VALENTINE, Neb. — The plains and sandhills of northern Nebraska are ideal for two activities: cattle ranching and golf.

While he jokes about a handicap that is “too close to 30 to talk about,” it’s the latter that drew Andrew Getty to Valentine, Nebraska, six years ago, and it remains a reason the Mitchell native is enamored by and ingrained within his new home community.

Getty serves as superintendent of The Dunes, one of the top-ranked courses in the United States and one of two 18-hole golf courses that comprise The Prairie Club, a 2,500-acre resort with the motto, “As pure as golf gets.”

The Prairie Club rests some 15 miles southwest of Valentine, tucked away in the rolling landscape that runs up to the rim of a canyon carved by the Snake River. It’s not far from where Central turns back to Mountain time, close enough to confuse auto-adjusting watches and phones as one wanders the property. Getty quips the club can be found “just west of the Midwest.”

One of a select few tasked with overseeing and preserving this remote slice of paradise, Getty, who first took an interest in his current career while working at Wild Oak Golf Course in Mitchell, is right where he wants to be.

“There’s just a true sense of self-identity out here, where you’re so isolated and so in tune with nature. You just get to be who you are, and the golf course gets to be what it is,” Getty said. “It’s almost like as much as I’m the superintendent of a golf course, it’s like I’m superintendent of a mini national park.”

A day in the life

Andrew Getty’s work day starts well ahead of the sunrise over The Prairie Club. With trusty sidekick Maverick, a 5-year-old golden retriever, in tow, Getty leaves for the course before 5 a.m. each day to make the 20-mile trek to the club’s maintenance facility.

The day officially begins at 5:30 a.m. with a meeting, during which Getty hands out assignments to a staff that includes nearly 30 people at its peak. After the crew has dispersed, Getty heads out to peruse the course and take stock of what needs to be done that day.

No two days ever look quite the same for Getty, who enjoys wearing the many different hats required in his duties.

“As a golf course superintendent, you really have to have a feel for the entire property — from what is going on the moment a guest turns down the main drive to being in communication with the golf shop and knowing how many people are playing the course and when they're going out,” Getty said.

“There’s always something every single day that is different, and you have to be able to adjust and adapt on the fly,” he later added. “It’s just tapping into all the skills that you have and using them, using your brain. It’s fun. It’s a puzzle to put together every day.”

There’s plenty to be done in the 90 minutes Getty and company are afforded as a head start each morning before the first golfers take to the course at 7 a.m.

On this particular day in late June, Getty is focused on the effects of heavy winds — much stronger than normal even for the flat, mostly treeless landscape in the area, he says — on overnight irrigation and the blowout-prone south-facing sand bunkers. As he makes his morning rounds to check on various staff doing everything from mowing greens to maintaining the main entry road, Getty takes moisture readings using a handheld probe at several holes and moves sprinkler heads to point at bunkers to help moisten and weigh down the sand. All the while, Maverick is close by to lend a helping paw, as Getty remarks his four-legged companion “has been on the job every day of his life.”

Along the way, he makes note of everything from correct pin and tee marker positions to any pending weather conditions that may impact the course throughout the day.

“There’s just that little adrenaline rush every morning of trying to bust your butt and have things be as perfect as they can be for that gentleman teeing off at 7 a.m. and is going to play the entire course and be done by 10 a.m.,” Getty said.

As the sun finally makes its first full appearance of the day, peeking out from behind thick morning clouds that carried early showers through the region, Getty pauses to take in the glowing golden landscape. Though he has a similar view most mornings, plus this time is short-lived before the sun dips behind more cloud cover, Getty says it's a sight that never gets old.

“This. This is what brings people out here,” he offers with a nod of approval. “The hills just speak to you.”

It's just about the only time Getty slows down during the 5-month-long golf season, during which Getty estimates logging 60 hours per week. Once the season comes to a close, there's a flurry of activity to winterize the course before settling into an office-heavy winter routine with a few odd jobs around the shop such as mechanics or woodworking.

Come April, he revs up to prepare the course and start the cycle over again.

“I’m always making a mental list. Maybe we’re not going to do a certain task today, but for tomorrow I have a project that we can work on,” Getty said. “It’s a never-ending cycle.”

Developing a passion

A path toward Andrew Getty’s career was forged, in earnest, at Wild Oak Golf Course in Mitchell.

From the time Getty was old enough to ride his bicycle out to the course, he was working for his uncle, superintendent Scott Fergen. After a few summers of picking range balls and washing golf carts, Getty got his first taste of course maintenance work. By the time he was a junior at Mitchell High School, he had his sights set on making his own career out of it.

“I just fell in love with being outside and everything that goes into maintaining a golf course too much to really want to do anything else,” Getty recalled. “Then I found out you could go and get a bachelor’s degree in doing this. Once I knew that, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

“It was so much fun because it was something different every day,” he added. “You got to be outside, you got to work with sports and maintain the surface for a game while also kind of having the farming feel to it. You're growing a crop and you're working with a living, breathing organism every single day, and just the challenge that presents is something that was fun back then and is still so much fun to this day.”

After graduating from MHS in 2014, Getty attended the University of Nebraska. While his studies deepened his knowledge and appreciation for the craft — one that strikes a healthy balance between science and art — Getty’s most formative experiences came through a series of internships.

In 2015, Getty was an intern at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, which hosted that year’s PGA Championship tournament. The next year, he was at Ballyneal Golf Club in northeast Colorado. Getty’s final internship took him to the Washington D.C. area and Maryland’s Woodmont Country Club. Each location helped shape Getty's career path, but it was Ballyneal that left the largest lasting impression.

“(Ballyneal) was truly a life-changing experience. That’s where I got set on the path that led me out here,” Getty said. “I fell in love with being in the middle of nowhere, being a remote destination golf club used the land and the topography.”

Getty graduated from UNL in December 2017 with a degree in turfgrass management. He then worked as an apprentice superintendent at a par-3 city course in Lincoln for a year before moving to Valentine. Prior to being hired at The Prairie Club, Getty was superintendent at Frederick Peak Golf Club, the community’s 10-hole municipal course, for two years.

Leading a crew that maintains a championship-level golf course isn't without its challenges. However, now in the midst of a fourth summer at The Dunes, Getty has little doubt that he's precisely where he's meant to be, doing what he loves to do.

“There certainly are days that are stressful, but when it comes down to it, there's really no other career path that offers this opportunity,” Getty said of his position. “It’s just so cool to be able to work with sports, with nature, in an incredibly beautiful environment and knowing that what you're doing is for other people's enjoyment. Being able to put a smile on people’s faces is something that really, really sticks with me and allows me to sleep well at night for sure.”

Out on the course

Established in 2010, The Prairie Club features two 18-hole courses — The Dunes and The Pines — side-by-side in addition to a 10-hole course on its sprawling 2,500 acres.

Separated by just a few hundred yards, the property's sudden transition from prairie to forest gives the two championship courses distinct, contrasting identities. The Dunes is located on rolling prairie hills with hardly a tree in sight. While half of The Pines shares similarities with its neighbor course, the other half plays through a small forest along the rim of the canyon cut by the Snake River.

From the highway, the property appears mostly unassuming. The main lodge is located two miles off the road. The Dunes course is masked by the rolling landscape, and The Pines course is even further from view.

Inspired by links-style courses, The Dunes design is marked by expansive, undulating fairways and greens dotted by sand bunkers whose shape and size vary wildly as they cut naturally into the rolling landscape. Some are wide and deep enough to accommodate an 18-wheeler, presenting a challenge for even some of the most seasoned golfers.

“Pros could probably tear this place apart, especially when it’s calm. But for the average golfer, it can be a really ass-kicker,” Getty said. “The scale is just something many people aren’t used to, especially when it comes to the depth of the bunkers.”

But the club’s reputation speaks for itself and continues to grow. A quick glance at the parking lot reveals license plates from patrons as far away as California, Florida and Texas. Of course, the bulk of traffic is from Nebraska and South Dakota.

Both courses are open each day, with one available to the members and the other open to the public on a daily alternating schedule. According to Getty, both courses average around 100 rounds per day, a total upward of 15,000 rounds per course per year.

Whereas most peer courses are strictly private — including nearby CapRock Ranch, another top-ranked course on an adjacent property — The Prairie Club takes pride in making its world-class golf experience available to the public. That element holds significant weight with Getty, as well.

“I grew up at Wild Oak — a common man’s golf course — and that’s still the root of where I come from,” Getty said. “So I appreciate being able to give the common man a high-end golf experience when they want it.”

Though from a different perspective, that high-end experience is ever-changing for Getty, too. Whether it be building a new tee, moving a green or an even larger course renovation project, Getty is excited by the possibilities for further developing parts of the property and the existing courses.

It's such prospects that make Getty eager to go to work with the sunrise each day, never knowing where the wind might take him or where the sun might shine next.

“What’s really cool about this property, this company and the people I work for, is there’s always room to grow both personally and professionally,” Getty said. “I know that as long as I want to stay at The Prairie Club, there’s always going to be more for me to do and something more I can learn. That’s huge for me.

“One quote I’ve heard and I think is so accurate as a golf course superintendent is, ‘The closer you get to perfection, the farther away it seems,’” he added. “But that’s what makes it fun. There’s a never-ending drive to do stuff out here.”