Wild Horse

Wild Horse Golf Club

This one of Nebraska’s gems.  The course just outside Gothenberg is 3 and half hours west of Omaha but worth a trip at least once a year. To give a little history, the design was modeled after Sandhills, it’s exclusive neighbor about 100 miles north.  However, Wild Horse is a privately owned course open to the public. It does have annual memberships and also is a daily fee course.

When Wildhorse opened it seemed to garner a lot of recognition on lists as one of the best new courses, and it annually makes list of best public courses, best course under $100 and in the top 10 in Nebraska.

What makes the course special? I think it is just a good links design with every hole offering a different but fair challenge.  It doesn’t have a lot of elevation changes, but enough to have a lot of character and you wont find a single tree shading a fairway of blocking your shots. The course always plays hard and fast, much shorter than the indicated yardage. The course is an easy walk and walking gives you a great appreciation for the design. On a windy dry day, it can be very difficult to score.

From the opening par 4 which is usually down wind, you have to decide how much club to hit. It is easy to hit it through the fairway into the knee high no-mow.  You can hit less than a driver and still have only 120 in. Then get it on the green and hope you are starting below the hole or you can easily be looking at a 3 putt.

The third hole, a good long par 5 usually into the wind has a couple bunkers in the middle of the fairway. Your second shot needs to  either go left, right or over the bunker that is about 80 yards in front of the green. Last week we played this hole to a back pin that would not hold a ball close to the hole. I was middle of he green about 20 feet below the hole and had my missed putt come right back to me. I would usually say this was unfair, but these greens were playing faster than I had ever seen them.

On any hole at Wildhorse, if you miss to the wrong side of the green you may have an impossible chance for getting up and down. It takes a little luck and a lot of course knowledge to score well here. I can quickly think of about 4 holes where there is an invisible bunker behind the green. You hit what you think is a good shot rolling to the back of the green and it disappears into a bunker you can’t see.

Several of these greens are incredibly large (hole 13) and add to the architecture, and some are very small and can make a short par 4 like number 15 a difficult hole. The greens are usually in great shape and offer a smooth pure putting surface.  I was disappointed in the amount of ball marks and especially the amount we had to fix. The golfers need to take better care of the course.

The most difficult holes are often dependent on the wind.  Number 2 can be long and into the wind and impossible to get close to the pin from the right side. Number 6 seems to be a tough fairway for many to hit with the double dog leg. Number 8 would be the hardest, a long par 4, usually into the wind with a very narrow fairway. Finishing holes 16 and 18 can be long par 4s and tough greens to hit.

You will find a lot of bunkers that look like they are pretty much natural blow out areas. They are strategically placed with good course design and you need to stay away from the bunkers.  Although natural, they appear to have sand dumped into them. I don’t believe there is any sophisticated drainage system, but it probably is not needed.  What is needed is bunker maintenance. The bunkers always look like they need raking and I doubt any machine maintenance is done at all.  I will partially blame the small rakes, but the clientele left foot prints in every bunker I looked at.  Nothing worse than hitting a good shot, seeing it sneak into a bunker and then you have a lie in a footprint.  Some people feel if they pay green fees, they don’t have to rake bunkers, fill divots and or fix ball marks.

The fairways were wide and in good condition, but there was no sand on the carts to fill divots. I know that takes personnel to keep sand bottles full, but that is also what makes a good course. Because the course is in the country and surrounded by sandy farm country, there is a lot of dust and it shows on the carts. They are probably hard to keep clean. The carts have a very good GPS system showing the hole layout and yardage to the pin, which should always help speed up play. They also have the geo-fencing, which you don’t know until you have to go in reverse.

The amenities of the course are nothing special.  The driving range is adequate, but can only be used by about 12 golfers at a time. One thing unique is a robot picking up balls.  The machine seems to wander aimlessly around the range and pick  balls. This is the only course I have ever seen with this feature.  The practice green is large and heavily sloped but gets you in the  mindset of what you are about to play on.  There is also a nice short game area and a chipping green. There is two large cabins with 4 bedroom suites just off the clubhouse. These are ideal to stay in if you are out for a golfing marathon. However, I don’t think it is enough to meet the demand. I stayed in these five years ago, but have never been able to reserve since then.

I could play this course all day several days in a row. It is always fun and challenging.