At the recent opening of Streamsong, I met several GCAers for the first time including this month’s Feature Interviewee, Chris Johnston, part owner and CEO of Dismal River Golf Club.
Barrel-chested and gregarious, Chris seems like the perfect owner for a remote private club – a people person who immediately makes you feel welcome. His candor and willingness to give solid answers to every question is exactly what is required to establish trust. I could never join a club and invest if there wasn’t transparency. Direct answers to pointed questions do way more for me in establishing that comfort than anything else. Chris accomplishes it because he answers from the heart rather than saying what you might like to hear.
His Feature Interview covers a variety of topics: the founding of Dismal River, the tweaks to the Nicklaus Course, the opening of the Doak Course, agronomy in the Sand Hills, and the finances of a private club in a remote (albeit dream) setting. Also, in a couple of spots, Chris highlights my favorite theme of the moment – value for money, something that private golf got away from and places like Dismal are trying to recapture. In short, there is something in this Feature Interview for everyone.
Building beside a great golf course creates a special challenge and increased peril. Be it Sebonack, Machrihanish Dunes, Renaissance Club, or the Nicklaus Course at Dismal, such courses often find that establishing their own status is more difficult. Human nature holds such courses to a higher standard because one of a very high standard is already ensconced.
Approximately 75 or so people who routinely post in this Discussion Group have played the Nicklaus Course and the range of their comments is broad and intriguing. Some call it the anti-Nicklaus Nicklaus Course, for instance
. Like Old Head in Ireland, some issues have been remedied there after several rounds of modifications, especially around the greens where some harsh slopes have been softened. Does the Nicklaus Course that exists today get a fair shake? I haven’t seen it and therefore can’t know, but it’s hard to imagine that a course with sandy soil, plenty of width, and wind, set amid rolling dunes and free of housing is not part of the Golfweek Modern Top 100.
Now for a unique rub, a sister course is opening in that same tough neighborhood where the shadow of Sand Hills GC stretches so far and wide. I am referring to Dismal River’s Doak Course, a scant 7 miles from Sand Hills. What identity will it achieve versus the Nicklaus Course, versus Sand Hills? Coming after Coore & Crenshaw and Nicklaus what did Doak and his crew learn from those who preceded them? It will be quite interesting to determine and we can do so this June. One super neat and appealing aspect of the new course is that it finishes ~600 yards from where it starts (the architect wasn’t burdened by a routing requirement to begin and end at the clubhouse). This bodes extremely well, at least in my mind, as it demonstrates a commitment to building the best holes no matter where they meander. A second course makes a place a destination and can favorably impact its financial situation. Presumably that will be the case with the Doak Course at Dismal River.
Comparing and contrasting two different architectural styles on adjacent properties will make for endlessly fascinating dinner conversation, especially as one partakes of the fine local beef. The Minimalist Camp will snipe at a Nicklaus Design for leaving too heavy a footprint on the land. The Nicklaus Camp will always suggest that the minimalists don’t provide enough strategic dilemma, especially for the elite player. Appreciating the two different philosophies and how they bring about good golf is extremely compelling. Any student of architecture – as well as golfers at large – should love sorting out such stuff. Forget what you read – go, experience the difference and make your own determination!
The Sand Hills region of Nebraska and the Dismal River Valley beckon all golfers. A plethora of long views await and cause the itinerant golfer’s spirit to soar. While I haven’t been to Dismal River, a visit to Sand Hills Golf Club is, as has been stated by many people before, akin to religion: an intoxicating, invigorating experience, especially for the weary soul. There exists a spiritual, almost surreal, connection to those majestic sand hills, wind-swept, shaped and reshaped over the millennia by the whim and fury of Mother Nature. In the company of friends, the sport of golf has nothing finer to offer. We should all strive to visit such fantastic spots from time to time as few things are as liberating as the great outdoors.
Just as Streamsong garnered much attention within this Discussion Group at the start of the year, I imagine the spotlight will rightly shift to Nebraska this June. This Feature Interview with Chris’s detailed responses nicely lays the groundwork for those deliberations.
Best,
P.S. I would like to thank Jaeger Kovich and Zach Varty for the use of their photos throughout the Feature Interview.