Sand Hills is the course that started everything. When Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw unveiled this minimalist design in the mid-1990s, it proved that the greatest golf land in America was sitting in the Nebraska Sandhills — and it has ranked among the world’s best courses ever since. There are no water hazards, just sandy waste areas, stylish rustic bunkering, generous fescue fairways, and huge undulating greens laid over natural dunes. The clubhouse sits on the North Fork of the Dismal River, more than a mile from the course itself.
Here’s the honest part: this is one of the most exclusive clubs in golf, with roughly 200 members nationwide, playable essentially only by members and their invited guests. You almost certainly can’t just book a tee time. It belongs on this list anyway, because every other course in the Sandhills exists in its shadow — and because knowing the story makes playing Wild Horse, the Prairie Club, or Dismal River that much richer.
If you ever get an invitation, the season runs roughly June through September. Do whatever it takes to say yes.