Landmand Golf Club, Nebraska
The opening tee shot of Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska.
In 1993, the only Nebraskan golf course to appear anywhere near national ranking lists was Omaha Country Club. 30 years later, the entire landscape of the sport has changed in the Cornhusker State. Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen led the charge, and other properties like Dismal River, Prairie Club, and the brand new CapRock Ranch have further legitimized Nebraska’s claim as a first-rate golf state. The sand dunes and vastness of the area make for an incredible setting to golf. In short, I had been yearning for years to see what Nebraska golf had to offer.
Enter Landmand Golf Club, a course that sits 15 minutes southwest and a whole world away from Sioux City, Iowa. Landmand is a highly acclaimed Tad King/Rob Collins hybrid design that opened to the public last fall. It is only King and Collins’ second project together, after the lauded Sweetens Cove in Tennessee. Golf Digest declared Landmand—which translates to “farmer” in Danish—the best new public golf course in America this year. GolfWeek has the design ranked 14th among all public layouts in the country. The same publication has it ranked 26th against all golf courses in the United States built after 1960. Further praise is sure to come.
On the morning of New Year’s Day, when tee times became available for the 2023 season at Landmand, I hopped on the computer to see if any were obtainable. Only an afternoon twosome on a Sunday afternoon in May remained, and so I pounced. To say I was excited to play Landmand is a vast understatement. Originally, I was going to visit with my father-in-law, but he had a legitimate scheduling conflict, so my dad came down instead. If you remember in my Oklahoma post, my dad is just as passionate about the game as I am, and it makes for a great bonding experience.
The two of us headed from Sioux Falls, South Dakota—where my in-laws reside—and made the 90-minute journey down Interstate 29. The last few miles of your drive will be dirt roads if you’re coming from the north, which I enjoyed. All that alerts you of your arrival is a small brown sign with an “L” on it. The clubhouse is small, and there’s a food truck on the property. Perhaps it’s a temporary deal, but Landmand’s driving range is a literal field. Golf club minimalism at its finest, and I am not complaining. We were later informed we were likely among the first thousand or so golfers to tee it up at Landmand.
I don’t love using hyperbole, but in this case, I need to: Landmand embodies the word “massive” more than any other golf course I have ever played. Everything about the property is supersized, from the gargantuan fairways and green complexes to the views of the surrounding area. Simply put, it is a golfer’s paradise of epic proportions. It’s almost as if Lawrence of Arabia was a golf course.
My dad and I were linked up with two locals named Josh and Corey. These gentlemen informed us that the Andersen family, holders of the land, also own nearby nine-holer Old Dane Golf Club, and that the soil used on Landmand previously existed as their personal playground for pheasant and deer hunting. As a wannabe trapper myself, I could tell.
The course is defined by its elevation changes, windsock flagsticks, and its massive, sweeping undulated greens. The Landmand experience is awesome: on the first tee, you are asked if you would like walk-up music. This is a concept I’ve never heard of. Of course, we said yes! We requested Travis Tritt’s “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive”, and the song instantly set the tone for Dad and I as we hit two bombs down the middle of the fairway. We were left wondering why every day couldn’t be just that good.
Landmand has a litany of good golf holes. There are so many solid ones, quite frankly, that it is hard to pick just one or two. Let’s pick five instead. The first is hole three, a devilish par four that is split by a grass bunker in the middle; you will need to select a route on your tee shot to avoid the penal area. The seventh hole is a drivable par four for the longest hitters, but the green is slightly elevated on the approach to make a bomber back off just a bit. Hole 10 is a straightforward par four that looks normal until you reach the fishbowl of a green. Everyone in our group hit a second ball at the top of the hill just to watch them trickle back. It’s an exhilarating concept. Hole 14 is a 200-plus yard par three that is most fun when played with a left pin position. Hit your golf ball to the right side of the green and watch it roll down the hill. It is just a flat-out fun golf hole. Landmand has so many of these. The last great hole I’ll highlight is the 315-yard par four 17th. You can see the green from so far away, and it looks intimidating. We were informed that it is the biggest green in America. If you’re lucky like me, you may be able to drive it. We need not mention the insane downhill, left-to-right sweeping putt I had. Though the putt was about 25 feet in length, my feet stood on the same elevation point as the middle of the flagstick.
Undoubtedly the most frustrating part of playing Landmand is the number of blind shots. My dad and I had no clue where to strike our tee shots on the par-four second hole, and we were left dumbfounded by the bunker in the middle of the 18th fairway. I believe one would need to play Landmand at least a few times to get the whole feel of the course. “Target golf” is a fitting term here.
Love it or hate it, Landmand is unlike any other golf experience you will have. I really, really loved the routing and the craziness of the whole deal. It’s always fun to go out and play an acclaimed track with my dad, and the memories of the time together usually reign supreme. However, teeing it up at a place like Landmand always makes me feel lucky, and I was so lucky that day! The product lived up to the hype.