I am going to do my best to do a photo tour of the Dunes Course at The Prairie Club (designed by Tom Lehman and Chris Brands), but given the expansive nature of the golf course, there is no way the photos will do the course justice. Greg Ohlendorf gave a brief tour, but I will try to expand upon it (
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,44654.0.html).
I have not played Ballyneal, Dismal River or Sand Hills so I cannot possibly compare it to them, but I will say that the course is exceptional. There are so many sets of tees, possible pin positions and cleverly placed fairway bunkers (and an ever-present, constantly switching wind) that give the course a very different feel every time you play it. I played 72 holes over 2 days, from three sets of tees with two different winds and honestly the course was equally fun with every combination.
I was really impressed that even though the wind switched 180 degrees from one day to the next, the course remained fair and interesting both days. I was convinced I knew the direction of the predominant wind after my first day of play because the course 'fit' that day's wind so well. After the second day and an opposite wind, however, I really wasn't sure. The course played that good with both wind directions.
Another thing I found really interesting about the course was that even though the greens are very, very large, often the internal contouring was quite subtle. As a result, long two-putts were possible. That being said, there was substantial contouring around the perimeter of the greens. It seemed as though the archies had a couple of pin positions in mind that would be seriously impacted by these difficult contours, but on days where the supers wanted the course to play a bit easier, middle of the green pin positions could be used that would not bring the large contours into play.
I played the course from three different tees (all par 73) (Black - 7583 Yards, 75/135; White 7355 Yards, 74.2/133; Blue 6838 Yards, 71.7/128). None of the tees I played actually played close to their stated yardages as tees were moved up on many holes. Photos will be from a few sets of tees as will be noted.
Anyway, here goes...
The course is largely an out and back layout, though not in the purest sense as the routing makes a few jaunts that are largely perpendicular to the general direction of the routing. I was told that the predominant wind for the course is a south wind, making most of the front nine into the wind (exceptions being 4, 8 and 9) and most of the back nine downwind (except 14 and 15).
Tee from the blacks (which were on the 426 yard tee)
Tee from the whites (which were at the 359 yard green tee box)
From 175 yards out on the right side of the fairway - from here the green is entirely blind
From 160 yards out from the center/left side of the fairway - the top of the pin can be seen from here
From just on top of the hill - the first time the green comes into view
Green from right (with holes 2 and 3 in the background)