Sand Hills Trip Part Two

Prairie Club Pines Course Second Hole

Our Covid boys trip into the Sand Hills region of Nebraska has progressed from Wild Horse Golf Course in Gothenburg to the 36 hole private complex of Dismal River Golf Club, south of Mullen. After a restful night following play at both Dismal River courses, we were ready to head to the Prairie Club an hour north.

As we drive up Highway 97 to the Prairie Club, the rolling hills that dominated the landscape to the south melt away to prairie. We are 20 minutes south of Valentine. The landscape is beautiful, but less dramatic with more distant vistas. 

The Prairie Club is a 36 hole facility which opened in 2010. An investment group headed by Paul Schock of Sioux Falls, SD built the club. The facility is a private/public combination. There are members but the public is invited. As evidence of the boom in golf with the Covid 19 pandemic, the Prairie Club membership is full at 500.

The clubhouse is large, modern and includes single and double hotel rooms on the upper level. Spread throughout the property are additional four room and larger buildings to accommodate overnight guests. A testament to the fact the spread of Covid 19 is rare while playing golf, the tee sheet on this Thursday is full. Golfers will be out dawn til dusk. 

We are at the course in plenty of time to hit balls at a practice area that defies belief as to its 17 acre size. Gigantic is an understatement. Land must be inexpensive to acquire in the Sand Hills. 

Before the round we wander into an area with many small greens meant to be played from various locations called the Horse Course. There are no tee boxes, just a large gently rolling area, possibly 12 acres in size, grassed with bunkers and greens. Holes are meant to be invented by players using the facility. We spend 45 minutes hitting wedge shots to the greens. The Horse Course is a fun, creative idea. 

At 1:00 we are on the tee of the Pines Course, designed by Graham Marsh. The course has a mix of holes through the pines to holes out in the open prairie. Pines are fed by water from the Snake River adjacent to the course but not visible. 

The prairie holes have generous fairways, with strategically placed bunkers. The large unstructured bunkers are intimidating and always fun to look at as long as you are not the one having to play from them. Every hole has large undulating greens with rolls and humps. Hills and valleys on the fairways are gentle with the exception of the difficult second hole which features a steep hill to a large blind and rolling green. 

The holes in the pines have character with somewhat more slope on the fairways. However most of the course moves gently up or down from tee to green.  

We finish and head into the clubhouse. “I liked the course,” said Bob Churchich, my partner for the round. “It’s in great condition, quick greens and good fairways.” 

With room to sleep only 130 and a full complement of midweek September players at the Prairie Club, we had to head to Valentine for the night. Everything about Valentine is a look into the past. It’s so nostalgic. 

I imagine the big summer street dances, the county fair, and high school football games. After the game, cruising up and down Main Street.  

We check into the finest hotel in this town of 2700 people. It’s a two story, U shaped, Econo Lodge with entry to each room from the outside. It’s right out of the ‘60s. No carpet on the floor. The rooms look like they could be a movie set where the bad guy is holed up until the cops turn down the heat. 

Signs on the doors read “no smoking in the rooms.” However, small buckets of sand are outside each room to snuff out cigarettes. I can visualize a guy on the second floor, wearing a white T-shirt holding a can of beer. A cigarette dangles between his fingers, as he leans over the wrought iron rail and gazes out into the distance. 

We head over to the Peppermill Supper Club. “It was a special night out for us to head to Valentine and the Peppermill,” Jim Kidd, the golf professional in the 1990s at Sand Hills Golf Club told me. Jim lived an hour and a half south near Mullen.

Better be prepared for steak. Big and bigger are the options. It’s great eatin’ in Valentine, NE at the best steakhouse in the county.

The trip is wrapping up with just one more round tomorrow. We review the courses played before dinner. “What’s your favorite so far?” asks Tony Gillick sipping a Bud Lite. 

After a night sleeping on a mattress possibly installed when the motel was built, we head back down Highway 97 to play the Dunes Course at the Prairie Club. 

Architects Tom Lehman and Chris Brands have done a wonderful job on the Dunes Course. Generous, well bunkered fairways are emblematic of Tom Lehman courses. No different at the Dunes. He has creative fairway designs, moving around the wild prairie grasses, bunkers and low sand hills. 

At the 90 yard wide 12th fairway, the hole funnels up in between two long deep bunkers to a punch bowl green. “I’m not coming in to get you if you can’t get out of there,” Gary warned me. 

The Dunes Course has more bunkers than the Pines Course. Frequently placed at the inside of dogleg holes or in the middle of the fairways, landing in one results in a severe penalty. The challenge is to keep it as close to the bunkers as possible for the shortest shot to the green. Never an easy task.

Throughout the course the greens are large, undulating and irregularly shaped. Frequently 50 yards deep, long putts are the staple of errant plays into greens. 

Surveys of players by the club consistently show no favorite of one course over the other. Both are fun to play and appear on various lists of top courses. 

The wind will almost always blow at the Prairie Club. The USGA does not take into account wind when determining slope rating on a course. As a result the 115 slope from nearly 6400 yards on the Pines Course is misleading. The same is true for the Dunes Course, with a slope of 116 from 6200 yards.  The width of the fairways and the size of the greens will cause the slope rating to be lower than it would otherwise be. 

The slope ratings do not do the courses justice. The huge rolling greens, intimidating bunkers and the wind give players all the challenge they need. Both courses are fun and challenging. “Both Prairie Club courses are in my top five,” said a friend and member, Charlie Davis. 

A multiple course golf trip concludes with opinions on favorites. The two Dismal River courses get first place votes from all. “Packaged with the facility it is a nice experience,” said Bob. It was agreed, however all five courses are fun, challenging and should be on everybody’s list to play.

We walk off the 18th green and head to the vehicles. It’s been a great trip, further confirming my love for the Sand Hills area. There is a lot to like about playing golf in Nebraska with my buddies in A Life In Golf.