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Architect David McLay Kidd breaks ground on GrayBull, a new Dormie Network course in Nebraska’s Sandhills

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3 years ago

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Architect David McLay Kidd breaks ground on GrayBull, a new Dormie Network course in Nebraska’s Sandhills


David McLay Kidd made a reputation for himself by constructing a course in a far-flung outpost removed from any main cities. His Bandon Dunes structure was the gasoline that propelled the resort of the identical title into the nationwide highlight slightly greater than 20 years in the past, regardless of the trouble required for golfers to achieve the now-famous vacation spot on the southern coast of Oregon.

Now Kidd is tackling a brand new challenge in a area recognized for out-of-the-way but distinctive golf: The Nebraska Sandhills. However his new course is perhaps slightly simpler to achieve than many of the prime locations constructed within the Sandhills in latest a long time.

Kidd and his crew have damaged floor on the non-public GrayBull, a Dormie Community challenge simply north of tiny Maxwell, Nebraska – lower than a 30-minute drive from North Platte and its business airport. The positioning is within the southern reaches of the Sandhills, greater than an hour south of a number of prime programs equivalent to Sand Hills Golf Membership (Golfweek’s Finest No. 1 Fashionable Course within the U.S.) or Prairie Membership (with the Dunes, the No. 1 public-access structure in Nebraska).

Kidd simply needed to cross a river to search out it.

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Dormie Community is a non-public course operator primarily based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Presently obtainable to its members are six programs unfold in regards to the central and jap areas of the nation: ArborLinks in Nebraska Metropolis, Nebraska; Ballyhack in Roanoke, Virginia; Briggs Ranch in San Antonio, Texas; Dormie Membership in West Finish, North Carolina; Hidden Creek in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey; and Victoria Nationwide in Newburgh, Indiana. Members of the community have entry to every course – a lot of which rank extremely amongst non-public golf equipment of their states – and its facilities, which embody on-site cabins.

Dormie started contemplating the addition of a brand new facility close to North Platte a number of years in the past, beginning the search south of the Platte River. Kidd was recruited to scout one proposed web site, however he didn’t like what was he noticed that far south.

“The Sandhills of Nebraska, that are the famed space the place Sand Hills (Golf Membership) and Prairie Membership and Dismal River and others are, are all north of the Platte River, to not the south,” stated Kidd, who has constructed greater than 20 programs all over the world. “The primary time I went there and we crossed the river headed south, I instantly thought, ooh, this isn’t the course I need to be getting in. I need to be going north, not south.”

To the south, Kidd stated, he noticed steep terrain with dense vegetation and heavy soils – “Not nice golf terrain.” He and his group turned the automobile and headed north throughout the river into the Sandhills, beginning a protracted seek for a brand new web site for what’s going to grow to be GrayBull.

After months of seeing proposed websites that didn’t tick all of the packing containers – nice golf terrain, sandy soil, unspoiled views ­– Kidd was pitched a parcel that was a part of a ranch. He liked it from the second the topo charts loaded on his laptop, and the Dormie Community set about buying virtually 2,000 acres from the rancher.

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“I realized that unhealthy ranch land seems to be nice golf land,” Kidd stated with fun. “The ranchers on the Sandhills need comparatively flat land as a result of they need the cattle to simply eat all of the grass and never train, so they only preserve placing on weight. We golfers don’t need the flat land. We wish the rumply sand with ridges, hummocks, holes, bumps and all that happening. The cows could be climbing up and down hills all day, rattling close to getting train. That’s no use. Skinny cows aren’t any good. …

“This web site, it’s just like the Goldilocks factor: not too flat, not too steep. It’s sort of in a bowl that appears inwards, and there aren’t any unhealthy views. It’s huge open, no massive roads, no visible contamination – ticks all of the packing containers.”

Kidd and his crew broke floor in June with an unspecified goal opening in 2024. It can grow to be Dormie Community’s seventh facility, and in contrast to many Sandhills programs, it won’t require a protracted drive from the North Platte airport.

Kidd stated the course will proceed in his ethos of playability, a mantra he has preached since constructing a handful of programs greater than a decade in the past that have been deemed too troublesome for many gamers. His more moderen efforts – notably the public-access Gamble Sands in Washington and Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley in Wisconsin – have been lauded for his or her fairway widths, creativity and playability. Kidd stated GrayBull will retain these sensibilities, even when he does add a number of extra testing photographs, particularly across the greens.

“The panorama is so expansive, it’s onerous to think about constructing a 30-yard-wide fairway and it not trying ridiculous within the panorama,” the native Scot stated. “For positive, the golf course goes to be brawny. I’d need it to be forgiving for the common man after they make errors, however I additionally assume the Dormie Community is for golfers … who’re in all probability slightly extra into it than the man who makes that once-in-a-lifetime journey someplace. I’d assume these golfers are slightly higher gamers, so we’ll alter accordingly however not by an entire lot. We nonetheless need it to be tremendous enjoyable, and we nonetheless need them to have the ability to screw up slightly and nonetheless get again into the sport to some extent.

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“The positioning is extraordinarily distinctive. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen earlier than. Due to that, the golf look, the golf really feel, the golf design can be responding to the location. I don’t assume anybody who performs Mammoth Dunes or Gamble Sands will present up and say that is an actual copy of these as a result of the location is so totally different. However, will my ethos change massively? No. I can be staying in my lane, creating golf of that ilk – broad fairways with tight aggressive scoring lanes with huge areas to get well.”

GrayBull seemingly will grow to be an enormous a part of the golf dialogue of the Sandhills, a geologic area blessed with extremely rolling and bouncy terrain that has exploded onto any well-versed touring golfer’s radar because the opening of Sand Hills Golf Membership in 1995. And GrayBull will not be alone as a brand new improvement within the state, as architects Rob Collins and Tad King of Sweetens Cove fame plan to open the public-access Landmand Golf Membership on the jap facet of the state, not within the Sandhills but in addition on dramatic land.

“(Bandon Dunes developer and proprietor) Mike Keiser proved {that a} good location for golf design was extra vital than a very good location for demographics,” Kidd stated when requested about constructing in far-flung areas as a substitute of close to bigger cities. “The demographics have been surmountable, however a poor golf web site was not. You simply can’t construct a very good golf course if the location doesn’t enable it. Doesn’t matter how a lot cash you throw at it, likelihood is the golf course will virtually at all times be inferior since you began with a poor web site. …

“The Sandhills are unimaginable for golf, and that is by far the most important web site I’ve ever been given for one 18-hole golf course. In all places you look there’s a golf gap.”



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Nebraska

The Northern Catalpa Tree | Nebraskaland Magazine

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6 hours ago

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June 25, 2025

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The Northern Catalpa Tree | Nebraskaland Magazine


A young northern catalpa tree in bloom at the author’s farmyard in southeastern South Dakota. Photo by Gerry Steinauer.

By Gerry Steinauer, Botanist

The northern catalpa is a tree you likely recognize but may not know by name. Perhaps you’ve seen it adorned with striking clusters of large, white flowers, standing out like a snow cone amid otherwise green woodlands. Or maybe, as a child, you were grudgingly sent outside to rake up its huge fallen leaves cluttering the yard. Most memorably, you and your friends may have ventured into the woods, plucked a few of the catalpa’s cigar-shaped seed pods and pretended to smoke them.

The tree is native to the central Mississippi River valley where it is called the Catawba tree (cuh-tah-buh). For reasons unknown, early settlers or botanists in this region named the tree after the Catawba people, a local Native American tribe. The northern catalpa has been widely planted in the eastern half of Nebraska, mainly as an ornamental and as a source of fence posts, where it has escaped cultivation and now grows in the wild in moist bottomlands with well-drained soils.

Several years ago, I gathered seed pods from a catalpa tree growing near an abandoned house up the road from our farm. I planted seeds in pots and transplanted several seedlings into our yard. I’ve been impressed by the trees’ rapid growth, shapely form and diversity of pollinators attracted to the flowers. Recently, I read that catalpa worms, a prized catfish bait, live on the trees. This summer I plan to pay even closer attention to this interesting tree … as I love to catfish.

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northern catalpa seed pods
Northern catalpa seed pods release their many flat, winged seeds, which the wind spreads in late winter or early spring. Photo by Gerry Steinauer.

Natural History

The northern catalpa is a stout-trunked tree that, in Nebraska’s drier climate, can reach about 40 feet in height and live up to 150 years in age. Its pale-colored wood is weak yet durable when in contact with the soil, making it historically popular for fence posts. To form the best post, saplings were cut back to the ground after the first or second year of growth and then only one or two of the best sprouts were left un-thinned to grow to post-size.

The tree’s telltale heart-shaped leaves can reach an impressive 4 to 10 inches long and 3 to 8 inches wide. The bell-shaped, 2-inch-long flowers bloom from late May to mid-June. The seed pods, which can reach an amazing 20 inches in length, ripen from green to purplish-brown in late summer and hang from the tree through winter. These distinctive pods give the tree two of its other common names: the Indian bean tree and cigar tree.

The nectar-rich flowers attract a variety of pollinators including hummingbirds, native bees and bumble bees, and night-flying moths. The lower flower petal has purple lines and yellow blotches that act as guides for incoming pollinators, which are drawn to the blooms by their sweet, citrus- or jasmine-like fragrance. Honeybees also swarm to catalpas, making the trees a beekeeper’s delight.

In Nebraska, the northern catalpa can only be confused with its cousin, the southern catalpa. The latter is native to the Gulf Coastal states, is less suited to the rigors of the Plains and has been planted sparingly in our southeastern towns and cities. A few distinguishing characteristics: the northern catalpa has larger and more pointed leaves, larger but fewer flowers, and longer, thicker seed pods than the southern catalpa. Interestingly, their leaf scents also differ — when crushed, northern catalpa leaves emit a sweet fragrance, while their southern cousin’s leaves produce a foul odor.

northern catalpa flowers blooming
Northern catalpas bloom for just a few weeks in late spring. Native Americans and early settlers reportedly used the flowers in herbal remedies for respiratory problems and infections. Photo by Gerry Steinauer.

While the southern catalpa has never escaped cultivation in Nebraska, the northern catalpa escape into the wild has raised concerns among conservationists. For instance, along the central Platte River valley, the tree is taking hold along wet riverbanks and sandbars, displacing native vegetation.

In addition, this stretch of the Platte River is critical spring roosting habitat for migrating sandhill and whooping cranes. There, the open, sandy channel provides the birds with a clear view of approaching predators and encroaching trees obstruct this visibility, reducing the cranes feeling of safety and potentially limiting their use of the area. Local conservation groups are cutting and grinding larger catalpas and other invasive trees on the riverbank and disking sandbars to uproot saplings in an effort to maintain an open channel.

Catalpa Worms

The catalpa sphinx moth is named for its caterpillars, called catalpa worms, which feed exclusively on catalpa leaves, sometimes defoliating entire trees. The moth has migrated northward and westward from its native range, following planted catalpas. Over the past two decades, my friend Mark Brogie, who attracts moths with night lights, has photographed several catalpa moths in his backyard in Creighton in Knox County. “A catalpa tree just down the street is the likely source of these moths,” Brogie said. If the catalpa sphinx moth has reached as far northward and westward as Knox County, it could be present wherever catalpas grow in Nebraska.

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catalpa sphinx moth
Catalpa sphinx moths are most active at night, using a strong sense of smell to find nectar-rich flowers. During the day, their brownish-gray color and speckled wings help them blend into tree bark and avoid predators. Photo by Mark A. Brogie.

In spring, the female moths lay masses of eggs on the underside of catalpa leaves. Typically, two broods of caterpillars hatch each summer. Mature caterpillars can reach 2 inches in length and are usually black on the back with a broad yellow stripe along the side. They have a single thorn-like, black horn at the tail end. When fully developed, the caterpillars drop from the leaves and burrow into the soil where they overwinter, metamorphosize and emerge as adult moths the following spring.

In the South, these caterpillars are called Catawba worms, and anglers prize them as bait for bass, bluegill, catfish and other fish. Fishermen pick the worms individually from the underside of leaves where they hang out or shake a branch or tree to collect entire coffee cans full of the fallen worms. Some anglers turn the worms inside out on the hook, claiming that their soft, juicy insides better entice fish. Lastly, it’s rumored that smart fishermen never reveal the location of their favorite Catawba worm tree.

It’s likely that northern catalpa trees will continue to spread in Nebraska. How much of a nuisance they become remains unknown. On the positive side, in the coming decades, Nebraska anglers may have a new go-to fish bait.



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Where Nebraska Football Stands with Top 2026 Recruits: Defense

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23 hours ago

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June 24, 2025

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Where Nebraska Football Stands with Top 2026 Recruits: Defense


With the NCAA recruiting dead period now in effect following a three-week stretch of official visits, Nebraska sits firmly among the top schools still in contention for a number of its top 2026 targets. June offered programs across the country their final window to make in-person impressions before the summer slow-down, and Matt Rhule’s staff made the most of it.

After three straight weeks of boots on the ground in Lincoln, the Huskers are closing in on the foundation of their 2026 class. With dozens of high-profile visitors spanning both sides of the ball, and nearly every position in between, Nebraska is positioned to make a splash. Here’s a look at where things stand coming out of a pivotal stretch in June.

2026 Edge prospect Kamron Wilson on his official visit to Nebraska.

2026 Edge prospect Kamron Wilson on his official visit to Nebraska. / behumble_.kam/Instagram

Though smaller in number, Nebraska’s defensive line visitors in June packed serious potential.

First up was four-star edge rusher Kamron Wilson, a top-40 prospect at his position and current Syracuse commit. Wilson has long been on Nebraska’s radar, dating back to Tony White’s tenure as defensive coordinator. Interestingly, 247Sports lists Wilson as a 50-50 crystal ball between Nebraska and Florida State, where White now calls plays.

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The following weekend brought four-star defensive lineman Valdin Sone to campus. A top-25 player at his position and ranked No. 183 nationally, Sone is a raw but intriguing talent. Originally from Denmark, he’s only played American football for a few years but shows major upside, making him an absolute priority for this staff.

While Nebraska only hosted two official defensive line visitors, the coaching staff appears to be in a wait-and-see mode, likely due to a young core already in place for 2025. Still, Wilson and Sone are high-impact prospects who would instantly elevate Nebraska’s 2026 class if they chose to call Lincoln home for the next couple of years.

Danny Odem

Danny Odem dressed out in his high school uniform / @uofi_zone/Instagram

Odem committed to Nebraska on Monday, June 23, 2025.

Moving onto a secondary group under new position coach Addison Williams, Nebraska hosted six defensive back prospects in June, though scholarship limitations (105 total) likely mean room for only two or three.

The biggest shake-up came earlier this month when four-star cornerback CJ Bronaugh decommitted, leaving a sizable hole in the 2026 class at a premium position.

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However, last weekend, Nebraska hosted a key duo from Florida: safety Devin Jackson and cornerback Danny Odem, who are high school teammates. Just yesterday, Odem committed to the Huskers. With Odem’s pledge to Nebraska, it could pave the way for Jackson to follow suit, given they are the only school currently pursuing both players.

In-state target Darion Jones, the younger brother of current Husker Donovan Jones, also made an official visit in June. Jones is currently viewed as an Iowa lean, but Nebraska remains firmly in the mix. His decision, along with the potential Odem-Jackson tandem, could make or break how this cycle shapes up for Nebraska’s secondary.

Nebraska commit Jase Reynolds with Nebraska director of player personnel Keith Williams and head coach Matt Rhule.

Nebraska commit Jase Reynolds with Nebraska director of player personnel Keith Williams and head coach Matt Rhule. / @jasereynoldss on X

Reynolds’ committed to Nebraska on May 5, 2025.

Rounding out Nebraska’s June official visits is the linebacker group, which featured two intriguing prospects who could eventually call Lincoln home.

Three-star Kasen Thomas out of Sioux City, Iowa, seemed like the type of prospect that could become a versatile piece in new defensive coordinator John Butler’s scheme. Instead, Thomas recently committed to Iowa, so look for Nebraska to potentially expand their board.

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Also making a trip to Lincoln was Calvin Thomas, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound backer and composite four-star prospect, currently ranked as the No. 18 linebacker in the 2026 class. With offers from several playoff-contending programs, Thomas is a nationally sought-after defender. Even with a 2025 linebacker group that includes both veteran transfers and promising youth, Thomas would bring immediate athleticism and versatility to both run support and pass coverage if he chooses Nebraska.

Nebraska also secured a commitment from in-state three-star linebacker Jase Reynolds out of Elkhorn North (Omaha metro area). At 6-foot-2, 206 pounds, Reynolds brings immediate size and versatility to the defensive side of the ball. Whether dropping into coverage or coming downhill as a blitzer, he’s shown a willingness to do both effectively. Expect the Nebraska staff to add weight to his frame and potentially develop him into a hybrid chess piece within John Butler’s evolving defensive scheme.

Overall, linebacker is considered a position of strength for Nebraska heading into 2025 and beyond, and with Kasen Thomas now committed to Iowa, landing a pledge from Calvin Thomas would absolutely represent a significant win, one that would be well received by the fan base and strengthen the long-term depth of the room.

Nebraska Recruiting Board graphic.

Nebraska Recruiting Board graphic. / Trevor Tarr

As the 2026 recruiting class continues to take shape, Nebraska’s staff is working to strike a careful balance between building for the future and maintaining a “win-now” mindset.

With the newly imposed 105-man roster limit, and Nebraska currently 15+ players over that mark, the class is expected to remain small. That means every high school addition must be evaluated with both current team needs and long-term fit in mind.

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At the same time, the staff knows that instant-impact players will become available in the transfer portal next December. Like every program in college football today, Nebraska is walking a tightrope between recruiting for the future and staying competitive in the now.

Next. Husker Recruiting Central: 2026. Husker Recruiting Central: 2026. dark

But one thing is clear: Matt Rhule and his staff are trusting THEIR process. A strong 2025 campaign could lead to a late-cycle push for elite high school talent or give Nebraska the edge in securing top transfer prospects. A disappointing season, on the other hand, would likely mean another unpredictable swing in the portal to shore up immediate weaknesses.

Though the 2026 class may not turn heads just yet, Nebraska is clearly giving itself room to breathe and adjust course based on how the 2025 season unfolds. Of course, the hope is that the Huskers take a major step forward this fall, but even beyond the win column, Matt Rhule’s long-term vision deserves recognition. This class may not finish in the top 10 nationally, but if Nebraska finds success on the field in 2025, don’t be surprised to see a few high-profile commitments flip in the Huskers’ favor by signing day.

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.



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Defensive back target commits to Nebraska

Published

2 days ago

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June 24, 2025

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Defensive back target commits to Nebraska


A class of 2026 defensive back announces his commitment on Monday evening. Four-star corner Danny Odem committed to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and became the class of 2026’s seventh commitment.

Nebraska was one of the five finalists vying for Odem. The other schools were Oklahoma, Penn State, Clemson, and Ohio State.

The Florida native recorded 45 tackles, two interceptions, three pass deflections, and a fumble recovery in his junior season. He also played on the offensive side of the football and recorded five receptions for 40 yards on the year, according to statistics from MaxPreps.com.

According to the On3 Recruiting Rankings, he is the No. 19-ranked corner in the 2026 class and the No. 27-ranked overall player in his class from the state of Florida. 

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The class of 2026 ranks 74th in the nation and 18th in the Big Ten, according to the latest analysis from On3.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.





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