Champions mean tour golfers, challenging course

It’s ironic that Omaha is one of the premiere stops on the Nationwide Tour; ironic because as well as the players are treated, they hate coming back.

A stop in Omaha for another round on the almost-but-not-quite PGA Tour event still means another chance to play well enough, earn enough money, or gather that necessary win to vault them to the top tour in the world, the PGA.

The field is full every year for what some Nationwide golfers call a ‘major.’ Cox Communications and Omaha treats the event as such.

And they boast the course to match.

Don’t think because the Nationwide Tour is out of your reach, a high-handicapper can’t enjoy a round at the Champions Run. The fairways are reasonably wide, the greens are true and holes are well scripted and generally reachable, depending on your tee choice.

While you’ll need some help getting on the private course to play, you won’t need a professional to help you score.

The setup means lots of birdie and eagle chances, which helps professional golfers eyeing the scoreboard maintain some level of aggressiveness.

A closer look
Among the popular holes included No. 2, a par 5 that provides two different fairway landings for the tee shot. The par 4, No. 9 is most noted for yielding an ace during last year’s event.

While the par fives stretch as far as 627 yards (No. 6), two of the par 4s are reachable with drives of 316 yards.

Volunteers are needed for the week-long event. Positions include: walking scorer, marshal, green-side reporter, runner, standard bearer, spotters and about anything else you could imagine.