The Prairie Club is a semi-private resort that sits on the rim of the Snake River Canyon in Valentine, Nebraska. This premier resort in the Sand Hills region of western Nebraska has 46 holes of golf among two 18-hole courses and a 10-hole par-3 course; world-class hunting preserves and private fly fishing; lodging accommodations in the 40,000 square-foot Prairie Club Lodge and Canyon Rim Cabins and a variety of dining options.
The three courses are: The Dunes Course, The Pines Course, and The Horse Course, a unique concept 10-hole par-3 layout.
The Dunes Course__________
The Dunes Course at The Prairie Club opened for play in 2010. The course was designed by Tom Lehman.
The Dunes Course is 18championship holes set in the widest of open spaces. The Dunes Course measures from 5,752 to 8,058 yards accomodating appropriate challeges for different skill levels with 7 sets of tees. The course set in the plaines of Nebraska is an endless marriage of wind, sky and land providing a pure, golf experience. Fairways on the elevated, treeless, windswept terrain often are 70 yards wide or larger. The Dunes' blowout bunkers, which mimic natural formations found in the Sand Hills, are visually daunting, but the course is so big that their presence often serves more to provide definition than hazards. With dramatic elevation changes, endless views of the Sandhills in all directions and immense blowouts, golfers are challeged by the wind-shaped landscape and massive rolling seascape of prairie grass with harbors of green fairways and.beautiful islands of bent-grass, greens.
The Pines Course__________
The Pines Course at The Prairie Club opened for play in 2011. The course was designed by Graham Marsh.
The Pines Course, particularly on the front nine, looks more like something out of the Sand Hills of North Carolina rather than Nebraska, with the early, tree-lined holes close to the canyon eventually giving way to a wide-open landscape. While wind often whips across the Dunes, barely a gentle breeze is felt on parts of the Pines because of the trees and lower elevation. As on the Dunes, the greens tend to rest in natural settings that underwent minimal grading. The Pines Course has five sets of tees ranging from 5,345 to 7,403 yards. making the warming sun and the canyon views stunningly beautiful. #18 is a classic risk/reward par 5 finishing hole with the clubhouse in the background.
Horse Course__________
The Horse Course at The Prairie Club opened for play in 2011. The course was designed by Gil Hanse and Geoff Shackelford.
Unlike a typical par three course, The Horse Course will have no tees, only expanded fairways and 10 greens. The concept is that the winner of the previous hole, like the basketball game of "horse", gets to choose the stance, lie, shot, and green for the next hole. Set right on the rim of Snake River Canyon, this course plays from 485 to 1,125 yards, depending on where you place the "tee box." With dramatic undulating greens that give way to breath-taking blow-outs, this course will top off your day at the Prairie Club and is the geological equivalent of the phrase "double-or-nothing".
$76 (cart not included), played on Friday, September 2012 at 10am
The only reason I rated the greens a little lower was that they had recently been "plugged" and they had not yet fully healed.
Latest Golf Course Reviews
(cart included), played on Tuesday, January 2013 at 6am
Beautiful layout, great clubhouse and perfect course condition but with the wind howling and the speed of the greens it was very difficult to play even for single digit handicappers playing the GREEN trees