(June 12^th) Day 7 – Kearney, NE drove 332 miles

Awarii Dunes is a course I wanted to play since last year when I first planned this trip. It is a true links style golf course and I have yet to play a links course I didn’t enjoy. It’s not quite as good as Wine Valley, but was enjoyable, fairly priced  and I would certainly play it again. There are four sets of tees that range from 7001 to 4770 yards. On the scorecard they list Belmullet tees which are basically the blue tees for 11 of the holes and the black tees mixed in for the other seven. My group played the blues @ 6236 yards, par 72, rating 69.1 and slope of 115. The slope rating may be a little low considering how many places you can lose a ball in the long grass with an errant shot, but the course plays a little shorter than the yardage considering the roll you get in the fairways. There is literally no rough and very few trees to deal with, just fairway, lots of bunkers to roll into, a little water and long wild grass areas that make looking for a golf ball chore. I booked this through Golf Now and paid $ 72 for a Saturday tee time and cart.

The three young men I played with were Tyler, Leo & Austin. Tyler is in charge of a plasma donation center in Kearney and could hit the crap out of the golf ball. When he flushed one he outdrove the rest of us by 30 to 60 yards and he hit it off the tee quite well most of the time. The rest of his game was not quite as tidy. Leo (aside to my buddy Leo Puga, I wanted to ask if his name was short for Leobardo, but I did not) works for the same company as Tyler and was a trainer for the new phlebotomists (aka vampires). He just worked his last day in Kearney and was heading to Austin, TX to do the same job with the same company there. He had a real struggle with swaying on most of his shots and we spent a LOT of time frequently looking for his golf ball. He could hit it long, but more often than not we were searching. I actually left the golf course with a lot more balls than I showed up with and I gave a couple of balls to the guys that I wouldn't play, but they would.

 Austin is a mechanic in Kearney, was in his own cart and made three birdies on the day and just lipped out a putt for a fourth one. He was the most consistent of the three and probably the one I talked to the most during the round. They were all nice young men (early 30s or late 20s, hard to tell) and I had a good time playing with them. They were able to tell me things about certain holes that a first timer would need to know. I would've had a beer with them after the round, but they were all ready to be on their way.

I started with a triple bogey and ended with a triple bogie, but I had a birdie (missed a short putt for another) and played the other 16 holes 13 over par which left me one over bogie golf (always my goal!) for the round. I recommend this golf course, especially if you like links style courses. There were people walking, but the course is pretty spread out and a LOT of elevation changes so you'd best be in good shape to do it.

Next stop was West Des Moines, IA. I stopped to get some munchies and call Margaret just past the Iowa state line. She did a little on-line research and found a local pizza/Italian restaurant close to my hotel for me. I wanted pizza and not chain store pizza. Rosati's had really good pizza and I would eat there again if I'm ever in the area.

          Randy’s golf course             ratings           play again               could recommend                Price

Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA)          5                   YES                              YES                            $$$

Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO)          4.5                  YES                              YES                            $$     

Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE)            4                   YES                              YES                            $$ 

Rivers Edge (Burley, ID)                   3.5                    ??                                YES                             $

Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT)             3.5                    no                          good golfers only!            $

Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY)       3                      no                                 no                              $$

Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT)                 3                      no                                 no                              $        Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)

Photos are from Awarii Dunes website!