Think about it: When golf began back in the mists of antiquity on those windswept stretches of Scottish linksland, it was seen by those who played it as the perfect escape from the duties and responsibilities of work, family and religion. To some golf itself became a religion of sorts, but in general the course and its clubhouse provided a bolthole that kept the real world at bay.

Somehow that concept—for the purposes of this article we shall call it “pure golf”—became lost as the game expanded and modernized. Consider: There are no cart paths at St. Andrews yet today walking a course would be a total anathema for many, as opposed to an integral part of the natural golf experience that it was even 50 years ago.

Residential communities with golf courses at their hearts started to spring up in the 1930s and quickly gained an enduring momentum. The formula is simple, tried and trusted: Build a beautiful golf course (preferably laid out by a high quality designer) and sit back while all those adjacent plots of land are snapped up by retirees in search of year-round sunshine, snowbirds from the north or folks in search of a second or third home. It works, and countless golfers across America have benefited from having a purpose-built doorstep with golf right on it. Despite fiscal blips in recent times demand for new properties is still healthy, while existing course-side homes have held their value far better than similar properties without golf attached. Golf communities also have the added benefit of being safe havens with the necessary degree of security in place to provide residents with peace of mind, especially those who might be advancing in years, Likewise, they offer like-minded social opportunities without compromising people’s privacy.

It works so well, in fact, that many of golf’s newer markets are enthusiastically embracing the approach, places like China and the Middle East. But back where this process began—in the British Isles and the United States—the appetite for pure golf and the “away from it all” experience is coming back in a big way. More and more golfers yearn for the uncluttered version of the game their forefathers enjoyed, out on the open range and far away. Maybe they are sub-consciously harking back to their ancestral roots in some strangely atavistic way. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re on to something.

Arnold Palmer, for one, can see the appeal, and not just from the viewpoint of the consumer but also that of the designer. “It’s always nice to do a course where you’re not obliged to design it for residential purposes,” he said. “Laurel Valley, a course I designed in Pennsylvania [which staged the 1975 Ryder Cup], falls into this category—it has no residences on the course.”

Another such course is the Prairie Club just outside Valentine, Nebraska, near the South Dakota border. Home to two 18-hole courses with contrasting appearances—the Pines and Dunes—and (the original) par-3 layout, it is promoted under the slogan: “World’s most undisturbed holes in golf.”

On The Pines, the Ponderosas for which the course is named, wrap around the Snake River, which flows through a terrain-defining canyon. It’s a unique enviroment and there’s a windmill pump on the 3rd where you can get a drink from “the world’s largest aquifer.” Meanwhile, the Dunes has an equally natural setting amongst sand hills and is particularly challenging when the winds blow.

The Prairie Club is the brainchild of Paul Schock, a conservationist and land owner (he has a ranch in Nebraska along with a farm and family property in South Dakota). In a former life he was a banker and venture capitalist.

“I’ve lived here most of my life and I’ve had some success with the game. I’m not a great golfer, but not too bad for a South Dakota amateur, and that gave me a chance to play golf around the country. Golf’s been my passion, besides family.

“I’ve got a lot of golf experience. I’ve been a USGA committee member and a Golf Digest writer for 10 years. I’ve been around golf for a long time.

“I started a venture capital firm in South Dakota, the first one actually. With a partner I grew that, had a great 15-year run and did well.

“One area of investment was in the lodging industry. We put a lot of experience into that, then retail work, restaurants, retail mall operations. I’ve been around the hoop of lodging, retail and golf my whole life.”

Clearly Schock had the financial wherewithal and connections to create his own golf course, but the pressing question is why did he pick such a secluded location?

“An opportunity came up, and I ended up with this land in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. It’s so incredible for golf—it’s an incredible place anyway. People that visit the ranch and the area are blown away by the scenery and the quiet.

“I met the former owner, who still owns some adjacent property, through Sand Hill Golf Course [in South Dakota]. He’s a retired surgeon. He had a desire to do a golf project on his land, and I helped him as a friend. I ended up buying two thirds of his ranch and inherited the golf project.

“That was five years ago. I spent the next couple of years acquiring additional land adjacent to the property, doing an extensive amount of due diligence on business models, architects, master plans and all of that. About two years ago, we raised all the money, some of it from former clients in the venture capital business.

“Because golf is near and dear to my heart and because of the experiences I’ve had, this has been the greatest and most fun work project I’ve been involved in.

“It really was a combination of the land and my experiences at Sand Hill, Bandon Dunes, places like that, where I felt really strongly that if you make great golf available to people, they will come—but it has to be great.

“We’ll see what the world thinks, but in terms of voting with their pocketbooks, we’re well ahead of schedule filling memberships.”

An integral part of the Pure Golf concept, and a pillar of its potential appeal to golfers, is conservation. “Land stewardship is very important to me. We’ve been very careful with that. The beauty of this land is that because the golf courses are literally there already, we moved almost no dirt (or in this case sand) to build our golf courses. They were just there.

“Another beautiful thing about this region is because of the sand there’s virtually no runoff. Our courses are on about 1,200 acres of land, I forget the exact number, but the total number of irrigated acres is like 100, by far most of that is native prairie. Since there’s no runoff, the normal issues you have with a golf course aren’t there.

“In addition to that, we have a very strong philosophy about minimal use of fertilizers—only if we think it’s good for the playing conditions. We want it to be like golf in Scotland or Ireland, so minimal fertilizers, very little disturbing of the land.

“We keep track of bird and wildlife counts, and we’ve seen increases in the amount of wildlife, a lot of them like the grass. I’m hoping the geese don’t find it!

“The Sand Hills are unique. The average [annual] rainfall is about 20 inches. It’s a nice stand of native prairie, but it’s fragile. Virtually none of the Sand Hills has been plowed up. It literally looks like it did when the land was settled.

“We’re surrounded by big cattle ranches, a few buffalo ranches, almost no farming. It’s a beautiful watershed, with streams, rivers and lakes, and this canyon that goes through our property. The Snake River, Ponderosa pines. You feel like you’re in the mountains when you’re on the edge of the canyon. And it’s a great trout stream.”

The great outdoors, surely, doesn’t get better than this, and it’s easy to forget that ultimately this project centers on golf.

“I have, over my years in the game, developed some very strong philosophies about it. To sum it up, I’m a tremendous fan of Alister MacKenzie’s; his ‘Spirit of St. Andrews’ spoke to me.

First of all, a golf ball is a ball, it was meant to roll. What people have fun with is watching it roll, and we have lots of natural shapes—big greens and a lot of grass around the greens. Most of the bunkers are off to the sides and just about every single hole has a run-up shot without a bunker in the way.

“Fairways are mowed tight so you can putt from 40 yards away; it’s very much a ground game.

Another key philosophy is lots of variety, with short par 4s, short 3s, long 5s, short 5s—a lot of variety.

“Walkability is also very important to me; the game was meant to be walked. Both courses are very walkable. There will never be a building or a house that you’ll see from the golf courses. You’re in the middle of the prairie and that’s all you’ll ever see.

“Playability is very important to me; I don’t think people like the hunt for lost balls. Our courses are plenty challenging, but we have wide fairways. We pay attention to how the courses play, where people tend to hit it into the native. And even the native here, it’s a little wispier so it’ll be easier to find [your ball] and hack it out, but we’ll hay those areas if we notice people are hitting into one area consistently.

“People can’t believe two golf courses that start and finish in the same spot are as different as ours are. One goes out into the prairie, the other has a parkland feel to it. You’ll probably play the courses a little differently: the prairie runs a little fast, the greens are bigger, fairways wider and there’s the wind. The Pines is somewhat that way but has a little more traditional feel to it.”

Despite all the good intentions, the acid test of the Prairie Club is whether it stacks up as a business. Its obscure location is both an asset and a deterrent, but Shock believes the quality of the experience on offer must be his overriding objective.

“That was one of my biggest concerns: Are we going to get good people to come to Valentine, Nebraska? In some ways we’ve gotten good people because we’re here. Many people were raised in the Midwest, then moved away to the big city to pursue their careers. Then they come back.

“And the State of Nebraska and the Valentine community have just been wonderful. I believe very strongly in working with communities. We are membership oriented, and I explain to people that the more members we have the harder it’s going to be for the public; members will have priority on getting times. But I want to be always available to that golfer that can’t afford to join but wants to play. We’ll always find a place for him.”

Where else to find pure golf?

Thirty-five miles northwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is Erin Hills. It didn’t open for play until 2006 even though the 650 acres of land on which it sits were purchased in the previous century. The wait was worth it though, and since opening the club’s feet have scarcely touched the ground.

Following on from its first USGA event, the Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship in 2008, Erin Hills will host the 111th U.S. Amateur Championship in 2011 and is also under consideration as the venue for the U.S. Open in 2017.

Bob Lang, the original owner, sold the course to Andy Ziegler, co-founder (with his wife Carlene) of investment firm Artisan Partners, in October 2009. Veteran PGA professional Rich Tock was brought in from Ozaukee Country Club in nearby Mequon as president and after some recent construction in late 2009, the golf course will reopen on 1 August 2010.

Erin Hills is just golf—exactly what it says on the tin. There are no houses, tennis courts, swimming pools, spas or weddings. Just golf: Tee it up and enjoy the experience.

“Our goal at Erin Hills has always been to create a unique golfing experience which will hopefully be reflective of the Irish and Scottish links style golf courses that were once built by horse-drawn plows,” Tock says. “Mike Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten, the architects, found the best 18 holes and linked them together. Erin Hills is highlighted by natural terrain, undulating fairways, glacial dunes and a variety of greens; oh, and the wind. The star of Erin Hills is the contours and the grasses, which create a links style experience.

“Does Erin Hills have water? Each hole is encircled, lined or surrounded by a sea of fescue, the ever blowing natural grasses lining each hole, an integral part of the golfing experience.”

The high cost of maintaining and reworking the course—it was closed from the fall of 2008 until last July for renovation—took its financial toll on Lang, and now Ziegler is in charge.

“I did not buy Erin Hills with a profit motive,” says Ziegler, 52. “I bought it to try to give something back to the game of golf and to do something positive for the state of Wisconsin, and something that I could have fun with. In a lot of ways it was essentially a bailout of a business that was undercapitalized and in some level of financial distress.

“The changes we plan at Erin Hills fall into three categories: the golf course, maintenance and conditioning, and customer service. On the golf course, we redesigned the 10th hole, we have essentially restored the 18th hole and we made a number of what I would describe as subtle changes to green complexes and green surrounds so that on a number of holes approach shots can be played on the ground now as opposed to just flying the ball in.

“We’ve doubled the maintenance budget; we’re going walking-only, and we’re building a permanent state-of-the-art maintenance facility. You put all of that stuff together and give us a little bit of time and I think that when we get to the point of opening this summer the golf course will be in terrific shape.”

Another course with a similar mission, although with a much higher-profile owner, is Mirimichi, a public facility just north of Memphis, Tennessee. Its joint owner and frontman is pop star Justin Timberlake and his ambition, mirroring that of Ziegler, is to stage a major championship, also following extensive renovations.

“We initially planned to make these improvements over the next three years and stay open,” says Timberlake. “But I felt the Memphis community deserves the best now and shouldn’t have to wait through three years of gradual improvements. So I challenged the team to make all of the changes by our first anniversary.”

“We knew we had a great golf course when we opened in July,” added Mirimichi’s director of golf, Greg King. “And, through a season of heavy play, as well as visits from golf’s elite, we have the input necessary to take Mirimichi to the next level – hosting a major championship by 2020.”

Apart from improvements to the drainage, bunkers and greens, the enhancements included extensive additions to wetlands, wildflowers and native grasses to showcase the course’s aesthetic beauty.

“The cost of these renovations will not be passed on to our customers in terms of pricing,” said King. “This is a continuation of the investment by our ownership group in creating a world-class public course that will be comparable to the best courses in the country.”

Mirimichi means “place of happy retreat,” and a happy retreat is just what golfers will experience when they play there. Underlining this virtue, it has been designated as the first golf course in the country to be a Certified Audubon International Classic Sanctuary. Best management practices have been implemented to enhance and conserve nature by improving water quality and wildlife habitat, while reducing water and energy consumption.

Mirimichi is not only an environmental haven, it is also a challenging course as well and measures more than 7,400 yards from the tips.

Another Pure Golf gem is Primland Resort’s Highland course in Virginia’s majestic Blue Ridge Mountains. Not only is it one of America’s newest golf courses, it’s one of the best.

Designed by British architect Donald Steel, who recently redesigned last year’s British Open venue Turnberry, the Highland course is the jewel in a 14,000-acre crown.

Most of the accommodation at Primland is made up of former hunting lodges once owned by America’s elite but since spruced up (as in modernized) by the resort’s European owners.

Primland, quite frankly, is mountain golf at its best. Steel carved out his masterpiece by letting the natural terrain dictate the routing. The fairways are tight and menacing, as you would expect of a great mountain course, and the greens are slick and just as undulating as the fairways. In fact, it’s hard to know where the fairways end and the greens begin.

Steel explained the name Highland by saying, “once I strode over the plateau at Primland, the views reminded me of the highlands of Scotland.” From the start, Steel challenges your shot-making ability with a downhill second shot on the first hole to an angled green that drops off quickly. You’d better have the eye of a deer hunter to bag a par on this 509 yard beauty.

The first of Primland’s five par-3s greets you at the second tee and, like four others, this one requires navigation through a valley to reach the green. Holes 3 through 5 are eye candy and sweet treats for golfers who like to bite off more than they can chew. These holes must be tackled boldly or in stages because the elevated greens and narrow fairways are all any golfer can handle.

All through your round at Primland you are treated to wonderful mountain vistas that include glimpses of the mighty Dan River Gorge, known in these parts as “The Grand Canyon of Virginia.”

The stand-out hole is perhaps the 16th. A thinking man’s hole, you stand on the tee at ‘Sweet 16’ and wonder how to plot your way around a doglegged fairway that sets up a shot to a well guarded, sloped green. The risks are high—but then again, in a microcosm of the whole playing experience at Primland, so is the reward.

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theprairieclub.com
erinhills.com
mirimichi.com
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