“Will Andersen’s father looked at a golf course and thought it should be a farm. Will looked at a farm and thought it should be a golf course.” That’s how the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen described what became Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska.
Presently one of the most sought-after tee times in the world, it wasn’t terribly long ago (Landmand opened up in 2022) that what became a public golf course was farm pasture that Andersen’s grandfather purchased before his grandson was even born. The Andersens are 4th generation farmers in Nebraska, and as the opening quote attests, there were different views about what some of the Andersen’s farm acreage should become even within the Andersen family. And that was just the family.
Andersen (Will) relayed to Cohen that upon envisioning a golf course where farmland sat, people thought he was a bit out there. As in when Andersen began contacting course designers and architects around 10 years ago, Cohen reports that “he was ignored by almost everybody.” Stop and think about that.
It’s a reminder that entrepreneurialism isn’t something that can be taught, or “ingrained” in someone, rather it’s a state of mind. It’s something individuals can’t not do as opposed to something they’re kind of, sort of, thinking about doing. Andersen’s experience is a reminder of why.
He was ignored by almost everybody, but “almost everybody” couldn’t see what Andersen saw so clearly. That Andersen was roundly dismissed describes what entrepreneurs are, while also explaining why they persist in the face of endless dismissal. It’s about what's going on in their minds alone, and not the minds of others. They clearly see what others don’t, and the vision drives them through the stretches that are inevitably very difficult.
Will Andersen’s story has implications that go beyond Nebraska, and beyond the man-bites-dog anecdote about Homer, NE as the location of one the world’s most sought-after tee times. In particular, it brings to mind public policy and why we need much less of it.
It’s said to this day that we need patents in the U.S., and some who believe we need them point to the undeniable wisdom of the Founding fathers and the Constitution’s mention of them as a constitutional function. Ok, but the Constitution also allows for a Post Office that most would now agree isn’t necessary for us to get mail.
Applied to patents, they aren’t necessary simply because the good and great ideas are never obvious. How we know they’re never obvious has to do with the fact that just as a $20 bill never sits untaken for long, neither do obvious money makers. Which is the point, or it should be the point.
It’s just a small reminder that progress isn’t driven by ideas matched with patents as much as its oddball ideas matched with passion. What’s true in the U.S. is also true around the world. Always looking for ways to excuse their protectionism, politicians and pundits claim ad nauseum that the Chinese are “stealing” our intellectual property. Ok, but what are they stealing? What’s the next great idea without a unique mind willing to bring it to fruition against all odds? Tick tock, tick tock. See the golf course in Homer that so many want to play once again.
If underutilized Nebraska pastureland had always been associated with top-quality, build it and they will come golf courses, then Nebraska and other farming locales across the U.S. would be dense with golf courses. Except they’re not, and they’re not because “almost everybody” ignored Will Andersen when he saw a golf course where others saw farmland.
