Iron Horse - #10

Iron Horse Golf Club

Overview and Photo Gallery

By Brian Weis

Located between Mahoney State Park and Ashland NE, Iron Horse Golf Club is just minutes from Omaha and Lincoln. The Gene Bates designed course is built around an old rock quarry and features steep elevation changes and incredible views. In 2002, Golf Digest recognized Iron Horse as one of the "Best New Affordable Public Courses in America". The course weaves through cottonwood and burr oak forests, native prairie grasses and along a quarry lake.

Notable Holes

Perched above Lake Iron horse, the par 4 ninth, drops several stories to the quarry floor. The elevated tee box provides panoramic views of the quarry lake and the stately club house. Co-owner Tim Young echoed, "It is my favorite hole because of the view and the steep elevation drop."

Mark Boyer, co-owner, teased, "It is also the closest hole to the club house, if you run out of beer."

A stiff drink might be needed for the upcoming hole. The 575 yard par 10th might be regarded as one of the toughest par 5's in the state. From the tee, wetlands protect the left side of the narrow fairway and a 40 acre lake guards the entire right side. The second shot might be more intense than the drive. The fairway narrows to six yards wide as it climbs the quarry bluffs. Target golf is needed to layup on the uphill sloping, second tier fairway. Bottom line, the hole is an exhilarating test of golf. For the record, I lost 2 balls, all off the tee.

History Factoid

In the late 1800's US Army Captain Beetison built his homestead on the property. The house doubled as a lookout tower providing security for strategic parts of the Oxbow supply trail with visibility to the state capitol building. Built in 1868, the structure is one of the oldest in Nebraska.

The Skinny
5 Tees: 6500, 6205, 5700, 5114 and 4411 yards
Slope/Rating: 128/71.4
Par: 71
Weekend Rate With Cart: $59.00

Iron Horse Golf Club
900 Clubhouse Drive
Ashland, NE 68003
402-944-9800
http://www.golfironhorse.com

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Article Tags: Iron Horse Golf Club

Revised: 08/18/2011 - Article Viewed 38,787 Times

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.