Nebraska golf continues to make a name for itself and it’s surely not slowing down anytime soon. A few weeks ago, Golfweek updated their list of the Top-200 Modern golf courses in the United States. Included were seven gems from Nebraska.

You can see the whole list here. But, you can maybe name most of them off your head if you play even just a little golf. Sand Hills. The brand new Cap Rock near Valentine. Landmand. Prairie Club, Dunes. Lost Rail. You get the drill.

Sometimes we get lost in all these new courses. They are all, at least the ones I have seen, really good. I count Sand Hills as the best course I have ever played. And fortunate to have been able to do it.

But, what about the courses that do the dirty work? The public courses that allow anyone to come play. And the great little private clubs that serve a membership in their town and help grow the game by teaching kids how to play and host events for the Nebraska PGA and Nebraska Golf Association. 

Many awesome Nebraska places come to mind: Riverside (Grand Island), Lochland (Hastings), Fremont Golf Club, Norfolk Country Club, Beatrice Country Club. Plenty in Lincoln and Omaha, too.

Last week (and on a soggy Monday), we got to experience Elks Country Club in Columbus; host of the annual Nebraska Open and the sneakiest, 6,600 yards you’ll ever want to play. It seems like everything you’d want in a golf club for your family.

Opened in 1965 (we really need to research the Nebraska golf boom of the 1960s) and designed by Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Dick Phelps the Elks lays on a wonderful piece of rolling property on the north side of Columbus.

Phelps’ partnership with Kevin Atkinson is also credited with two other excellent Nebraska properties — Oak Hills in Omaha (1967) and Heritage Hills in McCook (1981).

On the rolling southern portion of the property, Phelps wisely routed the first six holes to get the golfer right into the meat of the golf course.

After a gentle start at the first, Phelps gets right to it at No. 2 with a wonderfully blind tee shot to a downhill approach. He then uses great sidehill architecture on the par-5 third and par-4 fifth.

In between, at the medium-length par-3 fourth, he gives the golfer a shot to a skyline green where none of the putting surface can be seen from the tee. After trudging up the par-5 6th, Phelps has the golfer on mostly flat land for the rest of the walk.

However, the “flat golf” provides plenty of interest.

The 10th and 11th feature the smallest, most demanding greens on the golf course. They precede a stretch from 12-14 that use out of bounds left to challenge the player. Both 14 and 15 are wonderful half-par holes that could have the golfer going bogey-birdie instead of par-par.

And, the finish is a brute.

The slinging hook needed on the 16th. The long par-3 17th shows you that a hole over flat ground can still hold your interest and the 18th is one of the most difficult closing holes in the state at 450 yards from the back markers into that lovely Nebraska south wind.

But, to me, it’s all the “other stuff” at Elks that makes me smile.

Perfect greens presented by Eric Bice and his crew. Like, literally, fantastic. Derrick Cedar’s pro shop is the size of your bathroom, but it’s wicked awesome. And, how the garage is five times the size of the shop and has all the bags just waiting to be set out on a Saturday morning.

I could go on. The “little loops” you could go play as the sun goes down (5, 3, 4 or maybe 10, 11, 9). The family pool. The smell of the grill and the sound of a story. It has to be near what is was like in 1965. In a world where we keep assessing members for the “new shiny” stuff, it seems the Elks just takes care of what was afforded them by the founding members of the course.

There is honor in that, too. And it’s present in each welcoming trip to Elks Country Club.

Have Clubs Will Travel

The Gootch’s have had a week. Let’s see if we can get it all figured out.

Dad, Scott, teed it up at the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. Oldest son, Luke, on Monday won the Nebraska PGA Section Qualifier to earn a spot in the Pinnacle Bank Championship in August. To-be Westside senior and Florida commit Trevor advanced to the finals of the Nebraska Match Play last week and is currently playing in the North-South Junior in Pinehurst.

When he’s done? On the plane to the John Deere to watch dad on Tour again. Not sure how the do it. But, it’s kind of fun to watch.

Beau Knows

Gretna grad Beau Petersen added on to his smoking hot summer by beating the aforementioned Trevor Gutschewski 6-and-5 in the finals of the Nebraska State Match Play; the first time ever it featured two juniors. Petersen became the first junior and youngest ever to win the title.

The Northern Illinois pledge won his third Nebraska Golf Association title in his career which added to his summer of also qualifying for the US Junior (by way of his Nebraska Junior Amateur win) and the PGA National Junior after finishing second at the local qualifier in Beatrice.

Decent stuff.

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