Lunchball
Sand Hills is the genesis block of the modern minimalist movement, the place where Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw reportedly found 136 potential holes among the vast chop hills of Nebraska and simply selected the best 18. It represents a seismic shift in golf architecture, moving away from the manufactured, containment-mounded layouts of the 1980s back to the ‘found’ golf of the Scottish seaside. The strategy here is dictated entirely by the wind and the heaving sandy terrain, requiring players to use the ground game and accept rub of the green as a feature, not a bug.
The vibe at Sand Hills is arguably the purest in American golf—it is the ultimate ‘Lunchball’ pilgrimage. Located miles from civilization in Mullen, Nebraska, the experience is stripped of pretense: sleeping in cabins, hanging out at Ben’s Porch for a burger at the turn, and playing until the sun drops behind the dunes. It proved the ‘Field of Dreams’ theory for golf: if the architecture is world-class, golfers will travel to the ends of the earth (or at least the middle of nowhere) to find it.
Comparison: 17th
17th
The Fescue Ground Game
Tara Iti
Architectural Analysis
Both holes are short, natural par-3s situated in sandy dunes that rely on wind and firm turf rather than length or water to challenge the golfer, defining the 'less is more' ethos of modern minimalism.