Sand Hills

The "Golden Age of Architecture" inspired Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore to set up together sharing the philosophy that traditional, strategic golf is the most rewarding. And, when Sand Hills opened for play in 1995, they must have been quietly delighted with their achievement.

Sand Hills has only a few lucky members, and surely each and every one of them must belong to another golf club. Why? Because Sand Hills is closed for eight months each year… overplayed it is certainly not.

With wide, generous fairways that wind their way beside huge dunes, Sand Hills is a big course on a big scale and it’s tempting to open your shoulders. But beware of the sand. You will need to be either an extremely good golfer or a very lucky one to avoid the crater-like bunkers at Sand Hills Golf Club.

Darius Oliver had no doubt about the importance of Sand Hills his book Planet Golf USA, calling it “arguably the most important American golf course since Augusta National.” The author continued: “Its opening not only placed this remote and seemingly desolate region firmly on the golfing radar, but it almost single-handedly led to a rebirth in classic golf architecture in this country.

Although winds can whip through these Nebraska plains with great force, they don’t come from a prevailing direction, so the designers were careful to ensure their holes were playable under all conditions.

Fairways are sensibly spacious, while the target areas are mostly open to encourage chase-in approach shots. The diversity of the putting slopes is quite astonishing, as is the variety of the actual green locales, whether they be pitched in hollows, set atop plateau or built beside exposed sand dunes.”