Out in Mullen, Nebraska, about twenty miles down a single-lane road in the middle of the Sandhills, Dismal River sits on 3,000 acres of massive, blowout sand dunes. It’s isolated, windy, and hard to get to, which is precisely why it became the stage for one of modern golf’s best architectural studies.
The White Course (Nicklaus, 2006)
To get to the first tee on the White Course, you take a mile-long dirt road out from the clubhouse into raw, isolated terrain. When Nicklaus took the job, he was handed 2,000 acres of prairie and told to build a severe, high-drama championship layout.
At 7,353 yards from the back tees, the White Course plays big. Yet despite its size, it required the least dirt movement of almost any project in Nicklaus Design history. The dunes were already so huge that Jack simply draped the routing right across them.
The result is a stern, aerial test. You face dramatic drop-offs, mandatory long carries over native blowout bunkers, and wild green complexes—like the famous donut-shaped 10th green, which features a sand bunker sitting squarely in the middle of the putting surface. It’s classic Golden Bear strategy: see your line, trust your carry, and hit a precise shot.
The Red Course (Doak, 2013)
Seven years after the White opened, Tom Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design crew arrived to build the Red Course. Doak took a completely different approach to the property, routing his 6,994-yard layout down toward the banks of the river itself.
Where the White asks for tight aerial precision, the Red relies on ground game, angles, and wide-open spaces. There are no formal, elevated tee boxes—just casual teeing areas cut into the natural turf. Fairways run 80 yards wide in spots, blending into one another and inviting you to use the contours to feed your ball toward the pin.
On the Red, you rarely worry about losing a golf ball. Instead, you worry about wind and angles. Take the blind tee shot on 17, where you aim at a buffalo skull mounted on a wooden post in the distance—if you catch the ridge correctly, the natural slope kicks your ball down a speed slot toward the green.
Distinct Origins
The contrast comes directly from how both men built their careers:
Jack Nicklaus started designing during his playing prime, famously partnering with Pete Dye in 1969 to build Harbour Town. Over 400 courses later—from Muirfield Village to Turtle Point—his signature remains deliberate decision-making, forced carries, and clear visual targets.
Tom Doak studied landscape architecture at Cornell, spent a year walking historic Scottish links, and apprenticed under Dye before launching Renaissance Golf Design. His work at Pacific Dunes, Ballyneal, and Barnbougle, alongside his book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, helped define the modern minimalist movement: low dirt movement, wide fairways, and letting the earth dictate the game.
Why You Play Both
Neither course tries to outperform or mimic the other. The White demands disciplined ball-striking over massive topographic ridges; the Red encourages creative ground-game choices along the valley floor.
Having both on the same 3,000-acre slice of Nebraska sandhills isn’t about deciding which architect won. It’s about seeing how two completely different minds solved the exact same piece of earth.
