Wild Horse Golf Club sprang from an effort by the citizens of Gothenburg, Nebraska, to improve the quality of life in their town. To fund the project, they sold 1,000 shares of stock, priced at $500 each, and established 50 residential lots around the perimeter of the golf property. Then they hired Dave Axland and Dan Proctor, the principals of the firm Bunker Hill Golf, to design the course. A few years before, Axland and Proctor had helped Coore & Crenshaw build Sand Hills Golf Club 90 minutes northwest of Gothenburg. Although Wild Horse occupies a subtler piece of land—it sits at the southern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills, where the dunes melt into the prairie—it is similar to Sand Hills in its minimalist construction, strategic design, and delightfully firm, sand-based turf. Since opening in 1999, Wild Horse has been one of the best public golf courses in the country, and perhaps the best you can play for under $100 any day of the week.
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Take Note…
Wooga. At Prairie Dunes, it’s “gunch.” At Wild Horse, the native vegetation that surrounds the hole corridors is called “wooga.” The etymology of this term is a mystery, even to the golf course staff, but its addictive properties are undeniable. Once you start saying it, you’ll find you can’t stop. For instance, ever since I found the wooga on three consecutive shots on the first hole in September 2022, Andy Johnson and Cameron Hurdus have referred to me as “Wooga Boy.” Just another example of Fried Egg Golf’s toxic workplace culture.
The Axland-and-Proctor trail. In its quarter century of existence, Bunker Hill Golf produced three original new-build courses in addition to Wild Horse: Bayside Golf Club in Ogallala, Nebraska, built almost concurrently with Wild Horse; Delaware Springs in Burnet, Texas, the firm’s first design, dating back to 1989; and Old Toccoa Farm in Mineral Bluff, Georgia, which opened in 2015. All four courses are public and have affordable green fees.
The second-hottest membership in golf. Like the Aiken Golf Club, another of America’s top bang-for-your-buck public courses, Wild Horse offers remarkably low-priced memberships. For a family, the yearly fee is $664.65.
