Dismal River is what happens when a Sandhills golf club grows up into a full sporting resort. The private club near Mullen offers two 18-hole courses: the White Course, a rugged Jack Nicklaus design unveiled in 2006 with dramatic elevation changes and blowout bunkers, and the Red Course, a Tom Doak minimalist masterpiece opened in 2013 that starts at the property’s high point and descends to a closing hole along the meandering Dismal River. Both have been ranked among the best courses in Nebraska.
Beyond golf, it’s a stay-and-play operation with luxury cabins, fine dining, guided upland and big-game hunting, shooting sports, and fishing. Reviewers talk about the silence on the 6th tee of the Red Course — a sea of prairie grass in every direction — as much as the golf.
Dismal River is private, but it actively sells stay-and-play packages that bundle golf, lodging, and dining, which makes it the most accessible way for a non-member to play championship Sandhills golf at this level.