Public Golf Course in Nebraska Has America's Toughest Tee Times

One of the most improbable stories in golf right now isn’t happening at the Masters or anywhere near Augusta National Golf Club - because it’s the story of a public course in the middle of nowhere.

That’s where you can find a valuable lesson of business success, says the Wall Street Journal. People will always seek out a singular product, no matter what it is or where it might be. If you build it, they will come. Lots and lots and lots of them.

Credit: Landmand Golf Club

Nestled in a remote village of Nebraska lies a vast swath of farmland that looks like it could go on forever. However, this particular tract of gently undulating land isn’t a farm of any kind - it’s Landmand Golf Club, a public golf course where getting a tee time is nearly as difficult as achieving a hole in one.

This year, the course sold out all of its available tee times in 50 minutes (hence The Wall Street Journal calling it “America’s toughest tee time”). In fact, the only reason they didn’t sell out faster was that the reservation system’s servers kept crashing. But despite Landmand’s popularity, owner Will Andersen has yet to raise the greens fee from $150 - which he told the WSJ “is a lot, especially in this area.” He added: “We felt like it was pretty dang fair for what you get and how fun it is. And we’d just rather not gouge people.”

Andersen, a fourth-generation farmer and avid golfer, is the visionary behind the prairie land-turned-golf course. And in the almost three years it’s been open, demand has gradually grown and, as word spread, booking tee times is now more like hunting for hen's teeth. The course also offers four 2-bedroom cabins at around $500 per night, but there's no word on whether these are as hard to book as the golf course's tee times.

Landmand is a rollicking public course meant to be universally accessible - a place for everyone from golf tourists to local farmers. The only thing it has in common with snooty, members-only private clubs is that they both have 18 holes.

“I’ve never seen demand like this,” said Jake Gordon, co-founder of a company that helps manage Landmand’s waitlist. “It’s stratospherically above even the busiest daily courses in America.”