On the edge of Valentine, Nebraska, a golf course takes its name from the high ground beside it. Frederick Peak rises just north of the property, and from most of the holes you can see it, a steady presence over your shoulder or straight ahead, the kind of landmark that tells you exactly where you are. The locals don't bother with the full name. They call it Freddy's, and that small affection says a great deal about what the place has become. Freddy's is, first, a community hub. Weekly leagues gather here. High school golfers use its practice grounds. Special events bring people together on its fairways. It is affordable in the plain, unembarrassed way that public golf ought to be, an entryway for newcomers to the game. Paul Schock, the founder of the Prairie Club, was the main proponent pushing the City of Valentine to create the course, and in the end he helped make it real. The result is generous and practical at once. The people of Valentine have an affordable course of their own, and the resort about twenty miles south now has a companion that helps draw more traveling golfers into town rather than leaving them to visit the resort alone. The wealth, in other words, is spread a little. But Freddy's is no mere civic amenity, and the golf proves it. The opening four holes play across the flatter high ground. Throughout the round, beginners are welcomed with plenty of short grass to run the ball along the ground, and the greens are interesting enough to make an experienced player think. That balance is the heart of the design, and the architecture is sound from start to finish. It is an entryway to the game, and it is also a thought-provoking puzzle worth returning to. Then the land drops away. Holes five through nine leave the high ground and traverse severely undulating terrain and steep cliff edges, and the course turns visceral. The par-3 fifth is the most notable of them. It plunges more than sixty feet down to a green benched between a dune and a hillside, a shot that seems to hang in the air as the ground falls away beneath it. It is a hole that makes the dramatic elevation of this place impossible to ignore. And then there is the matter of counting. Freddy's is listed as a ten-hole course, yet it is really a standard nine with something extra tucked inside. The bonus hole, an "eighth" of about 120 yards, sits perched on a ledge halfway down the cliff edge, a dramatic setting for a short par 3. It is a really neat hole that requires a high level of precision, and it provides one of the best views of Frederick Peak. Whether you count it as a bonus or simply as a gift hardly matters once you are standing on that ledge with the peak in view and the slope falling away below. The tenth returns you to the flatter high ground after the drama of the descent. The severity of the terrain makes Freddy's unfriendly to walkers, and purists should know that before they arrive. They should come anyway, for this is a unique and affordable design. Anyone visiting the Prairie Club or nearby CapRock Ranch owes themselves time here, among the league players and the high schoolers, under the peak that gave the place its name.