There’s been much attention paid to Nebraska’s golf scene in recent months, with the opening of Landmand Golf Club and the announcement of architect David McLay Kidd breaking ground on a new layout, GrayBull.
Those two are not alone in generating interest in the Cornhusker State.
Also brand new is the private Lost Rail Golf Club in Gretna, just outside Omaha. Designed by Scott Hoffman, built by Landscapes Unlimited and operated by Landscapes Golf Management, the new course opened September 1 nearly two years after breaking ground.
Hoffman, a Nebraska native, worked several years for Landscapes Unlimited in Lincoln before becoming a senior design associate for Tom Fazio and then moving on to Jackson Kahn Design. He always wanted to create an elite course in his home state, which has become well known for stellar properties such as Sand Hills Golf Club, which ranks No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of courses built since 1960 in the U.S.
After finding the property on which Lost Rail would be constructed in 2019, Hoffman – working with his cousin, Dirk Chatelain, and his old boss, Bill Kubly of Landscapes Unlimited – took the course from the dreamer stages to reality.
The 155 acres the team eventually purchased features long views with no houses or roads on site, but there was an abandoned railroad line. Hoffman incorporated the rail line on several holes, even using the terminus of the line as the back portion of one green. Lost Rail plays wide, sometimes at 70 yards across as the course traverses ridges, valleys and a washed-out culvert in reach 7,309 yards with a par of 71.
Check out the photos of the new layout below.
