Layman's Hall

Homer, Nebraska

Architects: Tad King and Rob Collins
Walkable: Despite some neat walking elements between holes, the scale of the property would make it a tough walk for anyone but a seasoned alpinist. However, I’m told that can be been done.
Highlighted holes: 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17, 18

Everything you’ve heard about Landmand is true. The awards, the plaudits, its spot on the lists – everything checks out. I’ve failed to find anything that oversells the place. It’s big, it’s creative, and most importantly, it’s an absolute blast. Landmand, Dutch for farmer, might be the best course in Nebraska not named for the geographic formation it’s built on.

All the right things at Landmand are big. The flag, the windsock, the hills and fairways. Did I mention the greens? Landmand is home to what have to be the largest set of greens in the country. Each hole’s handicap depends on the direction of the wind and a handy table on the card will help you figure it out.

The only other course I’ve played that exists on a similar scale to Landmand is the Prairie Club’s Dunes Course. The fairways are wide and fast and the bunkers natural, however while the Prairie Club sits on the beautiful Sand Hills, Landmand weaves around, through, and over Northeast Nebraska farmland that an architect would have to be crazy to put a course on. And if you did put a course there, surely it would be unplayable. And if it was playable, surely it would avoid the biggest hills as much as possible. And if it didn’t avoid the biggest hills, it would be Landmand.

I’d be willing to bet that more golfers miss the turn off to the course than don’t. You exit highway 77 at Homer before following a dirt road three miles north with farmland right and dense forest left. About two and a half miles in you’ll start second guessing yourself and Google Maps. Three and a quarter miles in, you’ll awkwardly turn around on the two lane dirt road and slowly putter back to the last turn where you’ll see a stylized ‘L’ on a small wooden plank telling you you’re in the right place.

The clubhouse is the perfect size: just enough room to pay and grab some souvenirs. A food truck and some picnic tables cover the dining option. The focus is otherwise on golf. The practice green is an offshoot of the 18th green and itself is full of contour. The driving range has no targets out to a shaggy field. The tee times, all 11,000 of which sold out within four hours the first day they were open, are spaced at 20 minute intervals – something I think all courses should do if they have the means. Despite the packed tee sheet, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Before moving into the hole-by-hole, I have to mention the yardage guide. Each hole is hand drawn by Rob Collins with gorgeous color and helpful commentary. Here is an example of the 8th:

Two: Between the width and the land movement, it feels like there are endless ways to play the second. Off the tee you could lay back left of the first bunker, play into the wide side of the fairway over the bunker, hit a long drive on the right side that will leave you looking up at the green, or most tantalizingly, try and carry your drive left of the left bunker where it will find a sudden drop and shoot towards the green. The bean shaped green has a large hump in the middle that will be beneficial or maddening depending on the side the pin is on.

Three: Some of the first photos I saw of Landmand were of the third hole with its long grass barranca cutting through the center of the fairway. The big fairway bunkers at the front should be nothing more than visual intimidation. Take it right on over.

Five: The fifth kicks off a strong collection of par threes. At 25,000 square feet, this may be the biggest green you’ve ever seen…so far. Your ability to score on this hole comes from how well you can play the ball to the section with the pin. I will be honest, a three putt bogey from the wrong spot won’t feel as bad as you think.

Eight: From the back tees this hole is 105 yards. At the top of a hill, it is fully exposed. It’s the 9th or 11th handicap hole depending on the wind – a position no other hole this short is in. The long, skinny green slopes away and demands precision with its “Wall ‘o Pain” bunkers in the front and complementary long bunkers around the back. If you’ve got a ground game, this is the place to use it.

Ten: This hole is silly. The tee shot is completely blind and all you can see is a couple of bunkers. Take it right over them. You think you’re cutting too much off? You’re not. You’ll have a wide open look at a green that’s mowed ten feet up on the side of a hill. Go right at the pin or have some fun and carry it to the hill to see your ball suck back like they never rolled back the grooves on the PGA Tour. If you don’t walk off this hole grinning, maybe this isn’t the game for you.

Fourteen: Is this the biggest Redan in the world? It sure might have the largest bunkers of any of them. Everything filters left off the hill. Anything short is twenty feet below the green. Look at that view. You know what you’re doing here.

Seventeen: If you’ve read anything about Landmand, you’ve read about the 17th green. At 36,000 square feet, this IS the biggest green you’ve ever seen. King and Collins’s ode to MacKenzie’s famous green at Sitwell Park (below) has tiers on tiers (The Legend of Homer: Tiers of the King-Collins-dom?). It’s driveable but the wide fairway offers a number of options from which to come into the green depending on where the pin is. This is the kind of hole I’d want to play a different way every day.

Eighteen: The round ends with a reachable par five with a chance to carry the enormous “Milk Carton bunker” that swallows the front of the green. As the yardage book says, “Did I travel to Homer to lay up & avoid the challenge of the Milk Carton bunker?” Carry it and you’ve got a real chance to finish up on a high note.

Final Thoughts

First, I am so glad that Landmand is public. It gives anyone, depending on how quick on the draw you are at the beginning of January, the opportunity to play this intensely fun and creative golf course. It’s somewhat of a shame that it’s a course that you can really only play once a year, no matter how close you live. It would only become more fun on repeat plays, full of MacKenzie’s concept of ideal holes that “affords the greatest pleasure to the greatest number, gives the fullest advantage for accurate play, stimulates players to improve their game, and never becomes monotonous.”

The same demand that is possible because it’s public, holds it back only in the sense that it’s such a rarity. The only solution that I can see is to build more architecturally exciting, strategic public golf courses so that a gem like this is more rule than exception.

Further Reading:

Golf Club Atlas – Landmand merits discussion – All 18 holes under discussion
Golf Magazine – ‘Like riding a rollercoaster’: Why this new Nebraska course has our raters buzzing
Golf Course Gurus – Landmand
Golf Course Architecture – Landmand: An epic build