The Rise of Dormie Network: A Surprisingly Simple Concept That’s Taking Golf Back to Its Roots
ArborLinks in Nebraska City, Nebraska
It all started with a little-known golf course in the Nebraska countryside designed by one of the sport’s true legends.
ArborLinks, an Arnold Palmer Signature course, sprawls hundreds of acres of native prairie, pulling the site’s gently rolling hills into a links-style design that speaks to golf’s 15th century Scottish origins. Whatever it was that ignited something in Arnold Palmer himself—perhaps the magnitude of the Great Plains or the way the site’s quiet splendor spoke to its potential—sparked another vision nearly two decades later: Dormie Network.
What it lacks in notoriety, ArborLinks makes up for in pure, unadulterated, no-frills golf. Steadfast and challenging, the course pays homage to Old World strategy, rewarding the strategic approach of disciplined, intentional play by allotting careful access to greens encased in an atlas of gouged-out bunkers and seemingly impossible native rough.
“It’s a fun course—wildly underrated and treacherous in some spots,” says Dormie Network President Zach Peed, who invested in the club in late 2015. As the first of what would quickly become a portfolio of high-end golf clubs, ArborLinks also opened the door for a membership model unlike anything in golf. “From the very beginning,” says Peed, “we saw the vision for something much bolder than any one golf course.”
Rethinking the Private Club Model
The landscape of private clubs certainly left much to be desired for avid golfers with high expectations for both golf and service. Join a local country club, and you’re just another tee time where revenue streams run the gamut from swimming lessons to tennis tournaments. Join an exclusive private club or two, and your access to golf courses is severely limited. Sure, there are reciprocal play arrangements, but don’t expect service that’s any better than your crowded local country club. For traveling business professionals or avid golfers seeking multiple high-end clubs under one membership, options were scarce.
Peed set out to change that.
After playing collegiate golf at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 2010–2014, the Lincoln native Peed, set out on a series of post-college trips to premier private clubs across the country. He noticed that experience drastically changed from club to club. That contrast stuck out. He thought, “What if golfers could count on a consistently exceptional experience without losing what makes each club unique?”
Forming a National Network
Less than a year after Peed acquired ArborLinks, a widely known and highly ranked club in the mountain town of Roanoke, Virginia, entered the equation. “Ballyhack is unreal,” Peed says through a smile. He’s sharp and idealistic with a contagious calm about him—an old soul at heart. “It’s a great course that runs right along the Blue Ridge Mountains—the kind of golf that takes you into another world.” A Lester George design, Ballyhack rests on the site of an old dairy farm, offering rustic charm, challenging play, full-service amenities, onsite cottages, and residential parcels tucked into disappearing tree lines. After opening in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim, the club immediately fell to the mercy of a tumultuous economy before joining the portfolio in the summer of 2016.
Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke, Virginia
Even as the Network began to take shape, the focus was national; its facilities, amenities, and fundamental approach tailored to a clientele of traveling business professionals—venues for business or leisure, for weekends away and for buddy trips, and certainly for entertaining clients and hosting corporate events.
“Evaluating a club for the Network is really about assessing two things: the quality of the golf and the club’s potential,” explains Peed, who has made swift and intentional investments in capital improvements beginning immediately after every club purchase. “We look first at the quality of the course—its layout, design, features, and playability, then we look at it in terms of facilities, upgrades, amenities, overnight accommodations, staffing. These are crucial details that have a substantial material impact on the experience members and guests have during every visit—whether it’s a quick stay-and-play or a corporate retreat.”
Next came the southward expansion. Briggs Ranch, on the edge of San Antonio, checked all the boxes, offering a championship-caliber Tom Fazio design consistently ranked among the state’s best golf courses. Though somewhat understated, the course is unmistakably Tom Fazio with its structural drama, intricate contouring, and ode to the sport’s New World identity. Briggs Ranch joined the Network in 2017. “Briggs Ranch put us on the map,” says Peed, who at the same time already had his eye on a fourth club, which was to become the Network’s eponym.
"Briggs Ranch is a beautiful course in a great location with premium amenities and phenomenal golf. We're excited to build on that foundation in ways that further complement our network of pristine private destination courses,” says Peed.
Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas
Dormie Network Earns its Name
The storybook village of Pinehurst, North Carolina, is almost synonymous with golf. Founded in 1895, the village laid out its first golf course just two years later. It followed with the infamous No. 2 in 1907. Today, it’s as golf-centric as it gets, with over 40 golf courses in a 15-mile radius of the Village. In short, Pinehurst is American golf.
Just outside of Pinehurst in an even smaller town named West End, the highly anticipated 2010 opening of Dormie Club was met by rave reviews, including a #3 ranking on Golfweek’s list of best new courses. Designed by renowned course architect Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, Dormie Club was fashioned into a 1,020-acre expanse of stunning nature. Each hole tells a conservation story, flowing along the contours of the site’s natural terrain with the kind of minimalist charm that’s unmistakably Coore-Crenshaw. It’s strategic yet modest golf steeped in the sport’s history in an area of the country widely known as the Mecca of American Golf.
Dormie Club in West End, North Carolina
The timing of Dormie Club’s acquisition in 2017 meant that it became the fourth official club, transitioning the vision into reality: a national golf network where every member is a member at every club. And the name couldn’t have been more fitting.
Dormie is a match-play term indicating that the leading golfer’s margin equals the number of holes remaining. In other words, it means this one’s in the bag. You’ve already won. As a name for a golf network built on the quiet confidence of a guaranteed exceptional experience, it couldn't be more fitting.
Expanding Dormie Network
With Dormie Network officially established, Peed kept his trained eyes on courses with potential to be added.
Victoria National in Newburgh, Indiana, a Tom Fazio design consistently ranked among the top 100 greatest courses in America, was the next to join in 2018. It is a notoriously treacherous layout buoyed by over 500 million gallons of onsite water. Constructed over an abandoned strip mine, the site was practically meant for Fazio, whose architectural theatrics are on full display on even the shortest par threes.
Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana
"Victoria National simply couldn't be a more perfect fit," says Peed. "It's an absolutely exceptional course with premium amenities, and it's secluded from roadways and residential housing. It's exactly the caliber of club Dormie Network members are looking for."
In 2019, Hidden Creek in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, joined the Network. The course design returns to Coore & Crenshaw’s minimalist mix of Old and New World aesthetics with a subtle and exceptional layout sprawling the woodlands of southern New Jersey.
True championship courses, both Victoria National and Hidden Creek have hosted Korn Ferry Tour events and championships, tour qualifiers, and other nationally recognized events and opens. The Network was six clubs strong.
Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey
Enhancing the Experience
"Our focus immediately following an acquisition is the golf course and the attention and resources it may need from the standpoints of equipment, staffing, and technology," explains Peed. "We then begin to evaluate investments in service staff and amenities to the extent that they enhance the experiences of members and their guests.”
Each acquisition has been followed by significant reinvestment across every corner of the property, from agronomy overhauls and equipment fleet upgrades to new clubhouses, on-course comfort stations, and additional onsite lodging. The result: clubs steadily fulfilling their potential as the high-end destination golf retreats they were always meant to be.
Chief Operating Officer Mark Ruhga says, "These investments reinforce our commitment to offering a pristine, pure golf experience and genuine hospitality at every course for every member."
A New Blueprint
Then something entirely new came. Dormie Network would not only be a curator of clubs, but a creator of them.
Rather than acquiring its next course, Dormie Network looked west. More specifically, to golf’s holy land, the Nebraska Sandhills. Peed selected the renowned course architect David McLay Kidd, and the two worked together to hand-select the land itself. In 2025, the Network's first bespoke, ground-up build joined the portfolio: GrayBull Club. The Network was now at a lucky seven clubs.
GrayBull Club in Maxwell, Nebraska
The first DMK course in Nebraska, the design embraces natural terrain, balances challenge and playability, and integrates sustainable practices that preserve the landscape. It is the purest expression of the Network's philosophy, and quite possibly the blueprint for what comes next.
Staying True to the Game
Dormie Network is in the hospitality business—we just so happen to exist on golf courses.”
-Zach Peed, Dormie Network President
From the onset, pure golf (and everything it encompasses, from course conditions to 15-minute tee times and club fitting services) has remained the focus, though the details certainly matter. Seemingly ordinary interactions with members and guests are an opportunity to go above and beyond in ways that anticipate even unstated needs to consistently exceed expectations down to the smallest details. This includes hand-crafted seasonal menus that feature premium, expertly prepared local ingredients; cottages appointed to the preferences of every single guest; and full-service golf shops, performance facilities, and comfort stations. It also includes a Network-wide concierge team to accommodate every member and guest with any need, large or small. “Simply put, we’re committed to service and to being the absolute best at everything we do,” says Peed.
It’s a unique approach, and one that puts hospitality first for a pure golf experience that’s truly unmatched. True to its name and its roots, Dormie Network acknowledges the combination of discipline, strategy, commitment, and maybe a little luck at the heart of golf’s past—and its future.
Dormie Network President Zach Peed at GrayBull Club
Looking Ahead
With ambitions to grow to 10–12 clubs, the question remains: where next?
That answer, for now, is part of the intrigue.
What's certain is the standard that will meet every new property from day one: the same discipline, strategy, and commitment that has defined Dormie Network from a single course in the Nebraska prairie to one of private golf's most compelling membership offerings. True to its name and its roots, this one was never really in doubt.
“We're constantly looking for ways to add value to our membership offerings and the experiences our members have at our clubs," explains Peed.
Dormie Network members can book their next trip by contacting any concierge.
