Sometime last year, I recall Jonathan Cummings or Tom Doak or someone mentioning how the members at Cypress Point sometimes bring their canine companions out with them to play a whiskey loop in the late evening. Now playing Cypress alone is a dream for all of us, but being able to play CPC with my dog would be an unforgettable experience for me. Actually, just being able to bring my yellow lab Charlotte with me to play a round of golf anywhere is something I’ve always wanted to do.
Well, this dream came true last week. My wife, dog, and I recently completed our trans-midwest trip from Denver to Columbus, OH to relocate here in Ohio, and I was fortunate enough to make a stop at Gothenburg to play Wild Horse with my wife and dog as my gallery. I can’t say enough about the Wild Horse golfing experience. We arrived in the parking lot at 7:30 with the first tee time of the day at 8:00 all ours. There was only one other car in the parking lot, belonging to the nice young lady who took my fee. The course was as soft as I’d played it, which was still very firm. The area has been getting quite a bit of rain (the Platte River was up to its banks as you came into town from I80). The greens and their fescue surrounds were in phenomenal shape. I’m really going to miss my annual pilgrimage to this course.
There have been a lot of comparing and contrasting the golf courses at Wild Horse and Rustic Canyon. I have yet to play Rustic, and I’m sure the course is worthy of the high praise that it receives here, but to me there is something about the Wild Horse experience that is simply magical, matchable in my experiences only by its big brother, but unique unto itself, probably due to my small town Iowa upbringing. After every visit to Wild Horse, during my mental recap of the round I always picture myself putting on the wild 11th green late in the evening and from out of the straw walks Bobby Jones with a quizzical look on his face.
<que “Field of Dreams” score>
Jones: Is this heaven?
Me: Its Nebraska.
1st tee, with the course to ourselves.
Cheers,
Brad Swanson