[Brett_Morrissy]

"...I think it is called Sand Hills, I heard that it is goig to be totally private and that Ben Crenshaw is going to design it, has anyone heard anything about it, apparently the land is some of the best non seaside land ever..." circa 1992???
- do you get the idea?

I am wondering what kind of hype surrounded the planning, construction, and opening of Sand Hills back in the early 90's, was there 'leaking' of info to the industry and general public, without the Internet and places like GOLF CLUB ATLAS, how did info spread, did they advertise, golf mags?
History of the genesis of it's founding, was there a stampede to buy memberships?
Was it always going to be private?

How was the choice of Architects regarded back then?

Did they manage to keep it entirely secret and under wraps?
Was everyone aware of how great it was going to become? I know that it  received a  Doak 9 and Gourmet's Choice in TCG before it was even finished! That would have helped.

Was it deemed a massive risk by Mr Youngscap and the founders, similar to the risk Mr Keiser faced?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, can anyone recall what it was really like? Aware of it's impending greatness.

Cheers
Brett

[Tom_Doak]

Brett:

I was very aware of what they were doing out there; I even hit balls around the site at one point before they had really started construction.  Other insiders knew as well, and talked about it a bit.  But there was no big marketing push because it was private, and because Mr. Youngscap wanted to get it all finished before he started signing up members ... he didn't want to sign up people in advance and then have them decide they didn't like how he had done the course or the cabins or the atmosphere.  [If only every club could afford to do that!]

Dick Youngscap considered it all a very big financial risk.  Mike Keiser was one of his few outside investors; Mike was curious to see how it would work, and when it did, he was that much more convinced he could develop a course himself.

I don't think my review of it helped sell any memberships, because my book was still very private at that time.  Ron Whitten knew all about it and visited the site during construction, and a pictorial of the course in GOLF DIGEST surely helped them out.

[Tom_Doak]

P.S.  One other thing I just remembered is that they did a very amateurish marketing video for the course to send to potential investors.  Gary Planos showed it to me at Kapalua long ago, before the course was begun.  I wish I had a copy of that video now, it would be worth its weight in gold to tease Bill over.

[Brett_Morrissy]

thanks Tom,
can you give us some kind of indication as to how C&C were regarded prior to the project, how much of the risk was in the hiring of the architect ?

[Steve Strasheim]

I don't think there was any attempt to keep the project secret. It got some coverage in the big state newspapers and golf pubs from day one, as I recall. 

Many people thought the project was crazy and doomed to failure. It is a testament to the vision and determination of those involved that the project has been so successful. It is truly a great American success story. Seeing your post asking about the "hype", "if they kept it secret" and if there was a "stampede to buy memberships", shows just how far the Sand Hills Golf Club has advanced the golf course as a destination business.

PS. I thought this thread was about Prairie Club.

[RJ_Daley]

In the Cornish and Whitten book of the mid-late 80s, Whitten wrote about the land in n/western Nebraska, in context of talking about generally dunesland, sand based land that would be ideal for golf design.  That was sort of a seed that was planted in some of the golf architecture junkies of that era who were buying their book, it seems to me.

I heard about the effort to build a sand hills course through the buzz at some GCSAA seminars, and then, Golf Course Management Magazine did a feature on the newly grown in course in about 1995.  That was what drew me into investigating it.  Golf savvy guys who are from Nebraska, probably knew or pondered the possibilities for years, it seems to me.  Mr. YOungscapp made it happen.

[Tom_Doak]

Brett:

Ben Crenshaw has had a high degree of respect from nearly everybody in the golf business from the time he was 25.  But, he and Bill had only completed two courses prior to Sand Hills -- Kapalua Plantation, which is an awesome place but which not everyone loves, and their course at Barton Creek, which did not go over very well at all.  Still, the "gamble" at Sand Hills was all about whether you could get people to go out to the middle of nowhere, not about who the architects were.

Dick:

Ron Whitten got to know Dick Youngscap very well in the early 1980's when Dick was developing Firethorn.  Ron actually petitioned to take a leave of absence from his job as a prosecuting attorney to work on the construction crew for Pete Dye, but Pete and Dick talked him out of it.  Still, he hung around the project a lot and got to know Dick very well, and I think they talked together a lot about the possibility of a course out in the sand hills.

[Tommy Williamsen]

A lot of us knew about Sand Hills prior to its opening.  I had a couple of friends who sent in the $25,000 initiation fee before it opened and before they even saw the place.  If I had had the cash, I would have done the same thing.

[Jim Tang]

I know a member and he said he became aware of the course from a picture in a golf magazine.  He had never heard of the course but liked the way the land looked. He simply called out there, inquiring if they were private or public.  Mr. Youngscap told him Sand Hills was private.  He also told this future member if he was interested in playing the course he should write him a letter.  

This was in the fall, so off went the letter.  The future member told me he thought he would never hear back from the club.  The following spring he was contacted by Sand Hills and was told tee times had been arranged.  This future member's original intent was not to join Sand Hills, but just to play it.  Afterall, as he explained it to me, who would join a private club in the middle of Nebraska, especially when this guy lived in Chicago?  

After one round he immediately joined the club.

[Brad Swanson]

My first sight of Sand Hills was in a late 1990s Golf Magazine Ranking Issue that featured it and a few other courses as the newcomers to the list.  I was completely perplexed (and a relative GCA neophyte).  Upon reading it was located in Mullen, NE, I went home and searched up Mullen, NE on the interwebs.  After seeing where it was, I was even more perplexed. 

Brad

[Adam Clayman]

My friend Edward learned of it and on his drive home to Chicago, after spending a month with me on the Monterey peninsula, was treated very nicely and was even given a cabin to stay in. He was told that Herb Kohler and Bush 41 had spent the night before in same. This was early July '96.

[Pete_Pittock]

I remember a big spread in either Golf Magazine or Golf Digest. As I had already going to drive from Portland to play Oak Tree and Prairie Dunes in the spring of 1995 I simply phoned them up. Love to have you. Unfortunately I was already blocked into my vacation time and couldn't change it as the timing for Sand Hills opening for me was off by two weeks.

[Brett_Morrissy]

So guys, assuming the land was of similar treasure like quality, could you build a golf course today and keep it under wraps until finished as Dick Youngscap planned with Sand Hills?
Would you want to? ...assuming that most business/marketing advisors would recommend you manage the 'seepage' of information in a controlled manner?
Is the need for spin and hype now impregnated into our psyche, and forever now intertwined with the Web? Will there ever be another golf course that has been completely underwraps and unveiled to everyone at once?

Cheers
Brett

[Adam Clayman]

Brett. There will always be people who have never heard of ... X.  I know of a current project that wanted to control any news because they didn't want pepole calling for tee times before they even started construction. So it boils down to a balance between how much hype and when.

[Jason Hines]

Hi Brett,

Most golfers between Omaha and Denver had heard of it in the early days, I know that is not the golfing world but the last I heard, half the membership is still from Nebraska?  Don’t know if that is still true today, but was definitely true in the late 90’s.

Great question if the same could be done today “under wraps”, but they are still going with more and more courses.

Dick, when are you finally going to move to Nebraska?  Kearney would be a great town for you....

Jason

[RJ_Daley]

Jason, too old, no relatives, acquintances-freinds network, nothing to do but golf, would have to go without wife.





Soooo, I'm thinking about it... 

[Jason Hines]

Dick,

I find myself in the same boat, sometimes when I am sitting in O’Hare, JFK or on a conference call during a Sunday afternoon, I wonder......

I changed truck and tractor tires in high school, I could do that again and cover my green fees at Wild Horse.  Of course, the divorce that would ensue would probably not be worth it....

[Ron Farris]

'
"I want to build a golf course in the Sand Hills"  'Don't be foolish! Who the hell would come out here to play golf?'.  That was a conversation I had with my with in 1989.  We were driving across the Sand Hills to see my parents.  Later that year I put some photo comparison material together and showed it to my Japanese clients in hopes of finding some funding to do this crazy endeavor.  About a month later I learned that Coore & Crenshaw were going to do my dream.  To this day my wife scratches her head on why people come to the Sand Hills to play golf, but she has a greater respect for my imagination and dreams.

Later I toured the property with Dick Y. just after it had been staked.  In fact, I have numerous, if not hundreds, of slides from that day.  I viewed the course during construction several times as I traveled thru the area to see family.  I wanted to be part of the project, but that never happened.  I hold this place in the highest esteem as it is better than I had invisioned. 

I was told once that I should never show the photos on this site as it may reveal some of the mystery of the place.  The photo above is and example of the greatness of the land.

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