Sand Hills Golf Club is a

country club A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offer ...

Mullen, Nebraska Mullen is a village in Hooker County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 509 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hooker County. History Mullen was laid out in 1888 when the railroad was extended to that point. It was named for ...

. Notable for its remote location and minimalist design among the sandhills of Nebraska, it is consistently ranked among the top golf courses in the world and the best courses designed since 1960, notably being named #1 in ''

Golfweek ''Golfweek'' is a golf magazine and digital media outlet based in Orlando, Florida, United States. It is part of Gannett's USA Today Network. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1975 by Charley Stine and was originally named ''Florida ...

'' magazine's 2022 list of the "Top 200 Modern Courses", defined as courses built no earlier than 1960, in the United States. The golf course architecture website ''Golf Club Atlas'' called it "the most natural course built in the United States since World War I".

Course history and design

Because of Nebraska's unique topography, course architects Bill Coore and

Ben Crenshaw Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is a retired American professional golfer who has won 19 events on the PGA Tour, including two major championships: the Masters Tournament in 1984 and 1995. He is nicknamed ''Gentle Ben''. Professiona ...

moved only of earth when designing the course.

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

developer Dick Youngscap surveyed several thousand acres of land in 1990 and worked with Coore and Crenshaw to survey the land and find an ideal spot for the course. During two years of surveying the land, Coore and Crenshaw found over 130 "natural golf holes" on the property—defined as locations that had well-defined areas that could easily be converted into teeing areas, fairways, hazards, and greens. They spent much of that time narrowing the list of possible holes to 18 and determining an ideal course routing. At one point during the design phase, when Coore and Crenshaw were making little headway on a routing, Crenshaw stepped over a boundary fence and found a parcel of land that he saw as ideal, reporting back to Coore that he should see this particular parcel. Soon thereafter, Youngscap arranged a land swap with the owner of the adjacent parcel, which today contains the 12th through 15th holes. The course itself covers . $1.2 million was spent building the course, far less than other highly rated modern golf courses. One major source of savings came about when soil analysis found that the sand on the property had perfectly round grains—making it essentially identical to the "USGA greens mix", a special type of sandy soil that the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

considers ideal for the needs of a golf green. At the time the course was being constructed, the average cost to build a green to USGA specifications was around $40,000, including not only the cost of the soil itself but also installing drainage systems. Because the ideal soil was already present, the greens required no drainage, making the cost to build all 18 greens less than $6,000. By itself, this reduced the course cost by over $700,000. Ranking among the most exclusive courses in the United States, the club reportedly has fewer than 200 members from across the country, almost none of whom reside in 500-person

Mullen Mullen is a surname of Irish and Scottish origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Alex Mullen (born 1992), Australian professional footballer *Andrew Mullen (born 1996), British Paralympian swimmer *Ann A. Mullen (1935–1994), Ameri ...

. Most members fly into

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, or nearby

North Platte North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

when playing at the course and stay in the on-site accommodations that can host about 55 people. Youngscap's influence on Mike Keiser's development of

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is a complex of five links and a par-3 golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located alongside the Pacific Ocean in southwest Oregon, just north of the city of Bandon. Courses The first course at the ...

is well documented.

Course details

References

{{reflist Golf clubs and courses in Nebraska Hooker County, Nebraska Sports venues in Nebraska