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!
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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
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| 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!
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| 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 |
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| A daunting tee shot for Matt from the tips! |
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
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