Prairie Dunes owes much to salt. Mining of the crystalline
compound helped Emerson Carey and his family build an empire, the Carey Salt
Company, in the remote central Kansas town of Hutchinson. The Careys used the funds to
develop their dream course, and the very foundation of the layout is comprised
of salt and sand deposits, which form the namesake dunes that distinguish this
renowned “inland links.”
In 1935 the Careys, after a trip to Scotland, invited Maxwell to look at a
prospective site north of Hutchinson. The architect spent days exploring
the area’s dunes—some of them as high as 60 feet—and concluded that the best
site was one he had spotted on the train ride into town, several miles east of
the Careys’ land. Asked if the site held 18 good holes, Maxwell replied, “There
are 118 good holes there. I just have to eliminate 100 of them.”
Maxwell did design 18 holes but the Careys opted to play safe
and build only nine initially. The par-35, 3,165-yard routing came to be known
as the “best nine-hole course in the country,” according to Johnny Dawson, a
prominent amateur and Walker Cupper who starred in an exhibition at the grand
opening on September 13, 1937.
Rolling among those towering dunes and flanked by waist-high,
golden prairie grasses, the original nine was virtually treeless and had the
look of a links. But perhaps the most noteworthy feature was the severity of
Maxwell’s greens, known as “Maxwell’s Rolls,” which largely endure to this
day—only two have required rebuilding, a project handled by Maxwell aficionados
Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore in 1986 to address drainage problems.
Unfortunately, a hard freeze in 1940, followed by World War
II, prevented immediate expansion of the course to 18 holes. Maxwell never saw
it to completion, passing away in 1952 at age 73. By then the members, who had
bought the club from the Careys in 1950 for $95,000, were ready to finish the
job. The logical choice was Maxwell’s son, Press, who had worked on the
construction crew for the original nine.
The younger Maxwell, who designed 42 courses of his own,
often pleaded that he didn’t possess his father’s genius, but he was clearly at
his creative peak when he weaved nine holes (the present-day Nos. 3–5 and 11–16)
into Prairie Dunes’ existing nine.
His challenge was to make the new holes, which opened in
1957, blend with the old. Although the land for the new nine had fewer dunes and
less undulation, Maxwell succeeded with the help of technology—bulldozers, which
weren’t available two decades before, allowed for easier shaping. Just as the
original nine is considered his father’s best work, the additional holes are
widely recognized as Press’ finest.
Despite measuring only 6,701 yards, Prairie Dunes is a worthy
championship site, thanks to the exacting greens, narrow fairways that tilt and
heave like waves on a storm-tossed sea, and ball-gobbling “gunsch,” as the
rough—a mixture of native grasses, plum thickets, yucca plants, soap weeds and
other flora—is known.
Wind is a huge factor on holes like the 8th, which climbs 430
yards to an elevated green. Dan Jenkins called it the best 8th hole in
America in a 1966 Sports Illustrated
article. The 17th is a 510-yard par 5 that plays into the prevailing wind. A
tight fairway runs through a valley between two long dunes, arriving at a
hogback green with gunsch on the left and a steep dropoff to the right.
Of Press’ contributions, the 452-yard 11th is regarded as one
of his finest. It swings left, with a horseshoe-shaped bunker guarding the
dogleg. A large mound discourages run-up approach shots, and the green is the
shallowest on the course.
At the suggestion of Coore and Crenshaw, the club has opened
up areas surrounding most of the greens, closely mowing the grass to allow for
more ground-game options. In short, Prairie Dunes has a British Open-like feel,
of which the Careys and Maxwell no doubt would approve.
