I had my first Nebraskan Sandhills golf experience today, playing 54 holes at The Prairie Club. There were many standout holes on the property, but I thought the 8th hole on the Dunes Course was an awesome Alps.
The hole plays as a 481 yard par 4, uphill and with no helping wind. The tee shot has a centerline bunker that is some 240 yards to carry from the tee. The approach is less intimidating from the right, but much, much longer. Given the length of the hole, I think one has no choice but to bite the bullet, play over or to the left of the bunker and leave a VERY intimidating approach into the green.
View from the tee:
So, standing in the fairway and my Skycaddie telling me I'm 205 yards from the green, I had zero idea where to go. The picture below is all I could see.
View from a tee shot that is played just left of the centerline bunker:
Upon walking up another 75 yards or so, I saw this (pretty cool, eh!):
And it wasn't until I walked over all of the trouble and the view of the whole green opened up did it even occur to me that this is an Alps. It really reminded me of the Alps at RSG.
All in all, one really fun hole. I guarantee you that I will be thinking about that approach on 8 as I tee off 1 tomorrow morning.