Landmand Golf Club

Nebraska has become a burgeoning area for courses in the beloved sandhills region of the North and Western portions of the state over the last 20+ years. Landmand, Danish for farmer and pronounced Land Man, sits in the lesser-known Loess Hills on the East side of the state. Unlike sand, the loess soil type is very hard when dry and loses all structure when wet. This results in a dramatic and ever-changing topography with large hills, low valleys, sharp ridges and slumping terraces making the site for the proposed course a colossal undertaking by the architect and construction crew. Enter Rob Collins and Tad King, who were looking to build their 1st full 18-hole course. Owner, Will Andersen had the firm in town to take a look at the family’s other property Old Dane, a 9-hole course closer to town (now being re-imagined by Trevor Dormer). While touring the course, Will mentioned the other land they had “up top”. Since it had not been farmed for 30 years, the Andersen family was looking for a new way to make use of 588 acres of this beautiful terrain to honor their family farming heritage and create a fun, playable golf course for the community.

Once King-Collins arrived up top, they knew this would be the site. However, it would take a large amount of earth movement to make a playable course due to the massive scale and heaving elevation changes. In some areas peaks and hills would need to be reduced 30 to 40 feet to soften playing corridors and greens would be 20,000+ sq feet so they wouldn’t be swallowed up visually in the vast landscape. Overall, 2 million cubic yards of dirt was moved during the build process to blend the course into the surrounding area and create the natural-looking course with fun architectural nods sprinkled in.

Nods like the 18th greenside “milk carton” bunker that has an old Lahinch Pons Asinorum styled dirt pillar protruding upwards creating a hazard in the hazard. The enormous 30,340 sq ft 17th green is modeled after MacKenzie’s Sitwell green. The par 3 14th redan green has one of the largest kickers on the right-hand side allowing for fun anticipation as your ball takes a left turn and rolls towards the hole. The 10th has a giant punchbowl green that could be used in the X Games. The “short” 8th might be the toughest and most intimidating hole on property with the small green perched high in the wind. The beautiful 3rd has a grass barranca splitting the fairway.

Much like King Collins breakout start Sweetens Cove, if you would like to play the public Landmand you need to plan ahead as yearly tee times sell out immediately once they became available.