GrayBull Golf Club

Architect David McLay Kidd has seen both ends of the golf site spectrum, from the incomparable ocean setting of the original Bandon Dunes course and the pine dunes of Sand Valley, all the way to lifeless land like the potato farm he inherited for St. Andrew’s Castle Course in his native Scotland. He’s not likely to get a better one than GrayBull, the course he built for the Dormie Network in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. Located about 30 minutes northeast of North Platte, just north of I-80, the 1,800-acre site provided the potential for dozens if not hundreds of different golf holes, though the owners instructed Kidd to just build 18 of them and not to worry about leaving room for a second 18—or nine, or a short course—at a future date. Thus the routing takes the long road around the site, moving in a big clockwise flow with gentle cascading movements and only a few switchbacks. There was a section of steeper dunes in the center of the property that were attractive, but they were essentially too severe and Kidd couldn’t find a way to get in and out of them without having to make big cuts to the land, something you shouldn’t have to do in the Sand Hills. The fairways are larger than they appear but are obscured by angles around the dunes and elevated bunkers, and the greens are a continuing evolution of those at Gamble Sands and Mammoth Dunes, getting progressively more contoured at each course. The strength of the design is the par 4s presented in a rich variety of lengths and orientations (the drivable fifth and 16th—in certain winds—are standouts, as is the 13th where the fairway kicks drives left into a hollow unless they challenge a large bunker on the right), adding up to a stellar addition to this vast and most interesting of golf landscapes.