Dismal River opened their gates to the public this year. If you want to consider the "Red" Course a public USA course, it vaults itself into the top 50 easily. Probably the top 30 or so.

You get everything that you would expect from Doak. The land plays fast/firm so there are ground game options on almost every hole. There are half pars on both sides of par (260 yard par 3 anyone?). That hole, the 6th, is followed by a drivable or drive/pitch par 4 of 320 yards. The greens have wonderful contours as do the surrounds. You have all the options from off the green-putt, chip or flop. Plenty of approaches have mounding or slopes that will help feed your ball if you are on the correct side of the fairway. If not, they will not help at all. I wish that I was able to go around more than twice (guess I could have but 3 rounds in one day was a good amount) as I bet each round will reveal more ways to play holes. At least, I knew a lot more on the second round than the first.

The par 3s are a great set. You have everything from 260 yards to 166 yards. You have a forced carry hole, but also holes where you can let the ground feed the ball onto the green. One example is the16th hole. It has a bunker right in the front/middle that you will need to navigate. You can try to fly over it or there is mounding that will help feed the ball onto the green. Pin left or right, there is a mound to help. However, go too far or short and you end up in trouble.

You have half pars on the par 4s too. Beside the 7th hole, there is the 15th which is also drivable or a drive/pitch. These two are offset by about a half dozen par 4s of 450 yards or more. Fear not, the average golfer has the same strategy from their tee boxes as the tips. Plenty of risk/reward out here. Always strategic in the sense of being on the proper side of the fairway or using fairway contours makes the task easier. If not, you will have a carry to make or bail out from. None of the par 4s seem to be a repeat of any other hole on this course. No cookie cutter here. The same can be said of the par 5s as every shot has multiple routes. After two rounds, I feel that I have only scratched the surface. Pin positions and wind will surely change the best routes or put options into or out of play depending on wind in face or behind.

Doak and Coore/Crenshaw are the architects who build courses that I will travel for without hesitation. Having been to Nebraska about a half dozen times, I thought I was done. Then Dismal River opened their gates to the public so I went to play a Doak course I thought I wouldn't be able to. If you plan on going to Nebraska for golf, then add this to the list that anyone can now play-I highly recommend it. If I was giving it a rating on the Doak scale, it would be an 8.