Prairie Club
Itinerant golfers who live on the East or West coasts can be excused for not thinking of Nebraska as a getaway golf destination. But they’re missing out.
When it comes to Western Nebraska in particular, throw out any preconceived notions of what the Cornhusker state is.
The west side of the state is home to hundreds of thousands of rolling, unspoiled sand hills interrupted by the occasional windmill and herd of cattle. When you’re driving long stretches without seeing another car for miles, it feels like it might just be one of the last remaining untouched swaths of America. And those in the know fully appreciate how great the golf is there.
Northwest gem
Sandy soil and soaring windswept dunes topped by wiry native grasses are a perfect canvas for inland links-style layouts. It’s why a number of high-end private clubs have popped up in this remote area, drawing golfers from around the country for an immersive escape. Among those clubs is prestigious Sand Hills, the minimalist masterpiece from the duo of Coore & Crenshaw that’s widely considered one of, if not the, finest modern course in the country. There’s also Caprock Ranch, Dismal River Club, and soon, the newest club in the Dormie Network portfolio: GrayBull.
But there’s also another special spot where public golfers can get a taste of what the Nebraska Sandhills are all about. And it’s one of the most unique destination properties in all of golf.
In the Northwest corner of the state, on the rim of the Snake River Canyon just shy of the South Dakota border, the picturesque Prairie Club boasts two fabulous 18-hole courses – Dunes and Pines – along with a 10-hole par-3 named the Horse Course that allows golfers to pick their teeing area on each hole. Each of the championship courses plays to a par of 73, but even more unusual is that the resort has both a public and private component. Every day, the Dunes and Pines courses alternate between public/guest play and member play.
The unusual mix between member-only and public access was the vision of founder Paul Schock, a venture capitalist and avid outdoorsman who purchased two big parcels of land, including a 1,700-acre ranch, to make the Prairie Club a reality. Schock saw an opportunity to marry the best of both worlds from one of the nation’s top golf resorts, Bandon Dunes, and one of its finest golf-centric private getaways, Sand Hills, where he’s a member. Both of those properties proved the build-it-right-and-they-will-come maxim, even well off the beaten path.
Thus, the Prairie Club was born. It allowed anyone to have a special golf experience in Nebraska’s isolated Sandhills region. It provided a valuable membership for those who wanted to play it regularly and was accessible for those who wanted to visit but couldn’t afford membership.
Both 18-hole courses opened in 2010, on the heels of the Great Recession. As a result, it took a little bit of time for the facility to hit its stride. The biggest challenge was getting people to visit, but once they did, they inevitably wanted to get back. That’s still true today, perhaps more than ever as the appetite for golf travel grows.
Championship caliber
The two championship courses are quite different from one another, in large part because of the two plots of land Schock acquired.
The Dunes course, designed by Tom Lehman and Chris Brands, is situated on the private ranch land Schock purchased from a retired doctor named Cleve Trimble who actually hoped it might one day be transformed into a world-class golf club. Schock also negotiated the purchase of an adjoining property overlooking the Snake River Canyon that featured a forest of old ponderosa pines. It’s that completely different look and landscape that became home to the Pines Course, which has considerably smaller greens and tighter fairways than the more wide-open Dunes course. The Pines was designed by architect Graham Marsh, with whom Schock was familiar from his work at Sutton Bay in South Dakota, another private club at which Schock had membership.
Guests staying multiple days at the Prairie Club can play both championship courses, unlike other golf destinations that have a private course completely off-limits to the public – such as the Creek Club at Reynolds Lake Oconee or Pronghorn’s Fazio Course in Bend, Oregon. At the Prairie Club, a group staying for a weekend could play the Dunes course one day and then the Pines course the next. And they can play 36 or mix in a round at the Horse Course, where Gil Hanse designed an imaginative, outside the (tee) box short game test right in front of the main lodge.
The Prairie Club isn’t the easiest golf destination to get to, with the closest airports being North Platte, Nebraska (130 miles away) and Pierre, South Dakota (150 miles away), but for some that’s part of the allure. It’s a true golf getaway. And for those adventurous golfers who make the journey to the Sandhills of western Nebraska, you’ll drive past endless sandy blowouts that look like they’re begging to be part of a golf course. When you finally arrive at the Prairie Club, those roadside bunker mirages become reality… and you don’t need to be a member to experience them.