Nebraska’s Inland Links Can Elevate Your Game
By Chris Duthie
Mid-70s temperatures coupled with abundant late spring rains are fueling attention on Nebraska’s celebrated Sandhills region, a frontier so raw and wild it still conjures images of the Old West.
Ideal weather and verdant, supernatural links designs … what could be better for the vacationing golfer? Here are five bucket-list destinations that strongly suggest a club-toting trip to the Cornhusker State:
1) Start your Sandhills discovery near the South Dakota border in Valentine, home to public The Prairie Club and 46 holes of thrilling links-style golf. In fact, this destination resort features three premier courses: the Tom Lehman- and Chris Brands-designed Dunes (ranked 35th on Golf Digest’s top 100 public courses in America); the Graham Marsh-crafted Pines (ranked 75th), and the Horse, a superlative 10-hole short course penned by Gil Hanse and Geoff Shackelford. Spoiling stay and play packages available.
2) If you have a well-connected friend or two, your next stop should be 60 miles south near Mullen, a pastoral small town celebrated for two stunning private courses: the Bill Coore- and Ben Crenshaw-designed Sand Hills Golf Club, ranked 13th in the world by Golf Magazine; and Dismal River Club, which rewards its exclusive membership with two courses crafted individually by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak. In January, new ownership—the fourth in 11 years—took over Dismal with the intent to augment its recreation offerings.
3) From Mullen, navigate south around the eastern shore of Lake McConaughy and head west to semi-private Bayside Golf Club, home to a striking and surprisingly challenging links course orchestrated by Dan Axland and Dave Proctor. Historic Ogallala is just minutes away, as are the white sand beaches of the Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area.
4) Eighty-eight miles east is Wild Horse Golf Club, another formidable Axland and Proctor design that in 2015 earned “Best Public Course in Nebraska” and “77th Best Public Course in America” accolades from Golf Digest. The semi-private club also offers just-completed cabin lodging for stay-and-play golf, and even more dining and entertainment is five miles away in Gothenburg.
5) No Sandhills golf orgy is complete without a round or three at semi-private Awarii Dunes Golf Club. The home course of the University of Nebraska-Kearney Loopers, this rolling, rollicking Jim Engh dunes design is 12 miles south of Kearney, coined the “Sandhill Crane Capital of the World.”
What are your favorite memories of the Nebraska Sandhills? Share your comments below.
RELATED LINKS
Nebraska’s Sandhills is Heaven
The Wonderment World of Dismal
Chris Duthie is a Durango-based contributor to Colorado AvidGolfer. Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.