Unique Doak Project in Omaha?

[RJ_Daley]

They must have decided to site the airport in a vast floodplain that was previously mostly in Iowa.  They must have agreed that Omaha or state of NE would do the dredging and fill work and permanently alter the river course from the Iowa previous land to build the airport and it would become NE, and made a land swap with Iowa as comp.  What else could it be?

[Tom_Doak]

RJ:  That's right, the channel of the river has moved to the east since the boundary was established in the 1800's, so the middle of the land is technically in Iowa and both ends are in Nebraska.  I walked all the way across Iowa to look at it!

It is very premature for this article to be out there, but unlike most of the projects we do where the developer wants to lay low until all the permits are in hand, for this one they are trying to raise money and generate interest so it WILL happen.  Not clear how the project would be funded yet, although there are some good candidates there in Omaha.

I heard some numbers batted around but it would not be a terribly expensive golf course to build ... not at all.  The only issues will be what we can and can't do inside the levees along the river, and how much of the land we could use.  One person even brought up the idea of building some holes across the river on the Iowa side.

I really don't know much more than that for now, there will be a bit of politicking done before it makes sense to pursue it any further.

[Jason Hines]

Does anyone know if there has there ever been a course that has crossed over a state line before?

Tom, how would the course theoretically cross the river?  The Missouri is fairly wide?  Does the soil contain sand in between the levees?  I was always racing home from the airport when I had driven by the parcel in the past.

[Ken Moum]

There has got to be a good story behind how that border-boundary happened!

Carter Lake is an oxbow, which is a bend of a river that's been cut off from the channel by the river cutting a new path that's shorter.

In this case, the boundary was apparently defined as the middle of the river channel, but when Carter Lake was created, the boundary stayed even when the river moved on.

It's not uncommon, in fact i am playing a golf course named for the effect next week, Oxbow Country Club, in Oxbow ND

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Oxbow,+ND&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.646818,86.220703&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Oxbow,+Cass,+North+Dakota&z=14

[Tom_Doak]

Jason:

There is an out-of-service railroad bridge just at the north end of the site, by the airport, that crosses over the river.  Someone has suggested we use this to connect the project to the other side.  I doubt that will wind up being the eventual solution, unless someone on the Iowa side puts up a lot of the money.

[Adam Clayman]

If you do somehow use the RR bridge it could be a nice homage to Pete.

[Jason Hines]

Jason:

There is an out-of-service railroad bridge just at the north end of the site, by the airport, that crosses over the river.  Someone has suggested we use this to connect the project to the other side.  I doubt that will wind up being the eventual solution, unless someone on the Iowa side puts up a lot of the money.

Wow, that would be a project in and of itself.  Not that this website is call Golf Course and Bridge Architecture, but that is an interesting bridge.

http://bridgehunter.com/ne/douglas/ic-swing/

[Tony_Chapman]

Does anyone know if there has there ever been a course that has crossed over a state line before?

Tom, how would the course theoretically cross the river?  The Missouri is fairly wide?  Does the soil contain sand in between the levees?  I was always racing home from the airport when I had driven by the parcel in the past.

Jason -- I played a place that had nine holes in North Dakota and nine in Minnesota. Called Bois de Sioux Golf Club. The front nine is Wahpeton, ND and the back nine is in Breckenridge, MN.

[RJ_Daley]

Gateway GC, RB Harris, 1948, Land-O-Lakes MI-WI.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=46.16081,-89.210658&spn=0.013763,0.043774&t=h&z=15

[Ben Voelker]

The article mentions the site being relatively flat and from what I remember from going to the airport there many times, it is dead flat.  I assume there would have to be a good bit of earth movement to create an interesting course?

It is amazing what they have done in Omaha over the past 10 years.  My father works for Gallup and made the move to Omaha with the new office.  There used to be nothing in that area north of 480 except old, decrepit warehouses and storage tanks.  Between Qwest, the new CWS ballpark and this project, they are on their way to having a really unique sporting identity right next to downtown Omaha.

[Steve Lang]

   this book has most of state lines documented, unfortunately my copy is about 1400 miles away..

http://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397#_

[RJ_Daley]

Not to mention the Zoo and botanical gardens.  Unfortunately, I think I heard that the college world series will not be returning to Rosenblatt Stadium next year, after many years of tradition.  I'm surprised O doesn't have a major pro sports team.  With Lincoln/council bluffs close enough to the market, it seems they might be as good a market as some other areas that have various teams.  I know college hockey and jrs is on the rise there.

[Tim Pitner]

My home state of Iowa could use a Doak. 

[Tom_Doak]

RJ:  The College World Series will not return to Rosenblatt because they are building a huge new stadium just north of downtown.  It looks like a major league park and should hold about 30,000.  I'm not sure what they are going to do with it the other 50 weeks of the year, since the minor league Royals play in a different park.

Tim:  I've actually been discussing a project in Iowa, too, although it's also much too early to know if anything will come of it.

[Tony_Chapman]

A few updates for folks about downtown Omaha.

a. the Qwest Center would probably be about 1/2 mile from the proposed site, I would think. They have hosted the US Olympic Swimming Trials in 2008, the NCAA volleyball Final Four, and a hoops regional (where all of the Wisconsin fans bought our football t-shirts that said 'Bo Big Red'  ).

b. Rosenblatt will be demolished in after sometime in 2011 which will give the zoo some much needed additional parking. The Royals are moving south to a new 6,000 seat stadium to be built in Sarpy County south of Papillion. The new TD Ameritrade Park will hold about 25,000 fans for the CWS along with some Creighton and Nebraska games in addition to our new team that will play in the United Football League, the Omaha Nighthawks. The new ball park is right across the street from the Qwest Center.

Adding a "sporty" Doak course to the Omaha landscape would be very neat, I think. Crazy to think of Omaha as a golf hotbed, but you could come stay downtown and play a Doak, Maxwell/Foster (Omaha CC), Langford (Happy Hollow), RTJ (Willow Lakes), and three Brauers (Bent Tree/Champions ClubWoodland Hills).

Tom, I propose we get this thing built by the time we host the 2013 US Senior Open at Omaha CC. 

[Adam Clayman]

Does anyone know if the NGF has a stated position on the ball's carry distance?

[Tim Pitner]

Tim:  I've actually been discussing a project in Iowa, too, although it's also much too early to know if anything will come of it.

Tom,

Very interesting . . . not a lot of sandy soil in Iowa . . .

[Tim Nugent]

Tom, I'm crossing my fingers for you on this one.  It would be another great example of how golf can turn a Sow's Ear into a Slik Purse.  Besides, I'm partial to these types of projects - where the land is already messed up and it takes an architect with vision because "there were 100 great hols out there, we just had to find 18" won't ever be uttered.

[Jason Hines]

Has anyone heard any news on this project?  I was in Omaha last weekend with my family visiting friends and am impressed on how that city has grown and developed over the last 10 years.  I occasionally search the World Herald online for any updates for the sand hills as well as this course.

Jason

[Tom_Doak]

Jason:

Not much progress on this as far as I have heard.  They were pursuing doing a feasibility study for the project, as a prerequisite to going out and asking for corporate money / donations to get it built, but if they've finished that yet I have not seen it.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Tom,

Congrats on being famous enough to be used as promotional aid for an unfunded developer!  Its quite a notch in the bedpost.....

[Joel_Stewart]

The most ridicolous comment was the following, "Wiren said at a Tuesday night meeting that the National Golf Foundation is strongly interested in helping with a feasibility study for the project".   The NGF will do anything to make a buck and to even bring their name into the picture is trying is odd.

Anyway the project sounds interesting.  Good luck to them.

[Tony Ristola]

$15 million?

[Matthew Rose]

I get back to Omaha once in awhile.... have lots of family there and they all play.

Hope this project gets done - I'm really intrigued.

[Doug Siebert]

Here I was thinking how conveniently cool this is since Nebraska just joined the Big Ten, as it would make a great stop on the way to Lincoln the day before the game, but then realized since the Cornhuskers are the Hawkeyes' new end of the season rival, that game is always on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  You might have to wear "replica garb" to play in the late November weather, though it might increase the chance of F&F conditions....ice has a way of doing that!

Sounds really neat, definitely worth a trip most of the way across Iowa to see - even if I can't simply walk across the state like Tom did