Bayside Golf Club at Lake McConaughy

Bayside Golf Club sits on the shores of Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska—the state's largest reservoir—providing a links-influenced layout across wide open terrain with characteristic Great Plains views and the constant presence of the lake that gives the course its name. Designed by Dan Axland and Dave Proctor, the architects behind Sand Hills Golf Club, Bayside opened in 2000 and offers daily-fee play in one of Nebraska's most scenic natural settings.

Bayside Golf Club opened in 2000 near the shores of Lake McConaughy in Keith County, Nebraska, a region in the western part of the state where the North Platte River was dammed to create the state's largest reservoir. The course occupies land adjacent to the lake, and the links-style character of the design reflects both the intentions of its architects and the natural openness of the Great Plains landscape that surrounds the property. Dan Axland and Dave Proctor, the design team behind the celebrated Sand Hills Golf Club in nearby Mullen, Nebraska, brought to Bayside the same appreciation for naturalistic design that defined their work at Sand Hills. While Bayside is a more modest project than Sand Hills—which is considered one of the great American courses—the design philosophy was consistent: let the natural terrain and existing landscape drive the routing rather than imposing artificial features on the site.

The result is a course that moves across relatively open ground with wide fairways defined by the natural vegetation of western Nebraska rather than by constructed mounding or planted rough. The characteristic Great Plains setting means golfers play with expansive views of the lake and surrounding grasslands, and the prevailing winds that sweep across the open terrain introduce a links-style element of trajectory management that is absent from more sheltered parkland designs. The front nine was built first, with the back nine added in the early years of the twenty-first century, completing the full 18-hole layout that plays from a maximum of 6,490 yards. Five tee options make the course accessible across player skill levels, with the women's ratings on the White, Gold, and Red tees confirming that the course was designed to accommodate players of all ages and abilities.

Bayside serves as the primary golf option for visitors to the Lake McConaughy recreation area, which draws significant summer traffic from throughout Nebraska and the neighboring states for camping, water recreation, and fishing. The golf course adds a sporting dimension to a destination that has long attracted visitors primarily for the reservoir's outdoor recreation offerings. Bayside Golf Club at Lake McConaughy plays approximately 6,500 yards from the championship tees on a layout in Brule, Nebraska whose Keith County setting on the shores of Nebraska's largest reservoir creates a lakeside golf experience in the heart of the Great Plains landscape. Lake McConaughy — "Big Mac" to Nebraska residents — stretches 22 miles along the North Platte River with 105 miles of sandy shoreline, creating a recreational destination whose combination of boating, swimming, fishing, and camping attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the Nebraska Sandhills border community.

The Bayside Golf Club's position on the lake's southern shore gives the course its defining scenic feature — the blue waters of Lake McConaughy visible from multiple points in the routing, creating a visual backdrop unavailable at any other course in western Nebraska. The Nebraska Golf Association includes Bayside among its member facilities, and the course has served the Lake McConaughy recreation community's golf needs alongside the water recreation activities that define the Nebraska summer lake experience. The combination of lakeside scenery, the sandhills border landscape, and the championship golf experience creates a recreational offering whose quality rewards the drive to Brule for golfers who want to combine a round of golf with an afternoon on Nebraska's largest lake. For Nebraska golfers and visiting players exploring the North Platte River corridor, Bayside Golf Club provides a quality public experience in one of the state's most celebrated natural recreation destinations.