like summer camp for adults.

Cabot Cape Breton in Nova Scotia perched dramatic courses on cliffs over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Their Cabot Cliffs course was ranked #9 globally in 2018.

Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania proved his model could work across continents, with wild dunes and ocean views on the island's rugged northeast coast.

But here's why this matters beyond golf: 

Keiser revolutionized destination hospitality by proving that remote locations could become bucket-list destinations when you nail the complete experience.

He showed that hospitality was just as important as the core product. Most importantly, he demonstrated that creating a destination, not just a visit, was the secret sauce.

Sound familiar? It's the exact blueprint we're seeing work in unique stays and experiential hospitality today.

The location doesn't matter if the experience is unforgettable.