This new course by our own Jeff Brauer opens this Saturday. Congratulations, Jeff!!!
Where is Newton, KS? It must be near Wichita. $49 for weekend play looks good to me!
From the website:
Sand Creek Station’s unique links-style design features plenty of mounding encompassing the bent grass fairways and undulated greens uncharacteristic of the courses in the area. The sanctity of the railroad has been preserved surrounding the golf course to remind players of the history of the area. Many holes are, as they say in Scotland, “hard by the cinders,” continuing a century’s old tradition of golf bordering railways. Come see what other similarities you can identify between Sand Creek Station and other famous golf courses in the birthplace of this great game, Scotland.
www.sandcreekgolfclub.comHere's a favorable review:
Newton's Sand Creek ready to showcase its uniqueness
BY SCOTT PASKE
The Wichita Eagle
NEWTON - Any great thrill ride generates a sense of anticipation at its origin.
That should hold true for golfers as they travel under railroad tracks, down a tree-lined path and across a wooden bridge to the first tee at Sand Creek Station Golf Club. The 18-hole, daily-fee facility, located on Newton's southwest side, will host a VIP outing Friday and is open to the public on Saturday.
Jeffrey Brauer, an Arlington, Texas-based architect whose work includes Manhattan's Colbert Hills, converted the flat cropland south of U.S. 50 into a challenging, par-72 layout. Four wooded holes on the front nine run along Sand Creek, and are flanked on both sides by links-style challenges that will eventually wind through a 565-unit residential development.
"To me, the best golf courses have a little bit of everything," Brauer said. "You find the natural holes and then you go with what you've got."
At Colbert Hills, Brauer collaborated with professional golfer Jim Colbert to set many of the holes within the scenic terrain of the Flint Hills. Sand Creek Station required more sculpting.
With the aid of Wadsworth Golf, the course's builder, Brauer moved more than 440,000 cubic yards of soil to create a rolling terrain and establish drainage patterns. Man-made dunes covered in prairie grass frame several greens and fairways.
The course shows its teeth on two long par-5s that will often play into a prevailing south wind during spring and summer. Sand Creek Station's signature hole is No. 2, a tree-lined masterpiece that features an approach over the creek and measures 602 yards from the tips.
The other rugged test is No. 10, a hole appropriately named "The Beast." A long, narrow pond is stationed along the left side of the fairway to the hole's midpoint. More water awaits on the right side as golfers get closer to the green.
Brauer designed a championship tee that will make the hole play at 640 yards.
"From the back tees, it's a very demanding golf course," said Chris Tuohey, Sand Creek Station's general manager and head professional. "You can certainly host a state amateur championship or a mini-tour event there.
"For the daily player -- Jeff did a fantastic job with this -- it's a fair golf course. When you play from the (regular) tees, it looks more intimidating than it actually plays."
A set of railroad tracks borders three front-nine holes that will frequently test a golfer's ability to hit crosswind shots. Another set splits the front and back nines and serves as a backdrop on the par-5 16th, a hole that features a green patterned after the famous "Road Hole," No. 17 on the Old Course at St. Andrews.
"Growing up in Chicago, many of the courses were also along the rail line," Brauer said. "There's a long association of golf courses and railroads, so it didn't bother me to keep that relationship going."
Sand Creek Station's tees, fairways and greens are bentgrass. A mild winter provided a favorable grow-in season after a fall seeding. Also assisting was the course's irrigation source, a pipeline from a nearby wastewater-treatment facility that empties into a large holding pond.
KemperSports, a Northbrook, Ill.-based company, manages the municipal course. Tuohey came to Sand Creek after a short stint at a Kemper course in Jacksonville, Ark. Prior to that, he and his assistant, Dan Talbot, worked at Bayou Oaks in New Orleans, a 72-hole facility that was ravaged by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina.
At Sand Creek, the goal is to offer a private-club experience with daily-fee prices ranging from a $24 weekday twilight rate for Harvey County residents to $49 for non-residents on weekends.
"We feel comfortable with our fee structure because we feel there's a major demand in this area for a facility like that," Tuohey said. "Once people come out here and play it, they'll feel like they got their money's worth."