A Sweet Valentine Surprise - The Prairie Club (Nebraska)

[Flagstick Golf Magazine]

A Sweet Valentine Surprise - The Prairie Club (Nebraska)

by Scott MacLeod, Flagstick Golf Magazine (www.flagstick.com)

 

Special to GolfWRX.com

 

 

I must admit that I am a sucker for all things "prairie". As a golfer who made his very first swings at the age of 10 on the plains of Saskatchewan, Canada, I have strong and fond memories of vast grasslands. Myself and a group of friends could not always make it to the little golf course (if you want to call it that) in the nearby hamlet of Bruno, so we often found ourselves playing a lot of pasture golf. The rough, tumbling landscape made it an ideal place for youthful, and often erratic, golf swings to develop. I had no understanding that the windswept, and sandy turf was as close to the roots of the game in Scotland as it really was.

 

Sadly, most of that type of property is located very remotely, making it unsuitable to a business venture involving golf. The charm and suitability of the land does not overcome the lack of population and the need for customers to drive a golf course to solvency.

 

There are exceptions, of course. In Canada the Wolf Creek Resort sprung up in Ponoka, Alberta in 1984 and subsequent projects like Dakota Dunes (Saskatchewan) and Blackhawk (Alberta) have shown the true golfing potential of the prairies.

 

American golfers got their first high-profile taste of similar terrain in the early 1990′ s with the arrival of the much-heralded Sand Hills Golf Club in a unique part of Nebraska. Unfortunately the general public cannot access this stunning Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore project. Like Sutton Bay, another more recent Sand Hills area golf course, it is a private club.

 

About one quarter of Nebraska is covered by the Sand Hills, the remnants of a glacial out-wash eroded from the Rockies. At the northern edge of this area, on the border with South Dakota, lies the tiny town of Valentine. At less than 3000 residents it is the unlikely home to what many golfers like myself could only dream of; a publicly accessible world-class golf destination that takes full advantage of the unique savannas in this part of the world – The Prairie Club.

 

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[MrParr1Noid]

A great read Scott, I was just getting ready to pack my bags and head on out to Nebraska, and then it dawned on me...Heck, it's still winter here...

 

This will be really something to look forward to come May, and warmer weather, and what looks to be an awesome setting for golf to say the least.

[Skaffa77]

I just heard about this course recently at a "Golf Expo" here in Omaha. Looks like a nice place to play golf and get that "Sand Hills" experience since it's public.

I've heard from a couple people that had the opportunity to play the Sand Hills and Dismal River and apparently it's quite the experience...