Fremont Country Club
We recently played our Nebraska Senior Golf Association two-day state tournament at Fremont, so a good time to discuss. A few weeks ago they also hosted the state amateur for all the young studs. I play this private club 2-3 times a year and have a love-hate relationship with the course. If you haven’t played Fremont, it is one of the tightest courses in the area with all fairways tree-lined, and many times you can be in the fairway with trees blocking your line to the green. The recent wind storm that took a ton of trees out of Omaha courses missed Fremont entirely. The greens are small and elevated, requiring precision on every shot or a really good up and down short game.
Fremont is a reasonably priced full Country club, owned by the members that got its’ start in the 1930s. They have a nice club house, restaurant, pool, 18 holes, good range and practice area. They also have a great web site and story about their history. Twice in the last 60 years a serious fire gutted the clubhouse and forced them to rebuild.
The limitation on this course, originally built with 9 holes 90 years ago is the small amount of real estate, and their trademark railroad tracks running through the middle of the course. The extra 9 holes was added around 1960. If you have to have wide fairways and big greens you may not enjoy this course.
I will start with the Director of golf, Nathan Kalin, who is one of the best I have dealt with. I knew Nathan 20 years ago when he was an assistant at Champions Run. The director of golf is usually the public face of a country club and Nathan treats people right, runs a good pro shop and most the members I know are very happy with him.
The course is a par 71 with only about 6600 yards from the tips, but the narrow fairways keep the long hitters honest. The par 5s have the smallest greens and are protected by bunkers, except 15 which is usually the easiest opportunity for a birdie on the course. The tough par 4s are number 3, 6, 11 and 12. These are all roughly 400 yards with tight fairways. I find number 9 the most difficult, because it is a sharp dog leg. You need a precise drive of about 220 to get past the dog leg and have 140 in with a small tilted green protected by a pond. I have taken too many doubles on this hole and ruined a good front nine.
In 2018 I was playing well and won the Presidents flight of the Nebraska state senior match play at Fremont. I had to qualify, and then play four 18 hole matches in two days. I shot in the mid 70s in every round, mostly by staying out of the trees. The key to my success then was hitting drives straight and getting hot with the 60 degree wedge. Two things you have to accept at Fremont. 1. You will hit trees. 2. You will miss greens. So if you are hitting it strait and chipping well you can have a lot of one putt greens and score.
The Burlington tracks that run through the course are active, and it is common to wait for a train to pass to get to your next tee. I have even seen a train stop on the tracks and we had a 20 minute wait to get to our next tee box. Although the course is in good condition, I think the trees limited the ability to have the best turf conditions. Although it is easy to complain about the excessive trees, the fairways are so close together that the trees help protect the golfers in adjacent fairways. The course also has an open Invitational every June. Although private, if you get a chance to play this course I would recommend it.
One of the 4 times you cross the tracks to get to the next tee.
