Quarry Oaks in Ashland, Nebraska, Takes First Place in Golf Inc's 2026 Clubhouse Renovation Category
Clark & Enersen's prairie-style remake of the Platte River public clubhouse won the renovation prize in Golf Inc's Clubhouse of the Year 2026. The jury singled out stained glass at the entry, carpet drawn from quarry strata, and rebar door pulls that nod to the owner's work in concrete.
Quarry Oaks Golf Club in Ashland, Nebraska, has taken first place in the Clubhouse Renovation category of Golf Inc's Clubhouse of the Year 2026. The honor goes to Clark & Enersen's prairie-style remake of a house that first opened in 1995. The Lincoln firm handled architecture and interiors. PHX Architecture served as design consultant, and Sampson Construction built the project for the owner, NEBCO, Inc.
The remade clubhouse came back online in December 2024, with the course following in spring 2025. The same Golf Inc cycle awarded New Clubhouse First Place to Frenchman's Creek, and the two results sit usefully next to each other. One house was drawn from a clean slate. Quarry Oaks had to invent a clear identity inside a building that was already standing.
Quarry Oaks is an 18-hole public course along the Platte River in rural Cass County. The clubhouse Clark & Enersen inherited dated to 1995 and picked up a banquet addition in 2003. Sampson Construction puts the finished job at roughly 19,000 square feet of renovation together with an 8,100-square-foot addition.
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The planning problem was simple and hard: keep banquet guests and golfers from colliding inside the same public building. The team recast the banquet and conference halls, reworked circulation around the bar, and added dedicated bride's and groom's rooms so a wedding can run on its own clock while play continues. On the golf side, the 47B bar and grille looks through large windows toward the 18th hole, and an expanded patio with fire pits carries that room outdoors. Halfway houses for the front and back nines were part of the same scope.
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The working brief, "Frank Lloyd Wright meets modern golf," shows up on almost every surface. Clark & Enersen treated the interior as a continuation of the limestone hills and bur oak forests of the Platte River valley. Custom stained glass flanks the main entrance and reads as the dappled light under a tree canopy. Underfoot, a textured carpet follows the layered strata of a limestone quarry, a quiet cue to the club's name. An oak-leaf mark repeats through the building, and oak veneers run through the casework, paneling, and furniture.
The most personal move is a tribute to the owner. As a nod to NEBCO's place in the concrete trade, the design team worked custom rebar into the hardware. It becomes the oversized pulls on the entry doors, the beer taps at the bar, and accents on the golf shop furniture. Leaf-icon metalwork on the exterior railings and the ballroom sconces ties that industrial material back to the landscape.
The systems that stay out of sight also come from the site. A geothermal wellfield feeds the building's heat pumps. An energy recovery system captures heat from the exhaust of the restrooms, kitchen, and showers.
Golf Inc's judges answered that density of detail. "Details, details, details! No small part is left behind to make the magic work," said judge Marjorie Feltus Hawkins.
The award matters because Quarry Oaks asked a renovation to do more than swap finishes. Clark & Enersen gave a 1990s public-course clubhouse a coherent architectural voice drawn from its own river valley, then carried that voice down to the door pulls and the carpet. Under the prairie detailing sits a practical plan that lets a wedding and a full tee sheet occupy the same building without fighting for it. For clubs staring at an aging house, that pairing of regional character and disciplined planning is the lesson of this year's renovation winner.
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