Awarii Dunes - Hole #17

Awarii Dunes Preview

Sneak Peek and Slide Show

By Brian Weis

On Memorial Day 2011, Awarii Dunes opened for play. Below is a sneak peek and slideshow of the highly acclaimed Jim Engh-designed course.

Overview

Located in the southern edge of the Sand Hills region of Nebraska, the course promotes itself with the slogan, "Where Ireland Meets The Heartland." Engh's inspiration for the links course came from his many trips to Ireland. On the first tee, the Irish influences quickly present themselves: strong winds, rugged sand dunes and tall natural grasses lining rolling fairways. Yet instead of an ocean, waves of Midwestern cornfields serve as backdrop.

Although most golfers will not be able to play the more famous Mullen, Nebraska-based Sand Hills Golf Course, because it is private, Awarii Dunes may soon make traveling golfers' bucket lists, since this private course offers stay-and-play packages to the public. Awarii Dunes is located near Axtell, Nebraska, just a few miles south of Kearney and Interstate 80.

Course Fun Facts

Fun Fact #1: Axtell is known as "The Windmill City" and Awarii is Pawnee for "Wind Blown." If you plan on golfing Awarii you might want to pack a wind shirt! 15-25 mile per hour winds are not uncommon.

Fun Fact #2: The front nine of Awarii dunes was formerly the Craneview Golf Club. The skeleton of the original course was used primarily to maximize the existing irrigation system. Engh widened fairways, expanded greens, moved tee boxes and replaced the bluegrass fairways with T1 bent grass.

Fun Fact #3: Hole 17, known as the "Bowl Hole," features a massive concave green that funnels slightly toward the fairway. As a joke, a member of our foursome putted away from the hole. The ball climbed up the drastically sloped green, briefly stopped at its apex, then released back toward the hole, just missing the cup. To put the putt into perspective, the ball traveled up the hill nearly 100 feet in distance and roughly a story and half in elevation change. The ball's rise and fall lasted more than 30 seconds.

Fun Fact #4: Less than 30,000 yards of dirt were moved to create the golf course. The course naturally winds through, around and over the dunes.

Fun Fact #5: The green complexes are out of this world. Holes 4 and 7 share a green that measures more than 35,000 square feet. Golfers should use a Texas wedge whenever possible from the apron and fairway. Short-game control is needed to roll the ball to certain shelves, ledges and sections of the green.

The Skinny
Private Course
Opened May 31, 2011
5 Tees: 6914, 6558, 6140, 5424, 4692 Yards
Par 72

Stay and Play

Awarii Dunes is a private course but public play is available through stay and play packages provided by the Holiday Inn or the Holiday Inn Express in Kearney. Both hotels are located just 4 miles from Awarii Dunes Golf Club. The package includes accommodations, green fees, golf cart and range balls.

Stay and Play Package Pricing
For more information or to book a stay and play package call 308-743-1111.

Awarii Dunes
524 S Road
Axtell, NE 68924
308-743-1111
www.awariidunes.com

Photo Slide Show

Article Tags: Awarii Dunes

Revised: 06/27/2011 - Article Viewed 39,399 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.