Fairview Golf Club, where sandy greens keep the game real

 7 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star

PAWNEE CITY — Calvin Flanagin’s drive on the ninth and final hole at Fairview Golf Club kept him out of the sand, but he wasn’t happy about it.

While most golfers would gladly take a shot that landed on the fairway, Flanagin wanted to hit sand on the par-3 hole. That’s because sand is pay dirt at Fairview.

 As he approached his second shot, he muttered something about not wanting to get on the sand green anyway. One of his playing partners sarcastically agreed.

“No sense in that,” Terry Borcher said. “I didn’t want to ruin a bad score.”

It’s the sort of self-deprecating exchange that can be heard at golf courses all over Nebraska. Most golfers love the game and hate the game at the same time.

But otherwise, things are a bit different at the nine-hole course in Pawnee City, a community of 1,008 about 75 miles southeast of Lincoln.

For example, a membership at Fairview costs just $90 per year and it includes all immediate family members. Non-members can play for $5 — not per round, but for the day.

In a game that carries a reputation of pomposity, Fairview is about bringing golf to the people.

“Where else can you spend less than $100 and have your kids hit balls all summer?” asks club member Lewis Rogers.

The affordable fees are a result of the course’s greens, which aren’t green at all. They consist of a powdery brown sand that, when compressed with a special rake, produces a surface suitable for putting.

Sand green courses, sometimes called pasture courses, represent  a perfectly logical answer for golfing in semi-arid environments where irrigation isn’t an option. Because of limitations on the public water supply in Pawnee City, irrigation (other than on the tee boxes) has never been an option at Fairview.

While it’s hard to say how many sand green courses once existed in Southeast Nebraska, the members of Fairview could think of several. In fact, the Nebraska School Activities Association sponsored a state sand greens championship from 1941 until 1984, a good indication that the courses weren’t unusual.

Several pasture courses still exist in Nebraska, mostly in central and western Nebraska. But Fairview is one of the last sand survivors in Southeast Nebraska, according to Borcher, a retired school teacher who is the volunteer president of the club.

Fairview was founded on April 1, 1922, and it offered annual memberships for $15. Looking at early records, Borcher said directors had pretty high aspirations — the course offered caddies and would allow no playing between 10 a.m. and noon on Sundays, so golfers would not be lured to the links and away from a church pew.

“They were definitely trying to be the country club,” Borcher said.

Even at a time when sand green courses were more common, Fairview stood apart thanks to its unique hazards, such as a swine barn, a beef barn and a tractor-pull pit. Indeed, the course has more than a view of the Pawnee County Fairgrounds — it’s actually on the fairgrounds.

A nonprofit corporation operates the course and leases space from the fair each year for $1, Borcher said. During fair time in late July, playing ceases as cars park and fairgoers trod on the course.

It’s another reason the club’s board of directors has decided against joining the mainstream by ditching the sand and seeding the greens with bent grass.

The course generates just enough income to pay for mowing, but it can’t afford a pro or even to staff the clubhouse. When it comes to tee times, it’s strictly first-come, first-served and non-members slide their fees into an honor box outside the clubhouse.

Getting on is never a problem, club members say. Except that might be a problem. Currently, the club has 56 memberships, down from a peak of 120 in the early 1990s.

Club members blame the decline on population loss in Pawnee County and the popularity of area grass green courses, such as Kirkman’s Lakeview Golf Course near Humboldt.

But it’s still tough to get a tee time on Thursday night, which is men’s night at the club.

They started arriving about 5:30 and they readied their clubs and carts.  They signed in and each player tossed $2 on the table for a jackpot. The low score, with handicap, wins 80 percent of the pot, with 20 percent going to the course.

“It’s big money,” Borcher laughed. “You might win $15 on a good night.”

Groups of players carted to various tee boxes for the 6 p.m. start. On the first hole, Flanagin, Borcher and Denton Stitt demonstrated how to play on sand greens.

For starters, golfers can go at the pins aggressively because the sand will stop must bump-and-run shots and will swallow rainbow pitches and chips.

Once all three got their balls on the sand, Stitt carried a heavy, double-sided rake to the hole. On one side was a metal pipe, on the other were metal teeth resembling a garden rake. Stitt pulled the pipe side of the rake to create a smooth putting path. Then he pulled it over the path a second time.

He then removed a cup inside the hole, which contained sand pushed down by the rake. The golfers now had a putting surface leading to an unobstructed hole.

Any ball within a club length was considered a gimmie. Otherwise, each player paced off the distance between the hole and his ball (or he measured the distance in putter  lengths). The player who was out putted first, followed by the next closest and so on, all using the same smooth path.

Putting on sand greens required a firm strike of the ball, but most were pretty straight shots with no breaks. Each ball left a little groove leading to the hole.

After the putting was done, Stitt flipped the rake over and started pulling it in concentric circles starting near the hole. The teeth left clean grooves in the green for the next players.

“This is the biggest drawback, raking the greens,” Stitt said.

About 90 minutes later, players started filtering into the clubhouse. A Crock Pot of baked beans simmered on the counter and Stitt started grilling hamburgers. For $3, each golfer got a burger, beans and potato chips.

They ate and talked around patio tables. They discussed crop conditions, the lack of rain, the upcoming fair and, of course, golf.

Don Barnett closed his cell phone after talking to a friend about a planned golf trip to Kansas. Barnett mentioned how he typically plays golf six days a week.

“You’d think you’d be better than you are,” Dan Sunneberg said, which prompted a roar of laughter.

Barnett smiled, too, knowing he’d set himself up and expecting no quarter from his friends.

“I like the social end of it,” he said. “Just sitting around here and talking with the guys.”

Which just goes to show grass is grass, sand is sand and golf is golf.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.