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The barn and silos of the Reetz family farm sit in the middle of Reetz Lake. The buildings have become the centerpiece of Sunken Prairie Golf Club, scheduled to open in spring 2028 just south of Webster. Aberdeen Insider photo by Robb Garofalo.
Two novice golfers from South Dakota are hoping a hobby can turn into a highly successful sports and outdoor venture.
Webster native Riley Reetz and Winner’s Wyatt Ewing met at South Dakota State University in Brookings and developed a friendship that’s led to a bold foray into the world of golf.
They are planning a high-end golf course that will be the centerpiece of Sunken Prairie Golf Club, a golfing, hunting and fishing enterprise just south of Webster.
Reetz, whose family has farmed the land for five generations, said he and Ewing looked to build something around Reetz Lake, but golf was not the original idea.
The lake is on Reetz family land that flooded nearly three decades ago.
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“Wyatt and I are always looking for business ventures, big ideas and we were driving around the lake, and I was thinking of putting up a wedding venue, and Wyatt was like, ‘What about a campground along with the wedding venue?'” Reetz said.
Within minutes of that suggestion came the watershed moment — a golf course.
“We both just looked at each and said, ‘What if we do this right and put in a nice golf course?'” Reetz said.
He drew on his experience from a trip he took to Sutton Bay, a golf, hunting and fishing venue along the Missouri River near Agar.
“We had the hunting and fishing already here, and it seemed like a golf course just made sense,” he said.
Wyatt Ewing, left, and Riley Reetz stand on the future site of the clubhouse at Sunken Prairie Golf Club on the Reetz farm south of Webster. The high-end golf course is scheduled to open in spring 2028. Aberdeen Insider photo by Robb Garofalo.
Ewing said the original plan was just a course where folks could go out and have some fun playing. But that evolved into an Irish-style, championship-level links golf course.
“We just thought, sure, we can put a golf course out here, have some people come out, just go hit some golf balls, you know, just go out there and rough and tumble a golf course,” Ewing said. “The thought became to see if someone could draw this and put something on paper. We reached out to a course design company, and when they came out here, the first thing they said was, ‘You guys are onto something here.'”
The name Sunken Prairie derived from heavy rainfall and snow in the late 1990s that resulted in what was at the time a small slough that, due to the excess water, has since become a lake of roughly 800 acres.
The original farmhouse, barn and silos of the Reetz family farm form the de-facto centerpiece of the course as the buildings remain, albeit in the middle of the water.
“My family used to have grain and cattle, then the flood happened here and we had to sell all of the cattle,” Reetz said. “Now, 20 years later, instead of grain and cattle, it can be grain and golf.”
But, that concept did not impress Reetz’s family at the onset.
“First of all, my dad did not golf and my grandfather sure as hell did not golf, so when we brought up a golf course, the questions were, ‘Why?’ and ‘How is this gonna happen?’ and ‘Who wants to play golf in Webster?’ Wyatt and I took them out around the lake and said, ‘Don’t look at it as just land.’ Then, they started warming up to the idea,” Reetz said.
A computer-generated image of the Sunken Prairie Golf Club course south of Webster designed by Smyers, Craig and Coyne International Golf Course Architecture Group.
World-renowned designers create Sunken Prairie course
The Sunken Prairie course design was created by the Smyers, Craig and Coyne International Golf Course Architecture Group, which has offices in Tampa, Fla., Oklahoma City and Philadelphia.
Colton Craig, a golf course architect, was the first member of the group to visit the Webster area farm. The size of the course is projected to be more than 7,000 yards. That’s roughly the span of Moccasin Creek Country Club in Aberdeen.
“When we first took Colton around the lake and where we thought the course could go, his head was spinning,” Ewing said.
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Craig spent the day walking around the lake and noted areas where tee boxes and greens could go.
“He rode with me around the lake,” Ewing said, “And you could see him drawing out fairways and greens, like, the entire time, but that’s what he does, and he’s really good at painting a picture of what it can look like. At one point, when we were along the lake, he said, ‘This is a true, natural links course.'”
The original rendition of Sunken Prairie Golf Course near Webster designed by Smyers, Craig, and Coyne International Golf Course Architecture Group.
Ewing said the contours of the land around Reetz Lake allow the design to have little to no effect on the landscape.
Since Craig’s initial visit, both Ewing and Reetz have shared the same vision and can see how the course could be laid out.
“There are land bowls you can stand on top of and almost see that there needs to be a golf green at the bottom of it,” Ewing said. “I mean, after he left, Riley and I went out and walked all around and put on miles walking and driving and said, ‘This could be a cool golf hole, and this could be a cool hole as well.’ It’s been a super-fun process.”
Sunken Prairie will occupy about 200 tillable acres of the farm, Reetz estimated.
“That’s about 6% of what we farm, but when you’re out here you realize just how much land it actually is. When Colton was here, he said there were about 30 holes he envisioned, and we had to cut that down to 18 and, honestly, based on the design, it’s perfect,” Reetz said.
Hopes are Sunken Prairie is ready for golf in 2028
Ewing said he and Reetz hope to begin initial clearing and excavating the area after the corn harvest this fall, with the opening for golf targeted for spring 2028.
“The hope is for a grand opening of the course in 2028, with most of the golf construction taking place in ’27, if all goes to plan,” Reetz said. “There’s potential for preview play for the fall of 2027, but it becomes a question on whether the course is ready and do we want to go out and kind of beat it up.”
When he and Ewing were asked about the estimated cost of the venture, their answer was succinct.
“A lot,” they said, smiling.
Memberships are already for sale, and while the golf course won’t be ready for close to two years, members can book hunting and fishing packages for this fall.
Reetz and Ewing weren’t much into golf in high school. Their interest grew during the COVID-19 pandemic when both were still at South Dakota State and started to play more.
Now, with what’s expected to be a world-class, links-style golf course set to be built, Ewing said the excitement is palpable.
Riley Reetz, left, Wyatt Ewing and Colton Craig of Smyers, Craig and Coyne International Golf Course Architecture Group discuss the course layout of Sunken Prairie Golf Club, which is set to open in spring 2028 just south of Webster. Courtesy photo.
“When Colton and Steve (Smyers) came out to look at the course, then left and it’s Riley and I standing there, we just started slapping each other on the back and got all jacked up that this was actually happening. It was like we were little kids again,” Ewing said.
Smyers is also a golf course architect and has designed courses on six continents.
Smyers, Craig and Coyne is a highly reputable golf course design company. Smyers has been in the business for around five decades and once served as president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
It’s expected Sunken Prairie will include an elegant clubhouse with fine dining, an executive chef, a bar and social club, and a wrap-around deck with views of the entire course and lake. A handful of cabins will be built where guests can lodge, and a gym and golf simulators are also planned.
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For Reetz, a near disaster on the family farm has turned into an amazing opportunity, one that did not seem possible, but is now on the verge of reality.
“I’ve said it before how this idea is a real lemons-to-lemonade story,” he said. “There are still some people who don’t understand what we’re trying to do. I mean, I’m born and bred in Webster, Wyatt married a Webster gal and he’s here full time now. Our goal is to do whatever we can to help the community of Webster, and we continue to look at different ways through (Sunken Prairie) that we can do that.”
For more information about Sunken Prairie Golf Course, visit sunkenprairie.com.
