Some 11,000 slots are made available each New Year\u2019s Eve for the novel 4-year-old course; they\u2019re gone in less than an hour.<\/p>\n
Now here Gardner and Stiver were the first week of August, two regular guys from Wyoming, somehow entered to play Landmand in the inaugural The Heartbeat tournament, a Golf Channel creation, after Gardner took a Plan B New Year’s Eve stab on the course’s website. <\/p>\n
Soon they would be pitted against pairs from all 50 states over four days, a fortuitous practice round and three days of competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything about it was cool,\u201d Stiver told Cowboy State Daily less than a week after their return home. \u201cYou\u2019re on top of a hill from start to finish, and you see forever and it\u2019s all golf around you, and it\u2019s all awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the golf happens.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Landmand-Landman-2-8.15.26.jpg\")
The pins at Landmand Golf Club are marked with windsocks instead of flags to help golfers see them and know how hard the ever-present wind was blowing. (Josh Gardner)A Course Unlike Any Other<\/p>\n
Gardner and Stiver have played courses of all shapes and sizes, in all types of environments, foreign and domestic.<\/p>\n
Nothing could prepare them for Landmand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got there and I was just excited to be there,\u201d Gardner recalled with a chuckle. \u201cIt didn\u2019t really matter what was in front of us. Like, this is awesome. But by the time we got to the fourth or fifth green, I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I can do this four days in a row.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t prepared for how massive it all was. The scale is hard to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landmand was carved out of the treeless Loess Hills, and at nearly 600 acres is roughly four times the size of typical 18-hole courses. Fairways are the width of football fields. Gaping bunkers swallow golfers whole.<\/p>\n
Only the tee boxes offer any semblance of flatness.<\/p>\n
And then … those greens.<\/p>\n
On average, they sprawl to more than double the size of typical American greens. Some are four to six times larger. At three-quarters of an acre, the 17th green ranks as one of the world\u2019s largest, in the same league as the revered Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.<\/p>\n
Gradients rose to 25%.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could put seven Powder Horn greens in one there,\u201d Stiver said of their home course in Sheridan. \u201cMonster greens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Echoed Gardner: \u201cGreens the size of Walmart. If that golf course was here (Sheridan) I\u2019d take my kids sledding on it and they\u2019d need a helmet. They\u2019d be like the blue runs on a ski hill. In some spots where they placed the flag you couldn\u2019t even see it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Howling Wyoming-esque Winds<\/p>\n
The greens sport windsocks instead of flags, a nod to visibility and a notorious local climate. <\/p>\n
Winds can be so ferocious and unpredictable the course has two handicaps dedicated to them on the scorecard, one for gales howling from the southwest and the other for the nor\u2019easters.<\/p>\n
Gardner and Stiver got a gritty taste of both.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d think Wyoming boys would be good in a wind, but us Sheridan boys \u2026 not so good,\u201d Gardner mused.<\/p>\n
Agreed Stiver: \u201cGuys from Evanston and Rock Springs, and the Casper Country Club boys, would be a better fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this enormity of challenge, the scale of the course, and its vistas \u2014 not to mention the modest $175 greens fees \u2014 that has golfers nationwide poised like expectant parents with their fingers hovering over their keyboards every New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
Then reality bites for those lucky enough to score a round.<\/p>\n
But, unlike all other golfers except the locals who have the luxury of pouncing last-minute on a rare cancellation, Gardner and Stiver had four full days in the belly of this manicured beast.<\/p>\n
Entering the final round, they were in 32nd place out of 52 teams. Five birdies and 18 holes later, they walked off their final monster green in 19th.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final round, I did feel better about it,\u201d Stiver said. \u201cI kind of knew how I could go and knock it out. By then I still didn\u2019t know exactly where to go on the greens, but it definitely helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in the top 20 was respectable for sure,” added Gardner.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Landmand-photo-8264_singular_display_fullPicture-8.15.26.jpeg\")
The fairways at Landmand Golf Club were as wide as football fields and the greens some of the largest in the world. (Josh Gardner)Giving A Wyoming-Style Gift<\/p>\n
The golf was the centerpiece of the adventure, but the experience didn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n
Owner Will Andersen, Golf Channel host Gary Williams and the course\u2019s architects were on hand to explain the Landmand concept and history. Their passion and detail gave Gardner and Stiver an entirely different perspective as they plied the course on days three and four.<\/p>\n
Stiver also was struck by Andersen\u2019s graciousness, and that he\u2019d remember his name each time they\u2019d bump into each other amid the throngs of golfers, staffers, media and spectators.<\/p>\n
Small wonder: The duo made an impression when they presented Andersen with a spur with hearts cut into it made by renowned Sheridan craftsman Tom Balding. They also gave Andersen a copper shot glass from their hometown Mint Bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifty thousand people have played golf here and nobody\u2019s brought me anything,\u201d Stiver recalls a touched Andersen telling them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to take a piece of Wyoming,\u201d Gardner explained.<\/p>\n
When it was over and they\u2019d walked off the Walmart parking lot that was their 18th green for the final time, filmed by The Golf Channel shaking hands with their partners for the round, Gardner and Stiver said they both felt a palpable sense of relief.<\/p>\n
Their immediate reaction: Never again.<\/p>\n
A week later, they are still nursing the bruises to their golf egos from what Gardner says is the toughest course he\u2019s ever played. But they\u2019re also certain their links version of PTSD will subside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a day,\u201d Stiver said with a chuckle, \u201cwhen we\u2019re ready to get hurt again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gardner agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe event itself was exceptional,\u201d he said of a tournament where their $7,000 team entry fee covered everything from meals and drinks to their 10 daily range balls. \u201cIt was better than what I expected. Then to spend 10 hours each way with a buddy and a truck and no distractions and just hang out \u2014 it was just a great week.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Landmand-Landman-landscape-8.15.26.jpg\")
The fairways at Landmand Golf Club were as wide as football fields and the greens some of the largest in the world. (Josh Gardner)Golf Envy Back Home<\/p>\n
They\u2019re enjoying their few minutes of golf-envy fame back home, too, though a torn rotator cuff suffered at the Powder Horn member-guest event has sidelined Gardner from the duo\u2019s mission of playing every Wyoming course over the next few summers.<\/p>\n
Landmand Is all anybody in their Sheridan circles wants to talk about.<\/p>\n
Do they have advice should any of their golfing buddies somehow win the lottery on New Year\u2019s Eve and land a tee time on this Links of Dreams in the Loess Hills?<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust experience it,\u201d Gardner said with a laugh, \u201cbecause you\u2019re not going to walk away going \u2018I\u2019m a really good golfer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Jeff Welsch at jeff@cowboystatedaily.com<\/p>\n
![\"Sheridan\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Landmand-Landman-Stiver-and-Gardner-8.15.26.jpg\")
Sheridan\u2019s Josh Gardner, left, and Jared Stiver said the Landmand Golf Club course in northeast Nebraska was unlike any they\u2019d ever played. (Josh Gardner)<\/p>\n