After three years of self-operation, a course once described as “a Pinehurst of the Prairie” has turned to professional management.

Kent Freudenberg has hired Irwin Golf Management, a “boutique” firm led by Hale Irwin, to run Awarii Dunes, his Jim Engh-designed layout in Axtell, Nebraska. Irwin’s primary goals, according to the Kearney Hub, are to “raise the national awareness of the course” and to generate more play, particularly among local golfers. As Irwin put it, “We want to create a buzz.”

IGM manages Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kansas, and late last year it offered to buy Dalton Ranch Golf Club, an 18-hole track outside Durango, Colorado.