Trifecta near Fonner Park in Grand Island

11/03/2015

Had a week of warm 60's degree golf weather in early January and March, but those golf opportunities were nothing compared to the 70's  degree weather in this first week of November. With nothing on my plate for Tuesday, I headed out for Grand Island at 6am. Back in 1992 after watching a John Daly exhibition at Lochland in Hastings, three of us played Grand Island Municipal which has been renamed Jackrabbit Run, that left me with three (3) courses in GI to play. Since they all are located near the Fonner race track, I call it my Trifecta!

My first stop was Indianhead.  When they describe the course as open and level, they are not kidding. The fairways and green are very flat and there are very few trees on the course.  The only hazards are a pond surrounding a par three green except for a small opening in the front and a pond stretching between the 15th and 16th fairways.  The course is very well maintained and located in the Indianhead neighborhood.

Next stop was the Fonner View Golf Course. With four par 3's averaging 137 yards and 5 par 4's averaging 288, you might think it would be an easy round. However the tight fairways and thick trees and well placed sand traps along with the small greens will demand accurate shots to score well. The last hole demands a high shot over a large tree to carry the green.  Jackie goes out of her way to make you welcome at Fonner View.

The last stop of the day was at Riverside Golf Club.  Another traditional tree lined country club with fairly wide flat fairways and large undulated greens that putted very true. A river winds through five fairways and can cause layup shots. The green are very receptive to iron shots and the course was in excellent shape. I really enjoyed playing Riverside!

Even though the opportunities for Golfing Nebraska in the remainder of this year look slim, we will be traveling to Texas for Thanksgiving with my sister and golf bro Don so we can continue our annual golf battle for the 47th year!

Scorecard: 149 courses played

Miles Driven: 207

Total Miles since 7/21/2014: 5970

Golfing Nebraska with my wife for the first time

10/22/2015

After just completing a three day golf trip to Valentine and Niobrara with golf buddies from Omaha and Lincoln, my wife decided to travel with me to play some course on Hwy 20 west of Norfolk. We drove up to stay with my mom in Norfolk which means honey do's for me. She had me help her put the patio furniture into the garage for winter, but a just reward was mom's home cooking!  I had previously talked to the Ewing course and O'Neill course. Good and bad, Ewing would be open about 8:30 and O'Neill was closing for the season on the 20th, two days before we would be there. Summerland Golf Club at Ewing was about a 45 minute drive from my home town of Norfolk, so we left about 7:30 am for a day of golf on Hwy 20.

I was greeted at Summerland by Doretta, the clubhouse manager. She had been waiting for me since our previous conversations. Her husband Alan maintaines the course as they live on site for the season. Sounds like a job I would like!  Another gentle rolling wide fairways course with large undulating greens and very well manicured. Very few trees come into play and grassy moguls guard most of the greens.  The finishing par 5 hole is guarded in front by a pond with a high spaying fountain. If you look close at my picture of teh 9th hole, yo can see my third shot in close for a finishing birdie, which was made!

Back on the road west to O'Neill, but not for golf since it was closed earlier, but for breakfast at The Blanary Stone. After a good breakfast ( I think we stop here every time we travel through) we set out for Atkinson. My wife had brought along reading material to pass the time in the car and at the courses, but Atkinson Ne is different for female shoppers because of "Something Special by Marilyn" ( www.christmas-gift-shoppe.com )
So she dropped me off at the course and headed back to Marilyn's.

The Atkinson-Stuart Country Club is all  I have heard and then some. The course is next to a scenic state recreation area. The course is in excellent condition with a fairly level terrain and large greens with slight undulations that putt very true. Ponds come into play on four of the holes and trees line most of the fairways.
The finishing hole is a long par 5 with OB on both sides of an "L" shaped fairway and a pond in front of an elevated green. This is a "well worth another visit" course!

When I reached the 9th tee, I called Pam to pick me up at the course. She was just checking out at Marilyn's which I guess means she bought something!  After packing up, including boxes from Marilyn's, we headed to Bassett Country Club. Thirty minutes down the road we found Bassett CC west of town, but rain began to fall as we drove into the lane. As I looked around, I found a sign on the club house that they had limited hours on weekends. We headed out to Ainsworth where we had booked a motel for the evening. Pam lived here until age 14 when they moved to Norfolk. She still has aunts and cousins there. She had also made a date to have dinner with one of her aunts so we checked in and got ready for dinner. The rain got heavier that evening but I was holding out for a clear sky in the morning so I could play Springview and Butte on Hwy 12 north and east of Ainsworth.  The weather did not agree with me overnight and continued into the morning so we went to Long Pine and visited with one of Pam's cousins, had lunch at the Sandhills Bar in Long Pine then headed back to Norfolk for supper with my mom. After a short visit it was off to Lincoln.
Next spring I will schedule a trip to O'Neill, Bassett, Springview and Butte to finish that area.


Scorecard: 146 courses played

Miles Driven: 537

Total Miles since 7/21/2014: 5763

Great time for 4-some of golf buddies out West.

10/08/2015 The Dunes Course

Most of the time I venture out alone on my golf trips since most of my golf buddies have busy schedules. However when I heard that they are interested in playing courses that I need to complete, I jump at the chance to setup a trip with them. Jack from Lincoln and John and Matt from Omaha were really interested in The Prairie Club in Valentine and Tatanka in Niobrara.  Jack and I drove up from Lincoln and John and Matt from Omaha. Since we had an 8:30am tee time at Valentine, we drove up the night before.

We were on the practice tee before the sun came up!  Up early on Thursday for breakfast and a 20 mile drive to The Prairie Club for a day of golf. The members were assigned the Pines Course today so we are on the Dunes Course.  As you will see in our pictures, the landing areas are about 100 yards wide and there are several hundred natural waste areas that are not hazards so we could ground our clubs. However, the most difficult aspect the courses are the greens ranging from 38' to 84' deep and a 11-12 on the stimp meter.  That speed made it very difficult to get near the hole from the approach shots and even harder with the short chipping game and very difficult on putts on many undulations . Since it was unlimited golf, we played 40 holes until sundown on the Dunes course and 36 on The Pines Course on Friday.  We stopped after 36 holes since we had a 3+ hour drive to Niobrara for Saturdays golf at Tatanka. These pictures tell it best!

 

We had some light rain in the afternoon but played through it. The terrain reminds me of the Sandhills Course in Mullen where you can see for miles and watch the storm fronts rolling in.

10/09/2015 The Pines Course

John, Matt and Jack on The Pines

 The next day on The Pines Course was a beautiful day with light wind and no clouds. The fairways and greens were similar in features to the Dunes course with less waste areas and Pine lined fairways and some what shorter.  On the Dunes course we played 6401 yards and 6080 yards on The Pines, however Matt who hits a very long ball played the 7403 yard tees on our second 18. Most of the time he drove beyond our best drives on that 18.  My only shinning moment was making a 50' putt on the Pines course. The Pines course has some holes that run along The Snake River. They also have visitors that fish the river. The whole area is something to see! 

Suzanne was working the snack shack on The Pines on Friday. She is a relative from my moms family and her son Ross is the GM at Prairie Club

A daunting tee shot for Matt from the tips!

We finished the second 18 about 6pm and got everything packed up and headed east down Hwy 20 for Niobrara for a night at the Casino-Hotel before playing Tatanka on Saturday.

10/10/2015 Tatanka

The Santee Sioux Nation decided to build a golf course on their reservation near Niobrara and the Ohiya Casino-Hotel to draw people that normally would not visit the area.  Golfers are known for wanting to play new great golf courses. I visited with Brian Burshiem the GM at the club house during a trip through the area when I played the Niobrara city course earlier this year. He told me that they would open on Sept. 14th for a few weeks. The course plays from 7501 to 5024 with 5 sets of tees. Along the 13th hole is a buffalo herd that is fenced in. The 3rd and 16th holes share a double green as do the 9th and 18th finishing holes that play uphill to the clubhouse. The par 3's have good length and are all over 200 yards from the tips. It still needs to mature, but is well worth the trip to northeast Nebraska. Before we started out, he told us that there been a mountain lion sighting recently. We observed large cat like tracks in the sand trap on the first hole.

Scorecard: 144 courses played

Miles Driven: 713

Total Miles since 7/21/2014: 5226