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Shatel: Omahan's legacy course honors his hometown and golf roots - Omaha World-Herald

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The kid drawing golf holes during Sunday service at Lutheran Church of the Master never would have believed this.

Scott Hoffman is poised to make history, as the first native Omahan to design an Omaha-area golf course.

This summer, Hoffman will cut the ribbon on Lost Rail Golf Club, a breathtaking masterpiece born from Hoffman’s relentless imagination and Omaha golf roots.

Scott Hoffman

Scott Hoffman, the golf course architect for the Lost Rail Golf Club.

Built into rolling farm meadows northwest of Gretna, tucked high above the Elkhorn River valley, Lost Rail might have the most spectacular golf views of any course in Nebraska.

Lost Rail is a blend of Sand Hills Golf Club and Omaha Country Club, with its own flair. Throw in a 100-year-old railroad story, and you have a course all of Nebraska will be talking about.

But as Romeo the caddy said in “Tin Cup,” we’re not here to talk about legacy. We’re here to decide what to hit to the green.

Earlier this week, Hoffman and I sat in a cart in the middle of the 17th fairway. Right side, about 160 yards out, position A.

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Sadly, there were no golf clubs. Just the writer, wanting to pick the brain of the artist, sculptor and architect of a modern golfing gem. What does the artist see in 155 acres of dirt and grass canvas that the rest don’t?

Before I could ask, Hoffman gave me a lesson in golf course design — and imagination.

The 17th, a massive 530-yard par-4, is one of Hoffman’s favorite holes. Because it teases the golfer. Makes him think.

The tee shot drops 40 feet into a valley before rising back to the green. The left side of the fairway features a massive left-to-right slope, funneling drives down the hill. But the bolder player challenges a hazard down the right side and bombs the ball all the way to the bottom, improving the angle into a green protected by bunkers.

“The strategy is in the contours,” Hoffman said. “Not the bunker placement.”

And as Hoffman pointed out, savvy golfers will notice the big elm tree standing guard to the right of the green, on a slope. Hit it just in front of the tree, and the ball should roll onto the green.

“Shot shape and angle are big,” Hoffman says with pride. “That happens all over this golf course.”

The passion of Hoffman’s life is the golf story of the year.

He grew up near 97th and Center Streets. Scott’s father, Roger, was a math teacher and golf coach at Omaha Westside for 38 years. His mother, Linda, also worked at Westside.

Both parents played golf. Together.

The Hoffmans didn’t have a babysitter. Scott and his brother, Brett, were brought along to Platteview or Benson golf courses.

“The first 18 I walked was Skyline Woods when I was 6,” Scott said. “I played tournaments when I was 9. Then I just kind of went crazy.”

Scott could play. He was state runner-up for the Warriors as a freshman and senior (1990). Got a scholarship to Nebraska. Played his last two years at Creighton.

But Hoffman was not destined to be the next PGA Tour pro from Nebraska. He had already found another calling, right there in the church pews.

“I used to draw in church when I was 10,” Hoffman said. “They had the bulletins. I didn’t have games or toys. I would draw routings and golf holes.”

Hoffman’s favorite book back then was a history of the world’s greatest golf courses, with pictures of the hole routings.

“I read that more than comic books,” he said.

18th hole

Scott Hoffman’s favorite book when he was younger was a history of the world’s greatest golf courses, with pictures of the hole routings. “I read that more than comic books,” he said.

After college, he worked part time at Happy Hollow and Field Club, and planned how to become a golf architect.

A friend who was a golf course architect told him to “go work for Bill Kubly,” meet the right people and hope to get a break.

Soon, Hoffman was working for Kubly’s Landscapes Unlimited, shoveling sand and driving the tractor at Pacific Springs.

In 2000, he caught his break.

Tom Fazio, a renowned golf architect, was hiring for his office in Kansas City. Hoffman got a job.

He began working on Fazio design projects, like Briggs Ranch in San Antonio and Mirabel in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Before long, he was working on Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, El Dorado in Indian Wells (California), Pronghorn (Oregon), Scottsdale National and Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Meanwhile, Hoffman never took his eye off an ultimate dream: designing a top-notch, legacy course in Omaha.

Then one day he talked to his cousin.

As we headed through the front nine on our tour, we stopped at a drink shack being built. Suddenly, there it was.

The par-3 fifth hole.

Lost Rail is packed with ravines and creeks that wind through the course and present beauty and challenges.

The fifth is the topper.

It’s a 180-yard straight-away carry over a large ravine. And if you listen closely, you might just hear the echo of a train whistle.

At the bottom of the ravine is a concrete block engraved with “1914.” It marks where the Burlington Northern rail line came through this part of the course, crossing Sarpy Country and Omaha before Burlington disassembled it a decade later.

The train track itself, Hoffman said, would have run on ground above the ravine. It would have come down along the sixth fairway, over five and through the eighth green.

In fact, Hoffman designed holes five through 10 in this “Lost Rail” area because of the ravines, thick trees and thicker history.

Of course, they could put up a plaque telling the story. But how boring.

As we stood on the eighth green, Hoffman pointed to an opening in a row of trees just off the green where the train tracks used to lie.

That’s based on local historical research, spikes and track plates they found in that area.

He said Lost Rail is going to restore a section of railroad track left of the eighth green. On the other side, they may put a 1920s vintage crossing sign.

Talk about getting on the birdie — or bogey — train.

A few years ago, Hoffman was back in Omaha. He found out that Douglas and Sarpy County websites had “contour maps,” which showed precise topography lines.

Hoffman started rerouting the courses he played as a kid, Happy Hollow, OCC, Benson, etc.

Then one day he was talking to his cousin, Dirk Chatelain. The longtime sports writer for The World-Herald is a golfer and golf nut. He suggested that Hoffman stop rerouting Happy Hollow and build his own course in Omaha.

Off they went.

Hoffman found a property near Gretna he thought would work. But the owner wouldn’t come down from a steep price.

“Then Dirk started knocking on doors,” Hoffman said.

Farmhouse doors. One night, the cousins walked to the top of a hill and saw the sunset over the Elkhorn River below. It was magic.

They had their land. Now they had to get it.

Hoffman, Chatelain

One night, the cousins, Scott Hoffman and Dirk Chatelain, walked to the top of a hill and saw the sunset over the Elkhorn River below. It was magic. They had their land. Now they had to get it.

The owner was Marleen Muenster, a 75-year-old widow who turned down many offers because she didn’t want an invasion of houses.

“We sat in her kitchen and said we’d like to do a golf course,” Hoffman said. “She said, ‘I kind of like golf.’”

Hoffman promised there would not only be no development, but the club would be golf only and have minimal traffic.

Muenster agreed to sell. And a dream had a home.

Hoffman admitted he’s one of those golfers who looks at a piece of land and sees a golf hole.

“Driving to Des Moines, there’s some land off the highway,” Hoffman said. “Every time I drive by it I figure out a way to put a golf hole there.

“I do routings like crossword puzzles. Makes your mind think. Solving it gets you somewhere. I always think there’s a better way to put it all together. So I never stop.”

Over the years, Hoffman has developed a few preferences:

Start with a par-5 and finish with a par-5. Gives golfers a chance to loosen up. And finish in a good mood — and want to come back.

Hoffman stresses walkability, connecting greens and the next tee close together. In that way, Lost Rail is like an old-style East Coast course.

Contours in the fairways are good. As Hoffman says, “You want the ball to roll around and play different every time.”

Hoffman enlisted his old boss Kubly to put his world-class touch on the construction of Lost Rail. Kubly, a Wisconsin native who has built courses all over the world, wants Lost Rail to be his Nebraska legacy course.

The same goes double for the Nebraska native.

“My goal was to build a top-100 golf course,” Hoffman said. “I know what it takes to do a top-100 course, and I feel like we’ve done that.

“It’s variety, strength of holes, playability, strategy. I think we’ve hit all of that.

“I want it to be better than anything else around.”

Lost Rail, which is set to open in July or August with more than 200 members, will need to grow and mature.

But at first glance, it has the wide fairways (the tightest fairway at Lost Rail is 50 yards) and wispy Nebraska grass that looks like the Sandhills. But several holes require precision shot-making, similar to OCC.

The clubhouse, sitting high on the ridge like Shinnecock Hills, will be “lime washed” and white to look like it’s from an older era, Hoffman said. The bunkers, too, will be old school.

Hoffman attended to every detail, even the pin flags — a yellow and red flag, borrowing from 19th-century train signals. If the flags were up (wind blowing), it meant caution. If they were down, proceed.

This is Hoffman’s “legacy” course. It’s for the parents who instilled in him the love of the game. It’s for the city and the golfers who gave him a place to play and passion that he took out into the world.

He says he wants the state amateur and other tournaments to come to Lost Rail. He wants Omaha to look at it as a crown jewel.

A gift from a native son.

Legacy course

The Lost Rail Golf Club is SCott Hoffman’s “legacy” course. It’s for the parents who instilled in him the love of the game. It’s for the city and the golfers who gave him a place to play and passion that he took out into the world.

tom.shatel@owh.com, 402-444-1025, twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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