Landmand Golf Club - Homer, NE

When I first spoke to Will Andersen in May 2019, I could tell that he was serious. This was a real inquiry & a real opportunity. After touring the Old Dane & a piece of property on the Missouri River, Tad & I asked to go “up top.” We wanted to see the land that overlooks it all. After a few opaque references to the third parcel during our look at the first two sites, we weren’t sure what was in store for us. The second we pulled up to what is now the 18th green / 1st tee, we knew without a doubt that this was it. This was the big opportunity that we’d fought and scratched for our entire careers. The land was just on another level. Everything was magnified: the views, the contours, the boldness, and above all else, the potential.   It was the perfect opportunity at the perfect time for King-Collins.

 

After a few weeks, we came back out to work on a potential routing. The entire experience was surreal and unexpected. The site is 550 acres of fascinating holes in all directions. While it seemed daunting at first, the obvious starting and finishing point substantially narrowed our focus & made the task seem less overwhelming. Standing on what would become the first tee with a range finder in hand, we spied a nice looking ridge in the distance. Was it 1,500 yards away or only 1,000? Who the hell knew. Once you’re up top, your senses & ability to perceive distance will be the first casualties. The range finder, however, does not lie. That ridge was only 585 yards away. Ok. Whatever. That’s the first hole. A few minutes later, we were on what would become the first green. Which way next? To the right looks interesting. Let’s see what’s over that ridge. Turns out there is a massive downslope about 280 yards from the first green / second tee that kicks hard down toward another plateau and a perfect, peninsula green setting. Second hole done. To our left was a magnificent valley between two ridges that led to God knows where. Walking down that valley for the first time felt like wandering amongst massive sand dunes or was it the sensation of walking between a wall of skyscrapers? Probably a little bit of both. All we knew was that there was a really nice green setting about 470 yards from where we started and the character of the hole was entirely different than the two that preceded it. It went on like this for a while, until we were coming up to what is now the 6th fairway. We felt like we really needed to get a short par four and a short par three in before we finished the first nine. At the future site of the sixth green, another valley, to our right this time, revealed one of the most obvious holes on the course: the drivable par four seventh & the short par three eighth beyond (the latter of which shifted to a location on a ridge above the seventh after construction started, thanks to a helpful suggestion from Will Andersen). This really wasn’t supposed to be this easy. After wandering around a bit longer, we came to the site of the current twelfth hole, a 155 yard par three with views of thirteen holes. Along with the seventh, this was identified as an essential hole pre-construction & one we knew had to be in the final routing given that we spent time on that location during our first visit & had mentally flagged it for inclusion prior to commencing our first tour. Standing on the twelfth tee, we spied a massive hollow carved into a faraway hill. Could this be our opportunity to finally pay homage to the Good Doctor and his famous Sitwell green? Like the pull of the Death Star, we set our sites on making the routing wind in that direction. When we’d dip into a valley & lose site of it, there was a small sense of panic amongst both of us that we’d somehow lose it or it wouldn’t be there when we reappeared on the next ridge (now would be a good time to mention that Tad & I possess the 1A & 1B worst sense of direction in the world). Coming off the site of the current sixteenth, there it was again, just a hell of a lot closer this time. It was staring us in the face, but distance perception was still a huge issue. What kind of hole were we looking at? With a little help from the range finder, we were informed that the seventeenth would (thankfully!!) be a drivable par four with a green setting we estimated to be an acre in size. Demonstrating remarkable restraint, we reduced the size in the field to only 35,000 square feet of putting surface, which Ron Whitten has since dubbed “the Niagara Falls of greens.” A short distance away, we noticed a natural spine protruding at an angle away from what would become the Sitwell green. Standing on this exposed, little sliver of land, it was clear that we’d discovered the 18th tee. 200 yards away there was a ridge that didn’t know it yet, but was screaming for a Jeff Bradley bunker. Once that obstacle is cleared, it’s steep down the hill to the area from which one final decision must be made: do I lay up or take on The Milk Carton in pursuit of eagle? One small problem: we added up the holes at the end of our walk & realized we only had 16…maybe it wasn’t that easy! So, we got on the phone to Will and asked him if they owned the property out past the current 7th & 8th. He said they did own it and that, yes, we could put golf on it! Nicknamed “Cornfield Corner” by Jim Hartsell, the 9th & 10th were added to the other sixteen to reach the magical number. Interestingly, those holes have their very own unique feel but manage to pay homage to the way of life that is the ultimate reason the course is there in the first place.  Satisfied that we’d found eighteen distinctive golf holes, we presented our routing and were soon hired to begin construction, which began on 9.4.19.

 

The biggest challenge that we faced was clear from the beginning: the majority of those massive hills & slopes, while beautiful, did not represent true golfing ground. Unlike most of the “great” modern sites, massive amounts of earth needed to be moved to make a course full of the characteristics that we hoped to see in the end: walkability, strategy, variety in length & direction in all classes of holes (par 3s, 4s, & 5s), the ground game, etc. Ultimately, we wanted a course with eighteen distinctive yet varying holes. Thanks to the incredibly talented crew who put it all together, I can say that Landmand has exceeded my very high initial expectations. The dirt that was moved was expertly hidden, and the course feels as if it lays down into and over and across that awe inspiring landscape.

 

And to the crew who made it all happen, we cannot thank you enough. This team crushed it. Like totally crushed it. Jorge Soler game six ball that has yet to land crushed it.  Gus Grantham & Charlie Cheney moved essential dirt early on. Paul Mentikov kept the whole thing running. Marc Burger built a ton of incredible greens. Jeff Bradley built one awe inspiring bunker after another. Trevor Dormer, Dave Axland, & Jimmy Craig made huge contributions as well. John Ellsworth laid down some amazing dirt that helped it all happen. Lucas Beasley moved mountains to help get things in place. Bruce Schoeber, Benton Burger, Walker Simas, Matt Rouches, Liam Stevenson, David Sanchez, Jackson Murphy, Drew Laake & Eric Bruening all made essential contributions and helped infuse the golf course with many of the fine details that are so important to the final product.

 

As far as how I feel about it, I think about how I felt in 2011/12 prior to the Sweetens opening. We knew we had something special on our hands then, but there was a question of whether or not it would ever see the light of day. Right now, I multiply the feeling I had early on in my gut about Sweetens by about 1,000x and that’s how I feel about Landmand. We cannot wait for everyone to get out there & experience it firsthand. The pictures don’t do it justice. You just have to go and see it for your ownself.

 

-Rob Collins
Landmand Master Plan

No Laying Up | NLU Film Room: Landmand Golf Club

Tron and Rob Collins, Architect of famed Sweetens Cove, break down Rob's newest course - Landmand Golf Club in Homer Nebraska.

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Sports Illustrated (SI.com) | Dishing Out Awards for Best Renovations, Restorations and New Golf Courses From 2022

In 2017, the names Tad King and Rob Collins burst into the brains of course connoisseurs everywhere. In August of that year, word began to spread about what their King-Collins firm had accomplished with a redesigned nine-hole layout in rural Tennessee called Sweetens Cove. Eager to prove they were no one-hit wonder, King-Collins opened its first 18-hole creation in September, Landmand Golf Club in Nebraska. Mission accomplished. Landmand is already so acclaimed for being so distinctive, King and Collins are guaranteed to lose their anonymity forever.

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Golfweek | 'Put the pedal down and go for it': King-Collins' Landmand Golf Club opens in Nebraska

Big and bold – good words to live by. Interesting, different, unlikely. All attributes ascribed to artists, authors, chefs, actors … really anyone who can grab attention and hold it.

Even golf course architects.

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Sports Illustrated | A Look at Golf’s New Crop of Course Developers

Landmand Golf Club was quite unlike anything Ralston had seen before. Numerous architects would likely have said a course couldn’t be built on such massive slopes, but Collins and King saw the potential especially after discovering the soil underfoot was a soft, sandy, almost damp glacial till that didn’t crumble but would yield to Caterpillar D8 bulldozers and on which 007 creeping bentgrass (greens) and bluegrass/ryegrass (fairways) would thrive. Ralston was hugely impressed and eager for Collins and King to see his site in West Texas.

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LINKS Magazine | First Peek: Landmand Golf Club

Ever since the acclaimed opening of Sweetens Cove in Tennessee—the 9-hole debut from architects Tad King and Rob Collins—the golf world has felt a sense of anticipation waiting for the team’s first 18-hole layout.
After getting the nod from the Andersen family in 2019 to create a public course on a 500-plus-acre plot of prairie land in Homer, Neb., King-Collins’s dream is preparing to be realized: Landmand (Danish for “farmer”) is set to open late this summer.

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Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 24, ft. Rob Collins

Landmand Golf Club in northeast Nebraska, just across the Missouri River from Sioux City, is one of the largest and most expansive golf courses ever built, with the largest total square footage of greens of any course in the U.S. That it was designed by Rob Collins and Tad King, creators or the equally audacious though much smaller Sweetens Cove outside Chattanooga, should come as no surprise–both courses (Landmand is their first 18-hole course) are courageous pieces of architecture that push the boundaries of the genre.

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A Return to the Loess Hills of Nebraska

Tom Morris, the first great golf course architect, was known to spend a single day on a new site. The property would be walked, the course routed and staked – and the next morning Morris would be on a boat or horse-drawn carriage back to St. Andrews, presumably with his £5 fee in his waistcoat pocket. With this expedient and efficient method, the great man created or redesigned memorable places such as Askernish, Anstruther, Cullen, Cruden Bay, Tain and Machrihanish. Even for just a single day of work, his design fee was a bargain.

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A New American Links Classic of Epic Proportions

By now, many have heard about & seen the impressive images from the recently opened Landmand GC in the Loess Hills of Homer, Nebraska. Landmand (pronounced “Lanman”), Danish for Farmer, is owned by the Andersen farming family. Will Andersen, the 4th generation of his farming family & a talented amateur golfer, had the vision to develop the course on land that was no longer used to raise crops. Several years ago, after an enthusiastic visit from the talented duo of Rob Collins & Tad King, Will hired King-Collins to design the inland links style course on this rugged site featuring close to 200′ in elevation changes from the high to low points.

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Talkin Golf Podcast | Landmand: Building the Legend

For episode #91 we welcome back golf course architect, Rob Collins to share the story of his latest creation, Landmand. You are about to get an insiders glimpse into how every hole at Landmand took shape.

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GolfPass | 20 brand-new golf courses opening in 2022

From Utah to Iraq, exciting original designs by architecture's biggest names are set to debut.

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King-Collins ready to break ground on new Nebraska course

Construction of Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, the first eighteen-hole new-build by King-Collins Golf Course Design, will begin in September.

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Golfweek | Lusk: Five new golf courses I can't wait to see in 2022, from Nebraska to New Zealand

The Cornhusker State has become a hotbed for golf courses in recent years as architects take advantage of one of the largest sand dunes formations in the world – about 20,000 square miles of dunes in all.

This year, Tad King and Rob Collins – founders of King Collins Golf and the architects behind the extremely popular Sweetens Cove in Tennessee – have the chance to show off what they have done on a patch of dunes in the northeastern corner of the state just across the border from Sioux City, Iowa. The public-access Landmand Golf Club – Landmand is Danish for farmer – is slated to open mid-year.

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Landmand GC: How It Started

A preview for The Fried Egg's upcoming documentary film on the building of Landmand GC, the first 18-hole design by King-Collins Golf. In this preview, The Fried Egg tells the story of how the Anderson family found Tad King and Rob Collins and shows the breaking-ground moment at the site in Homer, Nebraska.

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Made by a Farmer, by Ben Vigil

The Andersen family from Dakota City has combined their two pursuits to create a golf experience unlike any other. Landmand Golf Club is the newest golf venture in the state, and it will bring breathtaking views and 18 holes of pure golf.

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New golf course advisory: Landmand Golf Club in Nebraska to be designed by King-Collins Golf

Duo responsible for Sweetens Cove have announced their first confirmed 18-hole commission.

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TGJ | Landmand - Stepping Out Over the Line

When it opens for public play (currently set for mid-2022), Landmand will confront players with views, shots and decisions that they have never faced before....Even to the layman, features leap off the land and reveal a golf course with potential to storm its way into the world’s elite.

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