Oakland Golf Club is the small-town Nebraska golf story in full. It began as a cow pasture in 1926, played on sand greens until the 1940s, and grew into today’s 18-hole layout — carved into the rolling, wide-open spaces of northeast Nebraska where, as one reviewer put it, you play along cornfields instead of city housing. At 6,606 yards and par 72, it asks for every club in the bag.
The greens are the talk: large, fast, true, and humbling — more than one confident player has walked off muttering about a four-putt. All four par 3s play over 150 yards, one demanding a full carry over water. And the value is absurd; reviewers call it the best value in the state, with no waiting on the tee even on a Sunday.
It’s semi-private and openly welcoming to public play, with an active membership that hosts the Oakland Open each summer. An hour north of Omaha, it’s the ideal escape from metro tee sheets.