Sand Hills Golf Club successful Mullen, Neb.
LC Lambrecht
As portion of GOLF’s rigorous ratings process for our recently released Top 100 Courses successful the U.S. and Top 100 Courses You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the champion play courses successful each state.
You tin cheque retired the links beneath to browse each of our people rankings, aliases scroll down to spot the champion courses successful Nebraska. And if you’re looking to create your ain travel successful the future, you’d beryllium wise to fto GOLF’s new Course Finder instrumentality assistance you. Here, you tin toggle each of our lists — Top 100 public, champion munis, champion short courses, champion par-3s and much — or select by value to create the cleanable itinerary for your adjacent trip.
GOLF’s different people rankings: Top 100 Courses successful the World | Top 100 Courses successful the U.S. | Top 100 Courses You Can Play | Top 100 Value Courses successful the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 Best Short Courses successful the World
Check retired our all-new recreation podcast Destination GOLF. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: APPLE | SPOTIFY | IHEART | AMAZON
Explore our all-new Course Finder
Golf courses adjacent you? Search here!
Begin Browsing
The champion play courses successful Nebraska (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 Course successful the U.S.
Y = Top 100 You Can Play successful the U.S.
V = Top 100 Value Course successful the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not person capable votes.
1. Sand Hills (Mullen) [#]
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw moved teaspoons of ungraded to conception the astir natural, hew-to-the-land layout built since World War II. Rolling, sandy terrain, rippled fairways that were spared from a bulldozer, ever-present winds, wavy prairie grasses and gigantic blow-out bunkers create the sensation of being seaside successful the mediate of landlocked Nebraska. The creation was instantly embraced, and the minimalist activity started successful earnest, pinch this people arguably kicking disconnected the 2nd Golden Age.
2. CapRock Ranch (Valentine) [#]
This Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner creation is the only caller people built successful the modern property to break into the 2022-23 U.S. Top 100. The earthy spot enjoys copious earthy advantages pinch which fewer different properties tin compete, and the creation takes advantage of some the Snake River vale and the bordering dunescape. Eight greens are group on aliases separator the Snake River valley. Standing connected the 6th green, you look down and spot the winding stream immoderate 190 feet below. (Always neat to spot a 10-million-year-old characteristic included successful a two-year-old design!) The holes distant from the vale play into dunes, pinch immoderate greens, for illustration the 8th, enjoying punchbowl qualities. Other greens, for illustration the 14th, are perched high, poised to wreak havoc. The routing effortlessly runs to the spectacular caprock cliffs backmost to the dunes and backmost again. Though the finishing four-hole stretch, including the melodramatic 230-yard 18th, is reliable to beat, the beforehand 9 is arsenic as good.
3. Lost Rail (Gretna)
4. Prairie Club — Dunes (Valentine) [#, P, Y]
5. Omaha CC (Omaha)
6. Dismal River — Red (Mullen)
7. Wild Horse (Gothenburg) [Y, V, P]
The Sand Hills of Nebraska are champion known to play buffs for a high-ranked backstage nine of the aforesaid name. This is the Everyman’s equivalent. For little than what a caddie costs astatine its exclusive counterpart, Wild Horse offers a kindred play experience, pinch firm, accelerated fairways and rough-lipped bunkers gouged retired of the rolling terrain. While the large skies and unfastened spaces are axenic prairie, the bouncy conditions and wind-whipped autochthonal grasses create the look and consciousness of a people crossed the pond. Think links golf, minus the sea.
8. Landmand (Homer), [Y, P]
9. Dismal River — White (Mullen)
10. Prairie Club — Pines (Valentine) [Y, P]
How we rank our courses
For our recently released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped america create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the database of courses were 11 “buckets,” aliases groupings. If our panelists considered a people to beryllium among the apical 3 successful the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the people to beryllium among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and truthful connected retired to 250+ and moreover a file for “remove.” Panelists were besides free to constitute successful courses that they felt should person been included connected the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to get astatine an mean people for each course, we disagreement its aggregate people by the number of votes. From those constituent tallies, the courses are past classed accordingly. It is an intentionally elemental and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are wide lauded. Like the crippled itself, there’s nary request to unnecessarily complicate things aliases effort to hole thing that already useful truthful well.
The cardinal to the process is the acquisition and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and each the worldwide play meccas, each of our 127 handpicked panelists has a keen oculus for architecture, some regionally and globally. Many of our panelists person played much than 1,000 courses successful 20-plus countries, immoderate complete 2,000. Their handicaps scope from +5 to 15.
Because the quality of people standing is truthful intensely subjective, nary 1 sentiment carries the day. The only way, then, to build meaningful statement is to incorporated this diverseness of panelists and experiences into 1 ranking.
Need thief unriddling the greens astatine your location course? Pick up a custom Green Book from 8AM Golf connection GolfLogix.