Toughest tee time to book in America is at a course in rural Nebraska, but two Sheridan golfers got in

Josh Gardner was ready. On the morning of New Year’s Eve, the 50-year-old insurance professional from Sheridan had his laptop open and finger hovering over the refresh button. He knew Landmand Golf Club in northeast Nebraska would release its entire 2026 season of tee times at once. He didn’t care about the date or month. He just wanted in at the toughest public golf course tee time to book in America.

“I was online because I knew that that’s what you had to do, and it just kept refreshing and I was getting the dial thing on the screen,” Gardner said. “I couldn’t get into the site, couldn’t get into the site, and then it just popped up and said, ‘All times are gone. Please inquire back next year.'”

All 11,000 tee times vanished in 45 minutes.

But still on the website, figuring he’d at least buy a hat, Gardner noticed an unfamiliar tab: “The Heartbeat.” It described an inaugural golf tournament—52 two-man teams representing each state, Washington D.C., and one wildcard. Three tournament rounds plus a practice round, all-inclusive lodging, food, drink, and player gifts for $7,000 per team.

Gardner called his golf buddy Jared Stiver, 42, who runs a drilling fluids company in Sheridan. “I ran the dates by him and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing anything yet in August,'” Gardner said. He signed them up and kept quiet, hoping to improve their odds.

In February, the email arrived. Gardner and Stiver had been selected to represent Wyoming at The Heartbeat, scheduled for August 2–5, 2026—four rounds at the course the Wall Street Journal called America’s toughest tee time.

“I was super pumped,” Gardner said. “Because I can’t get a tee time at the place, but I got drawn in a lottery to go play it.”

Landmand’s improbable story began with Will Andersen, a fourth-generation Nebraska farmer whose great-grandfather left Denmark in 1913. The family had 588 acres of dramatically steep loess hills near Homer—land many architects deemed too severe and remote for a course. Designer Rob Collins saw it differently. Construction began in September 2019, and the course opened in late 2022 with fairways stretching over 100 yards wide and greens averaging more than 14,000 square feet.

Golf Digest ranked it No. 24 among America’s top 100 public courses. Andersen set the fee at $150 and hasn’t raised it despite demand.

Gardner and Stiver, members at Powder Horn in Sheridan, are in the middle of a quest to play every golf course in Wyoming with two friends, documenting it on a YouTube channel called Lowest Known Score. They’ve knocked out 16 so far.

Both know Landmand will be unlike anything in Wyoming. “When you look at this thing online, there’s like zero trees,” Gardner said. “It’s just in the rolling hills of Nebraska, and they did very little to adjust the layout of the terrain. Lots of knobs and little valleys and the green complexes are absolutely massive.”

They’ve studied flyover videos, ordered the green-reading book, and know about Cornfield Corner—Landmand’s answer to Amen Corner. And they know about the wind, with flags replaced by windsocks “like what you’d see at an airport.”

They’re planning to bring Wyoming-themed trading items for the teams they’re paired with—ball markers from Wyoming Whiskey, something like a bullet casing from Weatherby, or divot tools carved from elk antler.

“I think in four or five years from now, there’ll probably be more people putting in for that than for some hunting tags,” Gardner said. “But we got lucky enough to be drawn for the inaugural one.”

The final two days of The Heartbeat will be broadcast live on 5 Clubs on Golf Channel.