Buffalo Dunes Golf Course

Buffalo Dunes, located in southwest Kansas, has always had the potential to be the public player’s Prairie Dunes, that perennial top 30 course three hours to the east. It’s located on similar rolling sand hills with vast horizons across the high plains, but the vision for the course when it opened in 1976 was that of a parkland-style course, a more identifiable mode of golf prior to the existence of Sand Hils and other now-popular inland links developed after 1995. By 2018 when the club embarked on a long-term remodel, trees that were planted along each fairway had grown mature, taking the course out of its natural context. The project has been carried out by superintendent Clay Payne and architects Todd Clark and Zach Varty (who also shapes the bunkers and greens) and involves the removal of most of the property’s trees, rebuilding each green complex and bunker, the addition of bunkers in strategic locations, the incorporation of native grasses and five newly constructed holes. The fairway turf has also been converted to low mow bluegrass that encircles putting surfaces to enable a wider variety of recovery options and the ability to chase approach shots onto the greens, a requirement in the often fierce west Kansas winds. More than ever before, Buffalo Dunes is approaching the potential it’s always had as one of the country’s most exciting affordable public courses, one you can play for less than $40.