Central Oregon, and the area around the city of Bend, has golf courses and scenery worth traveling long distances for.
According to medium.com, the ‘home for human stories and ideas’, the seven easiest jobs in the world are:
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Data-Entry Clerk
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Retail salesperson
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Receptionist
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Delivery driver
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Food service worker (fast food)
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Customer Service Representative (call centers)
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Housekeeping (cleaning hotel rooms)
No doubt there are data-entry clerks, retail salespeople, customer service representatives, delivery drivers, housekeeping staff, food service workers, and receptionists from every corner of the planet who would strongly refute this, especially after getting a load of grief from John Q. Consumer late on a Friday afternoon.
There are probably editorial analysts (binge-watching Netflix shows), fortune cookie writers, bacon testers, house sitters, video game testers, professional bridesmaids (yes, it’s a thing) and even professional cuddlers (also a thing) who likewise have a bad day now and again.
There is, however, one job that strikes me as simpler and more straightforward than any of the gigs mentioned above – selling Central Oregon to prospective travelers.
Don’t get me wrong, the folk I know at Visit Central Oregon do a very effective job of promoting their region, but they would be the first to admit they have A LOT to work with.
The high desert, at around 4,000ft above sea level, is an astonishingly beautiful place – rugged and a bit ragged too in places, but in a strangely mesmerizing way. Together, the arid climate, firm ground, sagebrush, pines, and juniper trees, form so appealing a landscape it’s always a disappointment to return to the overcast and over-populated lowlands. The bright, white peaks of the Cascades are often set against skies so deeply blue (close to 300 sunny days a year) they have an almost magisterial grandness that always stops you in your tracks, and the ancient lava tubes and cinder cones just add to an alien landscape that makes many visitors believe, if only for a moment, they have entered some mystical, kids-story-book land on the far side of the mountains. Not to go all C.S. Lewis or Maurice Sendak on you but, for suburbanites from the near side of the sierra, the scene feels almost otherworldly.
It isn’t, of course, because real-live human-beings live here. The triangle formed by Redmond, where you fly in and out of; little Sisters with its cool, Wild-West look and feel; and the delightful city of Bend, has a population of close to 140,000 fortunate souls many of whom wisely chose to retire here, and others who might have no idea just how lucky they are to have grown up in such a place.
Can you even imagine how great it is to play golf here?
The central counties don’t form the Beaver State’s only worthy golf destination, of course. About 250 miles to the south and west, there is another immensely popular spot that attracts a far greater number of golfers every year, and I’d never try to dissuade you from going to what is surely the greatest golf resort in the world. But, for every five trips you make to Bandon Dunes, you have to reserve at least one for the interior (Oregon now has a third acclaimed golf destination in the far, far, far east of the state at Silvies Valley Ranch).
The surroundings, soil, and turf in Central Oregon, may be very different to those on the coast, but the ground here is usually firm enough to make some of the shots you play quite similar. More often than not, the wind will demand a lower-flighted shot at Bandon Dunes than you’ll need in Central Oregon, but greenside bump-and-runs and running approach shots will work well in both places.
They’ll come in very handy, in fact, at Tetherow, four miles southwest of downtown Bend. You can tell a Scotsman designed the course here because the sort of golf you play and the design of the holes will be familiar to those who have played on the Caledonian coastline. David McLay Kidd, who also designed the original course at Bandon Dunes, did include two smallish lakes (left of the 3rd/6th and short left of the 13th green) which provide a little low-hanging eye candy, but the golf is definitely linksy.
The ground was so incredibly firm on a recent visit, reading the contours correctly was paramount. Some slopes will push your ball toward the hole while others will lend no assistance at all as they divert it in a very unhelpful direction. It was a tough assignment indeed, but how enjoyable it is to play such intriguingly-designed holes in such immaculate condition.
Much the same is true at Pronghorn at the newly-titled Juniper Reserve Resort, remotely-located in the gnarly, though inviting, wilderness 16 miles northeast of Bend and 22 south of Redmond. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio both designed amazing courses here – Nicklaus’s a publicly-accessible beauty that many rate among the finest in his extensive design portfolio; Fazio’s a similarly enjoyable private layout that offers a handful of tee-times every day to guests of the resort.
Nicklaus’s Signature Couse opened in 2004 and features a fairly uneventful though perfectly pleasant front-nine where subtle contours and gentle undulations characterize the holes; and a momentous back-nine where lakes, steeper slopes, incredible Cascade views, and generally more memorable features combine to create a stretch of holes you’ll long remember. This is Nicklaus at his creative best and the uphill, serpentine, 15th is as intimidating and unforgettable a par-5 as you’ll ever play.
Fazio’s layout possesses consistently entertaining golf from start to finish with the highlight coming at the short 8th where a lava tube to the left of the elevated green grabs one’s attention rather. As with Nicklaus’s course, many of those that have played a lot of Fazio designs rate this one among his best.
And speaking of quality architectural work, John Fought completed so good a redesign of the Glaze Meadow Course at Black Butte Ranch in 2012, that a once quirky layout that certainly wasn’t to everyone’s liking became one that most golfers in the region now consider a must-play. Located 45 minutes northwest of Bend and eight miles from Sisters, Black Butte Ranch is a 55 -year-old resort that offers hundreds of condominiums and rental houses dotted throughout its peaceful 1,800 acres as well as an extensive list of activities that includes golf on the Big Meadow Course and aforementioned Glaze Meadow.
Glaze was originally designed in 1980 by Oregon professional Gene Mason and possessed extremely narrow fairways where the beautiful pines were only a slightly overdone fade or draw away. Trees in the middle of fairways didn’t help the plight of imprecise drivers either. Fought’s $3.75 million renovation completely transformed the course, making it far more playable, interesting, and easier on the eye.
It greatly enhanced Black Butte’s golf reputation that had hung on Robert Muir Grave’s acclaimed Big Meadow Course for years. Big Meadow had opened in 1972 and was given a significant renovation of its own in 2007 by Damian Pascuzzo.
Big Meadow and Glaze Meadow now form a wonderful 36 holes that offer an occasional view of the nearby Cascades and which plenty of folk regard as their favorite day’s golf in Central Oregon.
No matter how special it has become, though, it’s unlikely the number of Black Butte Ranch fans exceeds that of the multitude of people who put Crosswater at the top of their list. A private club that’s part of the Sunriver community and accessible to guests of the resort, 20 minutes south of Bend on Hwy 97, the Bob Cupp-designed course opened in 1995 and has hosted Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, NCAA Championships, Champions Tour events, and the PGA Professional National Championship four times.
On a cloudless, 75-degree day with a gentle breeze moving across the superbly-maintained surfaces and the stunning, snow-topped peak of 9,000ft Mt Bachelor, 14 miles to the north and west, pointing up into a flawless blue sky, there can’t be many more surreally alluring places a golfer can be. It might match many players’ perception of what golf in heaven looks like, in fact.
Oh, what rot, you say. That’s just hysterical hyperbole. Ludicrous exaggeration. Possibly, but if you were there on the day I was recently, you’d nod your head and whisper ‘fair enough’.
Tetherow, Pronghorn, Black Butte Ranch, and Crosswater make a trip that’s very hard to beat. You perhaps can beat the quality and density of the public golf here but only in a small handful of places in the rest of the U.S. – Pinehurst, Scottsdale, Bandon Dunes, Myrtle Beach (maybe), and at similarly few locations elsewhere in the world – Melbourne (Australia), Southwest London, Netherlands coast, Fife, Ayrshire, County Kerry. Sure, there are dozens of excellent places in the U.S. and around the world for golfers to spend a few days, but this collection of next-level golf destinations is a very select group. And there’s plenty more excellent courses in Central Oregon should you need any – Brasada Ranch, Meadows and Woodlands at Sunriver, Quail Run, Aspen Lakes, Juniper. And if you’ve been here so often you need a few more, there’s Crooked River Ranch, Eagle Crest, Widgi Creek, Lost Tracks…
And that’s just the golf. River rafters, kayakers, cyclers, hikers, skiers, fishermen, cavers (spelunkers) and really anyone who enjoys getting active outside will be glad they came.
Eating at the exquisite Lodge Restaurant at Black Butte Ranch which opened in May 2023 and was named one of America’s 50 most beautiful restaurants by People Magazine shortly after; Solomon’s at Tetherow which is currently being renovated but will reopen soon; Cascada at Pronghorn; Marcello’s Cucina Italiana at Sunriver; or the The Grille at Crosswater will elevate your whole Central Oregon trip and give you something to remember besides the golf.
And though you’ll have a number of genuinely excellent lodging options from which to choose following even the most perfunctory of Google searches, you’ll surely find nothing better than Tetherow which offers a number of superb vacation rental homes, plus a 50-room hotel that, in 2023, readers of Condé Nast Traveler voted the No. 1 resort in the Pacific Northwest and 28th best in the world (the PNW ranking I can understand, but 28th in the world??? Really? That suggests Condé Nast Traveler readers haven’t traveled quite as much as you’d think they have or that Tetherow really is rather special.) The craft beer and spirits scene in Bend has been escalating for many years and is worthy of its own article, but here I’ll just say it’s something else that will greatly enhance your trip. I will add, though, there are lagers, beers, and whiskies here that have changed my life.
Before the 2007-2009 financial collapse, younger members of the Silent Generation and older Baby Boomers had been arriving in Bend in record numbers to enjoy their sunset years playing golf and enjoying the remarkable scenery. The city’s population quadrupled in under 20 years – from 20,000 to 80,000. The median value of a house rose by 80% and, by 2005, 700 new homes were being built each month. But the downturn saw a typical house lose 40% of its value in less than two years, and unemployment rise rom 4% to 15%.
Bend has recovered admirably over the last 15 years with median house prices continuing to soar and unemployment falling back to around 4%. And, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Western Information Office in San Francisco, Bend’s leisure and hospitality industry has roughly 9% more employees than it did a year ago.
A number of them are working to make the region’s golf courses and resorts the best they can possibly be. They’re committed to making your golf trip to Central Oregon as good as any you’ve ever taken. And I’d say they’re doing a terrific job.
Originally published: https://tonydear.substack.com/p/a-fantastic-oregon-golf-trip-250
Written by: Tony Dear