A golf complex is being eyed for the Omaha riverfront north of downtown that would include an 18-hole “low-profile” course built along the lines of St. Andrews or, closer to home, Sand Hills Club, and could be played with vintage golf equipment.
It would include a facility that would be the home of the massive memorabilia collection of golf historian and Omaha native Gary Wiren, and the Classic Golf retail pro shop operated for 20 years in Omaha by Randy Jensen. It also would include a practice range, short-game center and a putting course.
Wiren said at a Tuesday night meeting that the National Golf Foundation is strongly interested in helping with a feasibility study for the project — described as a public-private cooperative venture — that could cost up to $15 million. That amount includes the acquisition of Wiren's multimillion-dollar collection of rare golf clubs and balls, golf-related books, postcards and sheet music, photographs and other collectables.
Acclaimed golf-course architect Tom Doak, who also attended the meeting at Sunset Valley Country Club, said he viewed several parcels that could be available for the project. Some land is in the floodplain inside the Missouri River levee.
Doak's work in minimalist golf course design includes Ballyneal, a private club close to the Nebraska border near Holyoke, Colo.
What would further set apart a riverfront course as a potential tourist destination in Omaha is that Doak would design it in a retro style that allows play with pre-1900 hickory-shaft clubs and replica, limited-flight golf balls — and with golfers wearing replica garb — while still being a modern, championship-length course.
Multiple tees would be built so the course could play as short as 4,500 yards to accommodate use of the limited-flight balls.
“Imagine,'' Wiren said, “you walk into the clubhouse and you get asked, ‘How do you like to play your golf today? Modern, classical (1920s equipment) or antiquarian (pre-1900s)?'
“This would be something nobody in the world has.”
Doak said the land he has seen would lend itself to a course that is “low-profile,” or subtle, in design because the ground is relatively flat. Like St. Andrews, the course could be just two holes wide, with an outward nine and an inward nine.
Distances from greens to the next tee would be short, to promote walking and possible use of caddies.
“I'd hope you could make this a no-cart course,'' Doak said.
The project has its genesis with Gregg Dress, a local hickory-golf enthusiast. Dress invited Wiren to a meeting in May about the future of his collection, and the scope of the project grew with the possibility of a minimalist course.
Doak said he learned of the project from Sunset Valley member Ray Schueneman, a friend of his for several years.
Wiren and Doak said the proximity to downtown and to Eppley Airfield enhances the financial viability of the project.
“You can't find land anywhere else this close to a downtown,'' Doak said.
Contact the writer:
444-1041, stu.pospisil@owh.com
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