Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines Golf Courses & Tee Times in Iowa

Who runs public golf in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines

Des Moines Parks and Recreation owns three public courses: Waveland, A.H. Blank and Bright Grandview. Waveland is built on wooded hillsides with a 1940s brick clubhouse; Blank opened as a nine in 1971 and went to 18 in 1985; Grandview dates to 1902, with its current layout from 1933. The City of Lincoln runs Holmes, Highlands, Mahoney, Pioneers and Jim Ager, and books through lincolncitygolf.org. Pioneers is billed by the city as the oldest public course in Lincoln. In Omaha, the city's courses include Elmwood Park, Benson Park and Johnny Goodman. Outside the city systems, the Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City is the state's only Arnold Palmer Signature course, laid out in 2003.

Public courses worth knowing in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines

• Johnny Goodman Golf Course: Omaha municipal course named for Johnny Goodman, the South Omaha caddie who won the 1933 U.S. Open as an amateur, the last amateur to do it.
• Elmwood Golf Course: Opened August 5, 1916, and called Omaha's oldest 18-hole city course by the World-Herald at its centennial. Warren Buffett ran a golf ball stand here in the 1940s.
• Benson Park Golf Course: A city nine opened here in 1931 and closed in 1947; the park got an 18-hole course in the 1960s.
• Holmes Golf Course: Lincoln city 18 from the early 1960s on gradual hills above Holmes Lake. It hosted the first Nebraska Junior Amateur in 1968.
• Pioneers Golf Course: The City of Lincoln calls it the oldest public course in Lincoln and the surrounding states, and one of the most popular in the area.
• Jim Ager Golf Course: Nine-hole par 3 in downtown Lincoln.
• Waveland Golf Course: Dedicated in 1901 on land given to the Des Moines park department in 1894. Many original greens, fairways and tees are still in play, and it hosted the 1906 Iowa Amateur.
• Tournament Club of Iowa: Iowa's only Arnold Palmer Signature course, built in 2003 through bluffs and ravines between Big Creek Dam and Saylorville Lake. Host of the 2018 Iowa Amateur.

Booking tee times in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines: the local rules

At the Des Moines city courses, tee times open seven days ahead at 6:00 AM, and online booking needs a credit card. Cancel at least four hours out or you pay for every booked player. Since April 1, 2026 the three city courses cap groups at four. Grandview says 18 holes there takes about three and a half hours. Lincoln's five city courses book through lincolncitygolf.org. Omaha's booking window could not be confirmed on a city page, so check with the course.

Why tee times in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines are hard to get

The season in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines runs roughly from spring to late fall. The first warm weekends in spring and the cool, dry weekends of fall are the hardest to book.

Most public courses open their tee sheet a set number of days ahead, often 7 to 14, and many municipal courses give residents or card holders an earlier window. The best weekend-morning times usually go the day they're released. Leagues and outings take blocks of the sheet before the public ever sees them.

When tee time cancellations happen

Booked-up doesn't mean gone. Plans change: groups cancel ahead of the course's cancellation deadline (often 24 to 48 hours out), players drop when the forecast turns, and a group that shrinks leaves an open spot. Those times quietly come back on the booking page, usually for minutes, not hours.

How to get a tee time in Omaha, Lincoln & Des Moines

Doing it by hand? Here's what works.

1. Know the booking window. Find out how many days ahead each course releases times, and whether residents get an earlier window. Be ready the morning it opens.
2. Look again 24 to 48 hours out. That's when most cancellation deadlines pass and spots come back.
3. Be flexible on group size. Singles and twosomes fit into gaps a foursome can't.
4. Try twilight and weekday afternoons. They're the last to fill and often cheaper.
5. Keep a quicker course in your back pocket. Nine-hole and executive courses are easier to get on and play faster. Around here that includes Sugar Creek Municipal Golf Course.

Read the full guide to getting a tee time when everything's booked