CapRock Ranch

In the years after the revelatory Sand Hills Golf Club opened and began accruing acclaim, roughly nine 18-hole golf courses were built within the Nebraska Sandhills. Of all the Sand Hills successors, CapRock Ranch flies closest to that particular sun.

The Sandhills region features perfect land for golf across almost every square inch of its more than 12 million acres. This is a blessing and a curse, as the landscape creates unlimited opportunities for golf holes, making it hard to narrow a design down to just 18 en route to a cohesive sequence. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw famously took several years exploring the towering dunes and coming up with 100+ different hole options for Sand Hills. Their diligence paid off.

One can perceive that Gil had the same due diligence given his intimate relationship with CapRock’s site. Having laid out a course design 20 years earlier, Hanse returned years later with extensive on-the-ground (and in-the-ground) experience building golf courses. He was also gifted more canyon-side terrain in the meantime, as CapRock’s owner, John Schuele, purchased more land to the south of the original tract which had belonged to the Prairie Club. Hanse’s routing takes inspiration from the likes of Cypress Point by taking players in and out of the most interesting portions of the property: the intimidating canyon edges and beautiful rolling prairie.

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The first two holes begin in the sand dunes. The par-3 third then crosses the canyon edge and begins a four-hole stretch of dramatic, canyon-hugging golf. Holes seven through 14 return to the prairie and create a large loop around the eastern side of the course, bringing players back to the canyon first introduced earlier in the round. The 15th then plays parallel to the canyon edge, setting up the exhilarating finishing stretch of short par 3, short par 4, and an unconventional 200+ yard par-3 finisher, all of which feature the Snake River Canyon in play on every shot. The cadence, variety, and visual intimidation of the routing creates stimulating highs and peaceful lows throughout the round. At the same time, he located terrific natural green sites that provide the basis of the strategy for each hole, joining the design into the landscape as seamlessly as turning a key in its intended lock.

In addition to the masterful routing, the finish work is meticulously crafted, which allows the course to feel weathered and mature despite its adolescence. This is the result of Jim Wagner demanding that the Cavemen (a nickname given to the builders and shapers of Hanse Golf Design) complete all of the hand-finish work themselves. This would typically be left for third-party contractors to complete after Gil, Jim and the Cavemen finished building the golf features, but in this case Jim understood the potential for true beauty at CapRock Ranch. The combination of its calculated routing and delicate, hand-built touches catapults this design into rarefied air among modern golf courses.

2 Eggs

CapRock Ranch deserves to be mentioned with the greatest courses of the modern era. While it does so many things at an exceptional level, there are a few things that hold it back from perfection. Forced carries over the canyon certainly provide drama, but it’s a design choice that becomes repetitive. In addition, some of the weaker holes on the course are lumped together in the middle of the round. The presentation by superintendent Mike McCauley and team is terrific given the resources and harsh environment, but bentgrass dominates the fescue in the fairways, creating less than ideal firmness. They’re hard at work trying to improve that, but it will take time to perfect.

Course Tour

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No. 1, par 4, 437 yards

A wonderful opening hole beautifully draped between two dune ridges. The green is pressed against the right ridge, allowing for approach shots to bound off the shortgrass slope and onto the green.

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Favorite Hole

No. 2, par 5, 582 yards

The second plays up and over a large hill with a blowout pressed into it, creating a blind tee shot. The aggressive line is over the right side of the bunker, and provides a monumental speed slot down the backside of the dune. There is plenty of fairway out to the right for anyone not up for some risk.

The layup zone is guarded by a triangle of bunkers, making the three- shot route no easy task.

The wide and shallow green sits in between a small dune and a larger dune, creating one of the most unique green sites on the course. The back left pin is semi-blind and exhilarating to play, but the rolling contours and false front of the right side provide equally interesting pin locations.

It’s a perfectly designed risk-reward par 5 that allows for multiple avenues of play, all of which demand attention and creativity. One of my favorite par 5s anywhere.

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No. 3, par 3, 175 yards

Your introduction to the canyon. The green sits between a dune and the steep drop to the depths below. Back left pins are tucked behind the dune.

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No. 4, par 5, 654 yards

The last two-thirds of this par 5 requires commitment and proper distance control. A finger from the canyon juts halfway into the left-to-right tilted fairway, making layups tricky. The green is shallow and the first of many infinity greens providing awe-inspiring views down the 200-foot deep canyon.

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No. 5, par 4, 406 yards

The variety of tee locations along the canyon provides a vastly different look depending on which you select. I prefer the one a few steps off the fourth green.

This hole uses a straightforward yet well-executed strategic design, where hugging the canyon off the tee provides the best angle into the tilted green.

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No. 6, par 3, 157 yards

A postcard par 3. Gil considered building bunkers short of the green but decided to let the exposed caprock do the talking. Bailing left gifts you a daunting chipshot to a green that slopes ever so slightly towards the canyon.

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No. 7, par 4, 453 yards

A rare double blind-shot par 4 (from the back tees, anyway). A drive to the right will give players a tiny glimpse of the green that tilts heavily from left to right thanks to the dune upon which it rests.

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No. 8, par 4, 490 yards

A brute of a par 4 that plays to a punchbowl green nestled behind a dune. Two well-struck shots are required here.

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No. 9, par 3, 165 yards

The only one-shot hole away from the canyon on the entire course is perched on top of a dune. The green site is reminiscent of the fourth at Sand Hills, with a steep falloff to the right. An attractive blowout 20 yards beyond the green creates terrific layering and depth while doubling as a fronting bunker for the 10th tee shot.

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No. 10, par 5, 550 yards

A fine lay of the land par 5 with a blind shot from the back tees. The most interesting feature is the large slope in the layup zone that repels poor shots back towards you.

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No. 11, par 4, 382 yards

Missing right to this hog’s back fairway will push your ball into a blowout or low point, leaving a blind second shot. The ideal landing zone is riddled with rumpled contours creating uneven lies for your short approach.

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No. 12, par 5, 542 yards

An exciting par 5 that makes birdies and doubles equally attainable. Tee shots down the left half of the fairway will kick forward down the backside of the dune. The hole narrows from tee to green, but a centerline ridge in the layup zone allows for the ball to land 30+ yards short and trundle onto the putting surface. The sunken land right of the layup and green is a popular spot that I think could be made more interesting as short grass versus mown native.

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No. 13, par 4, 442 yards

The sharp dogleg-right makes driving through the fairway an easy outcome off the tee. The green is the most heavily contoured on the course, creating several pockets for pins plus a backstop and false front.

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No. 14, par 4, 390 yards

Deceptive and intimidating describes the short par-4 14th. The severe hog’s back fairway sorts balls left and right, or in other words, bad and good. The strongly pitched green sits on top of the dune that backs the second green providing a neat look. Back left pins are next to impossible from the left side.

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No 15, par 4, 472 yards

The beginning of the canyon finish. Several hummocks of varying sizes create craggy lies if you decide to play safe and bail right of the canyon. The green has a strong back-to-front pitch making distance control paramount.

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No. 16, par 3, 147 yards

The beautifully shaped front bunker took quite the guts to build as Gil and Co. had to push their equipment right up to the canyon edge. Bailing short right is the only somewhat safe miss on this short par 3. (It sounds funny to bail out with a wedge, but it’s that intimidating.) Back-left pins appear to be inside the canyon.

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No. 17, par 4, 360 yards

Downhill from tee to green makes the 17th drivable most of the time. Getting your ball over the hill short of the green will kick it onto the surface. A smaller second fairway to the left gives players an advantageous angle to right pins which are extremely tough to get close to.

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No. 18, par 3, 213 yards

An atypical redan-like par 3 ends your round. The green is a fraction of the size compared to the rest on the course but the large slope right of the green corrals a majority of shots.

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