The Prairie Club, Pines Course Rankings:
Golf Digest: #75 US public, #6 Nebraska
GolfWeek: #94 US resort, #3 Nebraska public
Golf.com: #3 Nebraska public
Designer: Graham Marsh (2010)
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a fan trip to The Prairie Club in Valentine, Nebraska. While I remembered seeing The Prairie Club’s two courses in the top five of GolfWeek’s best in-state rankings (Dunes #2, Pines #4), the only golf-related images in my mind of Nebraska were of the pictures I’d seen online of Sand Hills, the country’s number one overall rated course in nearby Mullen.
The perceptions of Nebraska in my mind were probably similar to the images of it in many of your minds: Endless farmlands and wide open spaces.
There had to be something to these “Sand Hills,” and I was excited to find out what it is. For my GolfNebraska article on the trip, please visit the following link:
The Prairie Club proved to be the golf trip of all golf trips for us: Fabulous golfing, outstanding food/drinks and service, and luxuriuos lodging in one of the resort’s new cabins.
The food and service was world-class. Fresh, meaty bacon and breakfast sausages accompanied the typical continental breakfast staples, and my lunches consisted of Nebraska-raised burgers, pulled pork sandwiches and a French dip. And my dinners… My mouth started salivating again just remembering them… Locally raised prime rib, New York strips, rib eyes and fish. Surprisingly to me, my favorite appetizer of the trip was the local, fresh fried murels, which barely edged out the bull bites.
The owner of The Prairie Club, avid outdoorsman, golfer and businessman, Paul Schock, initially purchased the resort’s land for its hunting and fishing resources. One of the area’s renowned amateur golfers, Paul enlisted the help of Tom Lehman (course designer of the Dunes) and Graham Marsh (course designer of the Pines) to design and bring to fruition Nebraska and the Sand Hills area’s premiere golfing destination.
A minimalist golfer’s dream, the Prairie Club is isolated from anything like urban America. While it is located in Valentine, it is a solid 20-minute drive from the town. The only realistic lodging and meal options are found on site, and the quality of the club’s offerings leave no reason for visitors to leave the premises.
The club features a beautiful new lodge with hotel rooms, restaurants and bars. Each cabin features a common space that would be perfect for card games, four suites with bedrooms and personal bathrooms, and a back patio that purveys the Snake River Canyon and looks up to a big country sky filled with more stars than I had ever seen.
One thing is for sure: The Prairie Club puts the getaway in golf getaway.
Brian Weis, owner/operator of GolfTrips.com, GolfWisconsin, GolfNebraska and about 40 other golf-related websites, and I left Milwaukee at 5 am last Sunday morning, dividing up our trip with a stop at The Harvester in Rhodes, Iowa, the state’s number one and country’s 82nd overall rated track.
Following 18 holes, and hundreds of miles of driving, we arrived at The Prairie Club in time for a meal and a couple of the club’s most popular drink special: The Moscow Mule. Served in the traditional copper mugs, bar manager Birk also offers an apple version, which was refreshing on a warm afternoon between rounds.
We made our way to the cabin, where we were joined by one of the country’s top golf course photographers, Brian Orr, and Darin Bunch of Fairways and Greens and Golf Getaways.
Brian and Darin were a lot of fun to play with – they are true throw-backs in the game of golf, playing hickory stick clubs from the green tees (~ 6000 yards)… And pretty well!
All great golf destinations need to have courses that are different enough that players do not feel like they are playing the same place over and over. The Prairie Club does that very well, with it’s Pines and Dunes tracks.
Our first round in Nebraska was on Monday morning on the Pines course. The Pines, tipped out at 7403 yards, is a softer, slightly more picturesque version of sand hills golf, with several holes playing linksy similar to on the Dunes course, but primarily on the outskirts of the property amid Ponderosa pines and beautiful canyons.
The drives to both courses take at least five minutes from the lodge, promoting a feeling of escapism and that lovely disorientation that coincides with losing oneself on a great golf course.
The first three holes on the Pines course have a links-like feel, and are great warm-up holes to start dialing in the driver for what is to come.
Drive down the middle to left side of the fairway on one and take aim at a wide-open green.
One of the many sand traps that protect the already-difficult green complex on the ninth. Can you believe I actually parred from here? Somewhat of a typical par for me, actually: Drive to the green-side bunker, left the second shot in the bunker, hit the back-left of the green, rolled in a 40-footer… This game’s easy!
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