The Dormie Network will soon open the GrayBull Club in Maxwell, Nebraska. The new club features a golf course designed by David McLay Kidd and is the seventh property in Dormie’s portfolio.
GrayBull is Dormie’s first new club, the other six – ArborLinks, Ballyhack, Briggs Ranch, Dormie Club, Hidden Creek and Victoria National – are acquisitions of existing facilities.
Kidd helped select GrayBull’s 600 acres of prairie land north of the Platte River in spring 2021. “Having direct input into land selection is rare in the industry, which makes building even more exciting,” he said. “Golfers want to go to a place and really experience it, and golf is the excuse to do that. This land is special – there’s nothing there except you and Mother Nature in her purest, simplest, most beautiful form.”
“This place is like Goldilocks: not too flat, not too steep. It’s in a sort of bowl that looks inward, and there are no bad views. It’s wide open, no big roads, no visual pollution – it ticks all the boxes.”
In February 2024, as construction was completed and the course was growing in size, a wildfire spread through the area. Before the fire reached the course, GrayBull staff turned on the irrigation system to soak the ground, dug fire breaks in the native grasses and around the staff quarters, and deployed a water truck. These measures protected the course, clubhouse, and cottages from the fire that would eventually consume more than 70,000 acres of land.
“Sitting up on the ridge next to the first tee and eighteenth green is one of the best views you’ll ever have in the Sandhills,” said Zach Peed, president of Dormie Network. “Watching the course emerge from the terrace between the rolling hills is hard to beat.”
“Holes four through nine are perfect for golf’s golden hour. The experience and revelations from green to tee will be incredible. As you wander through the hills, you’ll experience moments where you’ll wonder where to go next, and the entire round will feel like an adventure.”
GrayBull Club will appear in the October 2024 issue of Golf course architecturewith exclusive insights from David McLay Kidd. To sign up for a print or free digital copy, please visit our Subscription page.
