The Prairie Club website!

[Ron Farris]

Folks the Prairie Club website is up and running.  Like the courses, the site, the owner, and the management:  A little "Outside the box" IMHO.
I look forward to the upcoming banter on this site regarding this project.

I personally will not prejudge the courses until I have played them.

Congratulations to Paul Schock, Mark, Tyler, Ross and the plethora of other people involved!

http://theprairieclub.com/

[Philippe Binette]

The Lehman course got to 7900 + yards...

Man, I knew it was long, but still surprised of that number.

Having worked there for three weeks, I would say that Tom Lehman and Chris Brands did an audacious routing, with some decisions that few would have made and interestingly, those routing decisions will provide some of the best holes on the course.

Once again, it makes me think that I'll need to buy a private jet someday !!!

[Jason Hines]

What a dump…… OK maybe not!  We have been waiting several years for this project to come to fruition.  Look forward to seeing the two different 18 hole courses, give the destination a little differentiation amongst other venues in the region.

Did you notice on the Pines course the 1,000 yard spread between tees?

Jason

[Jeff_Mingay]

Penguin,

The course description page says 8,073 yards... wicked. Finally a course where I can pull out my driver 

P.S. Excellent logo.

[PThomas]

when do the courses open?

[Ron Farris]

Watch the Video to learn when you can Legally play the courses.
The video is what I find to be a little outside the box, but I like it, having been ticketed on that particular road years ago.

[Wayne Freeman]

The concept sure sounds great.  Does anyone know what the memberships are going to run and what do you think about getting members in this economic environment?  Also,  it seems to be in a pretty remote spot,   130 miles north of North Platte ( and about 90 miles north of Mullen).  How much effort is it going to take to get there assuming you don't have your own jet!
 
  Is the set up going to be similar to Ballyneal-  with the 2 courses and the par 3.......   but I know that the second course at Ballyneal will be public.
The big advantage of BN is that it's pretty close to Denver and fairly easy to get to.

[Jason Hines]

Wayne,

I believe we have had this debate before on logistics to Valentine.  You are almost equal distance from North Plate and Pierre, but limited and expensive flights.   Rapid City is 50-60 miles closer than Omaha, with better air service than NP and Pierre.  Omaha however, has Southwest and almost every major airline and a Hertz Gold counter.  You might be closer flying into Pierre, NP or Rapid, but unless they are going to offer a shuttle you will need a rental.  IE with more flights into Omaha, you can probably make up the distance with the time and money saved by a quicker and better connection.

Can you tell I travel a bit? 

I am in Olathe, KS which coincidentally is 500- 520 miles of Ballyneal, Sand Hills and Valentine.  I am however 150 miles closer to Kearney and Jim Engh’s new project, Nebraska National.

Jason

[Mark_Amundson]

I thought I would take a moment and add a post about The Prairie Club.  I will try and outline where we stand right now and what our plans are to open the club.  As Ron stated at the beginning of this thread, the web site, www.theprairieclub.com is up and running as of yesterday.  There appear to be a few glitches which will be corrected on Monday.  The site was constructed with growth in mind and we will be adding material, pictures, etc to the site as time passes.  The viral videos were fun to make and are meant to create the feel of the destination experience.

We began construction on all golf May 25th and completed construction of all 46 holes by Oct. 25th.  The Dunes Course was designed by Tom Lehman and Chris Brands, the Pines Course by Graham Marsh, and the Horse Course by Gil Hanse and team.  The Dunes course is routed through the larger dunes on the property and features wide fairways, large greens, elevation changes, long views, and plenty of challenges.  The Pines Course is routed closer to the Snake River Canyon and combines holes in the more subtle dunes and holes through the ponderosa pines.  The Horse Course (named for the game of "horse" that we all play in our driveways) is located very near the clubhouse and features 10 holes that can be played from numerous angles to varying lengths.

The entire Horse Course and 22 of the 36 holes of championship golf have been seeded and grown in, with many of the holes having been mowed a number of times.  The other 14 holes of championship golf have been seeded and capped with a hydro-mulch for the winter and those will be grown in when spring arrives.

The Prairie Club is slated to open May 1st, 2010 with all 46 holes of golf ready to play, the clubhouse and all the lodging completed and available for use.  We will have 40 beds of lodging located in the clubhouse and 16 beds situated in cabins separate but near the clubhouse.  We have expansion in mind and will add lodging as the demand occurs.  Our Founding Memberships (the first 150 sold) are selling for $13,500, and are available now. The $13,500 is a membership deposit that is refundable when the membership is resigned and resold by the club.  The annual dues will be $1000 and will not be billed until 2010 when the club opens.  The Prairie Club will also be open for non-member public play on a controlled basis.  We will allow everyone who would like to experience The Prairie Club to come and stay and play and enjoy themselves.  If a person would like to visit frequently we would enjoy having them as a member.  The best way to find out all the details about membership is to visit the web site and send us your contact information or call and request additional information.  Darin Fedt is the Director of Membership and his contact info is on the web site as well.

We are very excited about The Prairie Club and strongly believe the golf experience will be viewed as extrodinary.  Our clubhouse and lodging will be well appointed yet very comfortable, the food will be outstanding, and the beverages very cold.  We look forward to having each of you find your way to The Prairie Club, 17 miles SW of Valentine, NE, in 2010.  Keep your eyes open in 2009 for special announcements.

Regards:  Mark Amundson

[Mike McGuire]

OUTSTANDING home screen on a  website. I like the full screen image with a slow pan and and and a small area to click for more info. IMO  most websites have way too much text.

[Jason Hines]

Hi Mark,

If the golf, amenities and hospitality are half as nice as Sutton Bay, this venture will be a tremendous success.  Cannot wait to get there…

Good Luck,

Jason Hines

[Dan Herrmann]

Boy - that's one great website.  I also LOVE the goose logo.

Also liked Gil's quote - Other than the secret course at Bandon, is there anything like the Horse course anywhere?   The "horse" course is a fantastic concept that I hope gains traction after the economy turns around.   

And Tom's quote about the sacred nature of the ground is hugely refreshing and welcome.  Great stuff, Tom!

Congratulations, Mark!

[Mark_Amundson]

Thanks to all for the kind comments.  As I said earlier, we are looking forward to getting The Prairie Club ready for 2010.  Dan, not picking on you but the logo is a Sandhill Crane, not a goose.  You are not the first, nor will you be the last, who will see it as a goose.  The Sandhill Crane is a very cool bird and they can be seen and heard each fall migrating through the area and congregating in mass in the refuge in NE. 

[Mike_Cirba]

Mark,

This is certainly a very exciting project and I wish you all the best with it.   In these troubling economic times, your vision seems very bold and aggressive, which is a refreshing alternative to the retrenchment so increasingly common in most of the industry.

Mike

[Rob Rigg]

Dan,

That looks like a sand hill crane, not a goose.  

O wait, looks like Mark already got to you on that one.  

But seriously, Mark, the website is great and the 3 courses all look like very interesting layouts.

Can I send the fam rafting down the snake or something or is there no way to spin this as a family vacation  

[Dan Herrmann]

Yep - It's a sandhill crane (what can I say - we don't have those in Philly!)

[brad_miller]

Mark, good luck. Finally a club with a reasonable membership program. I assume you will be looking for 500-1000 members and will scale up costs as the membership grows.  I suspect a few of the recently built upper plains gems will be re-thinking their membership structure. There seems to me to be no reason that such a destination club can't have 500 plus members, how many does Pine Valley have?

Looks like we are now in an environment where even a recently built top 25 type course in an out of the way area can't fill its membership when the cost is close to a year at Harvard.

[Mitchell Schneringer]

Great website, thanks for posting the link!  As a Nebraska native and current citizen, I'm very excited about this project and the other upcoming courses (such as Nebraska National) in our State.  Nebraska has some truly great courses, and more to come!

[Mark_Amundson]

Rob:  you asked about family acitivities.  Valentine has a number of things for families to do in the summer.  The Niobrara River has wonderful canoe and tubing trips that begins just outside Valentine, with some being day long trips (enought time for 36!)  The Merritt Reservoir and state park is only 8 miles from The Prairie Club with camping, boating, fishing, jet skiing, relaxing on the beach all being possible.  

Brad:  You are right on with the idea of the memberships being reasonably priced and the fact that our model includes a larger number of members, 500-1000 being about right.  We intend on keeping the price reasonable as well.  It will certainly creep up after the initial offering of $13,500 for the first 150 Founding Memberships, but not at breakneck speed.

Some might think we are a "bit off" for developing The Prairie Club at this time.  We firmly believe that avid golfers are willing to travel and experience unique places and courses and we also believe that a number of people will want to repeat the experience frequently enough to decide to join.  Mike, you are right, it is a bold step at this time but we firmly believe in the US economy and believe it will turn around and we look forward to being positioned well when it does.

[Dan Herrmann]

Mark - you wrote, "Mike, you are right, it is a bold step at this time but we firmly believe in the US economy and believe it will turn around and we look forward to being positioned well when it does."

This is the type of attitude that leads to success!  Well done!

[ed_getka]

Ron,
   Thanks for the link. Looks like some pretty amazing land.

[Mike Benham]

Ron,
   Thanks for the link. Looks like some pretty amazing land.

Ed, is that you?

[Kyle Henderson]

I'm glad to see these 3 design groups get a crack at what appear to be some choice properties.

A la Bandon, having three (or more) distinctly different golf courses creates a potent draw.

[Jed Peters]

Mark:

Is the Club also a hunt and fish club?

I.E. is there trout on or near the property, and what's the upland game hunting on the property like?

Thanks,

Jed

[Mark_Amundson]

Jed:

The primary focus of the club will be on golf and not on hunting or fishing.  There are some upland game opportunities in the area but not on the property.  There is world class fly fishing in the Snake River but it is a very fragile river and one that is privately owned, not owned by the club.  The Merritt Reservoir has some good fishing and that is only 8 miles away.  We are focusing our efforts on getting the golf and the facilities up and running first but almost all of us involved are avid outdoorsmen who love to hunt and fish so stay tuned.