Being a novice, can someone tell me why you would need an irrigation pound over a huge aquifer? There obviously is a reason, drainage?
Nicklaus is expected to give course final OK in fall
BY STU POSPISIL
Online Extra: Midlands Golf
Tucked away on one of the highest points on the Dismal River Club property will be a 15-million-gallon reservoir, storage water for the future Jack Nicklaus golf course.
Dismal River Club is one of two exclusive golf clubs under construction in the Sand Hills. The Prairie Club is southwest of Valentine on the rim of the Snake River.
It constitutes a 10-day reserve supply for the course's irrigation system, which can throw 2,000 gallons a minute through 1,700 sprinkler heads.
"You won't see it at all," said Bill Martin of Denver, one of the club's investors.
Martin said Dismal River Club, southwest of Mullen, Neb., remains on schedule and within budget. Work continues until early fall, when Nicklaus is expected to sign off on the course, with a tentative opening date of May or June 2006.
Dismal River Club is one of two exclusive golf clubs under construction in the Sand Hills. The Prairie Club, also planning to open in 2006, is southwest of Valentine on the rim of the Snake River.
They will join Sand Hills Golf Club, which opened 10 years ago, as lures in the middle of the country for wealthy, avid golfers looking for unique course experiences.
Fourteen of the 18 holes at Dismal River Club won't change in the final routing of the course. Nicklaus will decide about the other four holes in his next visit to the Sand Hills, probably in the next few weeks.
"From the tips, it's 7,800 yards," Martin said. "For us mortals, there's four sets of tee boxes. For the members, it's about 6,700 yards. There's some really cool par-3s, a couple driveable par-4s and monster par-5s."
The course, like many in Scotland, will have outward and inward nines. There will be an outbuilding with restrooms between the ninth green and 10th tee.
Martin said workers are finishing the lining of the reservoir. Wells and pumps have been installed. Milroy Golf Systems of Newburg, Ore., which is installing the irrigation system, has worked on the Bandon Dunes family of courses along the Oregon coast.
"We're going full bore on construction," Martin said. "Once the irrigation is in place, then we can start stripping the native grass and start seeding."
Kyle Jacobsen will be in charge of the grow-in phase as Dismal River Club's new course superintendent. He had been an assistant superintendent at Whistling Straits, the Lake Michigan course in Wisconsin that was the site of last year's PGA Championship.
Like Sand Hills and the Wild Horse course at Gothenburg, Dismal River and Prairie Club will require little grading. Martin said Al Pettigrew, recommended by Nicklaus, is on a monthly contract to do whatever shaping of greens, tees and bunkers is needed.
Work also is starting on the building that will house the pro shop, restaurant, offices and cart storage and the first phase of lodging that will accommodate 48 in two-bedroom and four-bedroom cabins. Those will sit on a bluff above the river, a mile from the first tee.
"It's view-protected from the course," Martin said, "yet has a commanding view of the river valley."
A practice facility will be adjacent, with more practice putting greens next to the first tee.
"Whenever possible, we're using local labor," Martin said. "There was a real good turnout for the job opportunities. There's just a limited population base and with agriculture and Sand Hills, we weren't sure what kind of labor supply there was."
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