Hi Dick,
I am sorry I did not see your response until now, I am back in Kansas City right now and did not get a chance to ask the PC your question on how long they were going to stay open.
To set the stage for my impressions of the Prairie Club, I was running from society and had definitely accomplished my mission. We drove 520 miles to get there and similar to their neighbor courses, you get to de-tune by watching the terrain and landscape roll past your window. It also helped that my blackberry had problems at times of staying constantly updated with new messages. My very quick impressions below are not just of the GCA, but the conditions and our trip all together.
The Pines:
To me, this course is a differentiator from the other sand hills or dunes type courses in the area because of it’s use of the river canyon and mixture of tree lined holes.
A few things I liked and was pleasantly surprised about:
As mentioned above, the Pines contained several wide fairway dunes holes and several tree lined, more narrow landing zone fairways that make you think on where you want to put your tee shot.
The 6800 yard tees and up were very playable in that you definitely benefit from the fast rolling fairways.
Course conditions were outstanding when taken into account the age of the course.
Favorite Holes:
#2, #10, #11, #13 and #17
Other surprises:
The slow play that was tolerated the day I played. We played our second 18 in just over 5 hours. There were two foursomes ahead of us that drove all that way out there to play a best ball scramble. Obviously, this was probably not a problem on the member's side or Dunes course that day.
Would agree with Adam to some extent with regards to the green sizes and contours. IMHO, they were so large with several large humps or hillocks that you almost needed an approach shot/putt to get nearer to the hole. 3 putts were at times very common. We were not hung up on scores, but I understand that others can be.
The Dunes:
We teed off in the morning with a 15 mph wind, 38 degrees and a driving mist. By the time we made the turn at the Dunes Saloon, no one was inside with locked doors, so we tried to warm up in the bathroom. We did manage to fire up the grill to dry our gloves out. We did enjoy the Dunes over the Pines.
Things I liked:
Good mixture of elevated tee shots and several uphill approach shots.
The natural bunkers. Several had native sand and rocks that made it possible to putt out of one green side bunker.
My two playing partners thought I was nuts at how “cool” I thought it was, but I really enjoyed the short walk from the 13th green to the 14th tee box
Favorite Holes:
#4, #6, #9, #13, #14 and # 18. Would agree with Jim on #4, I hit a 7 iron to the middle portion of the hour glass to watch it roll towards the back pin placement. The Fun factor on the Dunes course is very high.
Other Surprises:
The weather slowed the ball down.
The 18th hole is a beautiful, dramatic and long finishing hole. My one slight criticism is that the green site is almost pinched to the left taking away a long iron run up shot. Just my personal preference.
Due to scramble being played ahead of us, the desire to play 54 holes each day into the dark as well as leaving at 530 am on Sunday morning, I did not get a chance to see the Horse course. However, I will be going back again some day soon.
Whenever I travel with my long time friends, I always listen to their comments and compare them to our group here on the Treehouse.
“The Dunes is Wild Horse on steroids.” (positive)
“I hate blind shots”
“I wish they had a hot tub”
The Lodge and accommodations were very well done and please do not take my observations above as too negative. If you have a chance to go there, you should. I give my whole experience at the PC a 9 out of 10 and cannot wait to go back to see Gil Hanses' Course when complete.
Sorry for the quick and chopped up response, I need to get back to all of those emails that populated my blackberry at about Norfolk on the way home.....