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Courtesy of Lost Rail Golf Club
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Courtesy of Lost Rail Golf Club
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Courtesy of Lost Rail Golf Club
Lost Rail Golf Club
Gretna, NE • Private
Lost Rail Golf Club
23232 Cary St
Gretna, NE 68028-4292
United States
Overview
Building Lost Rail, just southwest of Omaha, was something of a homecoming for Scottsdale-based architect Scott Hoffman, who grew up in the city and went to school at Creighton. The key to the design, named after an abandoned trainline that ran through the northeast corner of the property, was decoding the routing for this relatively small parcel of land, around 150 acres, or just large enough for 18 holes, a practice facility, clubhouse, parking and maintenance. The matter was complicated by the deep, wooded ravines that cut through the site and further limited the areas where holes could be placed. It was an exercise perfectly suited to Hoffman’s skills, who specialized in laying out the holes on numerous Tom Fazio projects across the western U.S. throughout the early 2000s. The ravines serve as both strategic and penal hazards, flanking and bisecting holes and creating dramatic, intimidating scenery.
About
Awards
Ranking history:
Second 100 Greatest: Debut appearance.
2025-'26 ranking: 184th.
Best in State: Debut appearance.
2025-'26 ranking: 4th.
Panelists
Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists
100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES
Shot Options
Character
Challenge
Layout Variety
Fun
Aesthetics
Conditioning
Reviews
Review
“Incredibly maintained, beautiful course. Any tee shot can be a postcard. Flowing fairways and funneling really play into most tee shots. Aggressive drives can position for best attack, while average drives may be in the fairway but the angle in isn’t ideal. Intimidating bunkers off the tea, but the fairways are very wide and encourage a confident swing. Very limited room around a lot of greens- if you miss the funnel or the bowl, disaster looms. Course knowledge is key followed with good execution. Green shapes sizes contours are different on every hole. Greens are receptive but lightning quick. Fairways and approach shots can really get golfers creativity juices flowing."
Read More2026
Review
“Incredibly maintained, beautiful course. Any tee shot can be a postcard. Flowing fairways and funneling really play into most tee shots. Aggressive drives can position for best attack, while average drives may be in the fairway but the angle in isn’t ideal. Intimidating bunkers off the tea, but the fairways are very wide and encourage a confident swing. Very limited room around a lot of greens- if you miss the funnel or the bowl, disaster looms. Course knowledge is key followed with good execution. Green shapes sizes contours are different on every hole. Greens are receptive but lightning quick. Fairways and approach shots can really get golfers creativity juices flowing."
Read More2026
Review
“Lost Rail Golf Club is a 2022 design by locally raised and Creighton educated architect Scott Hoffman. Located in Gretna, just outside of Omaha, Nebraska, Lost Rail Golf Club is a parkland course stretching out to 7,016 yards at a par 71 with a slope of 146 and a course rating of 74.6. While situated on only 150 acres, Lost Rail does not seem at all cramped but rather intimately spacious with a wonderful routing using some diverse topography including gullies, old railroad lines, a meandering brook, and surprising elevation changes, especially for a course in the Midwest. Generous fairways offer a wide variety of options from each tee with only the par 4 9th narrowing the choices to a draw or straight ball. With 3 uphill and 10(!) downhill holes, there are sufficient elevation changes to provide good variety and keep the round interesting. Very few holes are straight in front of you with 6 dogleg lefts and 6 dogleg rights offering significant benefits to proficient shot shapers. There is an excellent mix of length at Lost Rail with some good combinations of short, medium and long holes. In particular, the 4th, 12th, and 17th are brutally long par 4s, all over 475 yards, even if the 4th and 17th are downhill. The drivable par 4 9th and 10th provide a bit of a mid-round breather along with the reachable par 5 11th and 18th. The par 3s offer nice variety with a couple of mid-irons into the 5th and 14th while the long but downhill 8th is a testy shot through a tree-lined chute. The short 16th is well defended by several bunkers with tricky runoff areas, but good players should not struggle too much with a lofted club in hand. The character and aesthetics of Lost Rail are defined by the middle holes of the round, 5-10, which meander through the original Burlington Northern 12-mile shortcut. With the remnants of a railway trestle bridge on number 5 and then rail lines interspersed among the next several holes, this section of the course exposes the soul of Lost Rial. Moving through to #15, the course rises to the high ground and provides scenic views of the surrounding ridges and valleys. Nothing spectacularly dramatic or breathtaking but just solidly very pleasant. Lost Rail is not particularly long by today’s standards, but the course does provide plenty of challenge with its clever green complexes, quick and moderately sloped greens, well-positioned bunkers, and penal run-off areas, especially over the greens. Given the Midwest location and lack of mature trees as a shield, the omnipresent wind can, and does, greatly enhance the difficulty of the course. Conditioning at Lost Rail is excellent. Fairways are firm and fast without being super tight to confound your average golfer. The greens were receptive to well struck approaches and rolled very true with an adequate amount of pace. The copious bunkers were all very well-sanded and consistently playable. Lost Rail is a very fun course that has enough options, variety, and character that it can be played repeatedly without becoming tedious. All levels of ability will enjoy Lost Rail as it is challenging but not scarily so and can be played from several tees, all offering a different, very enjoyable experience."
Read More2026
Review
“Lost Rail Golf Club is a 2022 design by locally raised and Creighton educated architect Scott Hoffman. Located in Gretna, just outside of Omaha, Nebraska, Lost Rail Golf Club is a parkland course stretching out to 7,016 yards at a par 71 with a slope of 146 and a course rating of 74.6. While situated on only 150 acres, Lost Rail does not seem at all cramped but rather intimately spacious with a wonderful routing using some diverse topography including gullies, old railroad lines, a meandering brook, and surprising elevation changes, especially for a course in the Midwest. Generous fairways offer a wide variety of options from each tee with only the par 4 9th narrowing the choices to a draw or straight ball. With 3 uphill and 10(!) downhill holes, there are sufficient elevation changes to provide good variety and keep the round interesting. Very few holes are straight in front of you with 6 dogleg lefts and 6 dogleg rights offering significant benefits to proficient shot shapers. There is an excellent mix of length at Lost Rail with some good combinations of short, medium and long holes. In particular, the 4th, 12th, and 17th are brutally long par 4s, all over 475 yards, even if the 4th and 17th are downhill. The drivable par 4 9th and 10th provide a bit of a mid-round breather along with the reachable par 5 11th and 18th. The par 3s offer nice variety with a couple of mid-irons into the 5th and 14th while the long but downhill 8th is a testy shot through a tree-lined chute. The short 16th is well defended by several bunkers with tricky runoff areas, but good players should not struggle too much with a lofted club in hand. The character and aesthetics of Lost Rail are defined by the middle holes of the round, 5-10, which meander through the original Burlington Northern 12-mile shortcut. With the remnants of a railway trestle bridge on number 5 and then rail lines interspersed among the next several holes, this section of the course exposes the soul of Lost Rial. Moving through to #15, the course rises to the high ground and provides scenic views of the surrounding ridges and valleys. Nothing spectacularly dramatic or breathtaking but just solidly very pleasant. Lost Rail is not particularly long by today’s standards, but the course does provide plenty of challenge with its clever green complexes, quick and moderately sloped greens, well-positioned bunkers, and penal run-off areas, especially over the greens. Given the Midwest location and lack of mature trees as a shield, the omnipresent wind can, and does, greatly enhance the difficulty of the course. Conditioning at Lost Rail is excellent. Fairways are firm and fast without being super tight to confound your average golfer. The greens were receptive to well struck approaches and rolled very true with an adequate amount of pace. The copious bunkers were all very well-sanded and consistently playable. Lost Rail is a very fun course that has enough options, variety, and character that it can be played repeatedly without becoming tedious. All levels of ability will enjoy Lost Rail as it is challenging but not scarily so and can be played from several tees, all offering a different, very enjoyable experience."
Read More2026
Review
“Lost Rail is now the second wonderful course in Omaha, with Omaha CC being the other. It is a brawny course set many miles west of downtown. Starting with a good par 5 and then three very strong par 4's, the player knows he's in for a challenge. Distance off the tee is essential as there are several places on the course where a strong drive can get the player to a position where he's reached the apex of a fairway and has gained some yards on the "roll." Otherwise, a short wedge shot remains. The par 3's are all excellent, especially the 8th and 14th. The Greens have some slope to them but nothing crazy, just challenging. As a new course it lacks mature trees but that's okay. The course is there in front of you. You just have to be precise with your shots. Interestingly, the course has "sold out" in Omaha and only is accepting national memberships."
Read More2025
Review
“Hoffman's routing here on this small parcel of land is compact and utilizes the land properly."
Read More2025
Review
“Impressive golf course that is packed into only 150 acres. Not particularly long at 7000 yards from the back tees but the elevation (forget the notion that Nebraska is flat) and wind more than add enough distance where you might think you are staring at a relatively short hole. On the flipside for instance, the opening hole is a 588 Par-5 but if you catch the massive downslope off the tee, you could be looking at a 7-iron approach. Miss it and there is no way to get home. Lightning-fast greens with multiple levels and numerous undulations protect even the shortest holes. Plenty of birdie opportunities - especially 7 - 11. These are your best chances to go low. Two short iron approaches on 7 and 9, the drivable Par-4 10th and the reachable in two Par-5 11th. Really good work from first time designer, Scott Hoffman."
Read More2024
Review
“Another terrific Nebraska course. Not a Golf Digest Top 25 but certainly merits consideration in the 50 to 100 range and probably at least 75. A lot of thought went into every aspect of this design. The only thing perhaps lacking is a super tough par 5, but it's got everything else. Starts out 5-4-4-4, all strong holes with lots of shot options and all quite long. Then 5 is a longish downhill par 3 over an old railroad trestle. Surrounded by bunkers the one shot option is hit it on the green or hit a nice bunker shot. Six is a longish par 4 well bunkered and a very difficult green. Holes 7-10 comprise a memorable run of short holes that can be birdie or double. In a beautiful wooded setting along an old railroad track. Holes 11-15 take you back up on high ground and long views of valleys and ridges. Some really good par fours and a tricky short par 5 and a mid length well bunkered par 3 built in a hillside followed by an outstanding cape hole par 4 that finishes by the clubhouse and a large flagpole. But it's not the finish. Somewhat like Prestwick in Scotland, you don't go in for a pint, you head back out behind the clubhouse and finish 3-4-5, the fiendish short par three being all or nothing, hit the small green and maybe make 2 or 3 and miss and it's 4-6. Seventeen is a long visually deceptive par 4 with some aiming bunkers and stands of trees with a green perched up on a distant hill with green sloping severely left and greenside bunkers left to catch the putts and chips hit too firmly on the downslope. Finish with a par 5 that can be reached in two but sits in a valley leading back up to the clubhouse with some lovely vegetation on both sides and you have a memorable string of 3 finishing holes to match the string from 7-10. Excellent conditioning, lots of sets of tees for all classes of golfers, not too many forced carries from the appropriate tees, lovely vistas, and lots of fun."
Read More2024
Review
“Solid course with amazing green complexes. I loved the wide fairways with the addition of some scary fairway bunkering. Thought it was strange that more than half of the holes had approach shots that required hitting over ravine or chasm. It seemed somewhat repetitive. The 16th is one of the more beautiful par 3's you could ever play. The course could have been better without two back to back short par 4's that seemed "mickey mouse" to me."
Read More2024
Review
“WONDERFUI DESIGN ON A RELATIVELY SMALL, HILLY AND DIFFICULT SITE. GREAT VARIETY OF SHOT REQUIREMENTS TEE TO GREEN AS WELL AS ON AND AROUND THE GREENS. GENEROUS WIDTH ALLOWS FOR NEBRASKA WIND. BEAUTIFULLY DONE."
Read More2024
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