NEBRASKA GOLF O U T O F T H E S H A D OWS
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NEBRASKA GOLF OU T OF T H E S H A D OWS STU POSPISIL
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Foreword Sand Hills First Came Firethorn Back to the Beginning The Roaring ’20s Beyond the Big Cities Before There was a Firethorn Firethorn Ignites Course Explosion One Is Never Enough Stories from the Sand Hills The Big Shows Prime Training Ground Johnny Goodman Tales from the Tour Trailblazers Women Stake Their Claim The Architects The Hole Story Strange but True Nebraska’s Pride and Joy Courses Old and New
Left: Tatanka Golf Club is near the Santee Sioux reservation near Niobrara. Designer Paul Albanese said he wanted golfers to leave Tatanka remembering every hole on the course. “I hope they think it’s a course they have to come back to play and bring some friends with them,” he said. Copyright 2021 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher, the Omaha World-Herald. Omaha World-Herald, 1314 Douglas St., Omaha, NE 68102-1811 | owhstore.com First Edition ISBN 978-1-7345923-3-7
Printed by Walsworth Publishing Co.
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S A ND H I L LS
Sand Hills The Sand Hills are nature's gift to golf. For course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, it was a masterpiece they discovered that became Sand Hills Golf Club and was a springboard to more. For those who followed them, it let the likes of Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, Rob Collins and Tad King be able to apply their creativity to their own out-of-the-way natural canvases. For golf course design philosophy, it showed that natural and minimal were assets that could return the game in America to its Scottish roots. For Nebraska, it let the state become an unexpected golfing Mecca because of the courses up and down State Highway 97 between Valentine and North Platte. Any story of Nebraska golf can’t start at the beginning. It must be with the story of Sand Hills GC, the course that brought the state out of the shadows.
Sand Hills Golf Club No. 8 Daniel James Murphy/Stonehouse
SAN D HILLS
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TH E ROA R I N G ’ 20 s
The Roaring ’20s For golf courses, the 1920s were really roaring in Nebraska. More than 130 courses — mostly with sand greens — were built for all sizes of communities. Pasture after pasture gave way to sandy circles with holes and flagsticks. Omaha and Lincoln had their share of activity for different reasons. Their country clubs, once truly away from the city, were seeing development encroaching on them. Their land was gaining value, too. Lincoln Country Club, Happy Hollow Club in Omaha and Omaha Country Club succeeded in finding greener, quieter pastures. Of the four power clubs in the two cities, only the Field Club of Omaha remains on its original site.
Happy Hollow’s new location at 105th and Pacific Streets provided many natural hazards for golfers.
THE ROARIN G ’2 0s
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BE YOND T HE B IG CIT IES
Beyond the Big Cities If there’s a watery golf hole in Nebraska as terrifying for amateurs and pros alike as the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, it’s Lochland Country Club’s par-5 18th. Not one, but two, carries are required across a large lake at the private club at Hastings. The 18th has earned its nickname as Lochland’s “monster.” According to legend, one unfortunate player once hit 16 balls into the lake soon after the course opened and took a score of 38 on the hole. It’s hard to top that dubious feat. One year in the 1960s, Lochland hosted a tournament open to pros and amateurs. One pro took a 12 on the hole. Another pro, needing to par to earn some of the purse, took an 8 and was out of the money. Then the threesome of leaders in the amateur division stared at the water from the tee. The best score among them was a 7.
No. 18 fairway at Lochland Country Club during construction. Hastings Tribune Archives
BEYON D THE BIG CITIES
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Firethorn Ignites Course Explosion It might not have been evident when Firethorn opened in 1986, but a golf boom was on its way. A National Golf Federation survey in 1985 showed that the “Baby Boomer” generation was ready to swing from tennis — which had been at its hottest — to golf. Part of the attraction would be golf courses linked to housing developments. The NGF rolled out a plan for “A Course a Day” to be built in the United States during the 1990s. Nebraska, especially in the Omaha and Lincoln areas, contributed its share.
Quarry Oaks Golf Club No. 17 rests in the bottom of an abandoned limestone quarry. Daniel James Murphy/Stonehouse
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FI R E TH OR N IGN IT ES CO U RSE E X P LOSI O N
F I R E T H ORN IGN ITES COU RSE EXPLOSION
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One is Never Enough Sand Hills Golf Club was going to be a hard act to follow. But why not try? As the golf world gave breathless reviews and lofty ratings to Sand Hills, it stoked interest in the seemingly endless canvas of grass in the region. Prairie-style, or minimalist-design, courses were just waiting to be discovered. Golf architects saw the acclaim lauded on Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Their passion for design and competitive natures were stirred.
Prairie Club Dunes Course No. 9 Daniel James Murphy/Stonehouse
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ON E I S NE V E R E N O U GH
ON E IS N EVER EN OU GH
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The Big Shows Nebraska’s grandest week of golf was the 2013 U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club. It was a record-setting event, to say the least. For the city, the weekend galleries constituted the two largest single-day crowds for a sporting event. Better than any College World Series game or a Saturday in the heyday of the Ak-Sar-Ben Thoroughbred track. For the sponsoring United States Golf Association, the tournament generated record revenue and had the second-largest attendance since its conception in 1980. For champion Kenny Perry, his final-round 63 tied the course record and completed a comeback from 10 strokes off the pace after two rounds.
Kenny Perry doffs his hat to the crowd at the 18th green after his par putt clinched the win at the Omaha Country Club in the fourth round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament on July 14, 2013.
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TH E BI G S H OWS
THE BIG SHOWS
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TA L ES F ROM T HE TO U R
Tales from the Tour Three Nebraska natives have won on the PGA Tour — Tom Sieckmann (Omaha), Mark Calcavecchia (Laurel) and, most recently, Nate Lashley (Scottsbluff) in Detroit in 2019. Others who have been on golf’s highest level include Dick Knight (Omaha), Jim White (Hastings), Skip Tredway (Aurora), Scott Gutschewski (Omaha), Mike Schuchart (Lincoln), brothers Mike and Jeff Klein (Scottsbluff), John Hurley (O’Neill) and Brady Schnell (Omaha). Val Skinner (North Platte) was a six-time winner on the LPGA tour. Sarah Sasse (Lincoln) and Mary Narzisi (Omaha) are alumnae of the Futures Tour. In 2016, The World-Herald asked some of them to share their stories.
From left: Scott Gutschewski, Tom Sieckmann, Mike Schuchart and Jim White.
TALES FROM THE TOU R
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A hazy morning at The Club at Indian Creek greets Korn Ferry Tour golfers in 2019 at the Pinnacle Bank Championship.
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For about a century, Nebraska barely made a ripple in the golf world even though a ranch in Merrick County was one of the sport’s birthplaces in the U.S. There were Johnny Goodman’s feats as the last amateur to win the U.S. Open, and the 1941 U.S. Amateur was held in Omaha. But in the Sand Hills there was promise in its thousands of acres of ranchland. Begging for golf, but so remote. Since Sand Hills’ opening in 1995, the course has inspired further development of national-caliber destination golf in the region, opened eyes of course designers to other parts of the state and, in part, brought championship golf to the state with the 2013 and 2021 U.S. Senior Opens. This is the story of Nebraska Golf: Out of the Shadows. $29.95 ISBN 978-1-7345923-3-7
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