Bend, OR Trip

[Kernel]

On 1/7/2022 at 11:34 AM, kaschreiber said:

Bringing this back up. We have all of our logistics now booked- we opted to go the airbnb route for a number of different reasons, so Crosswater is out of the picture. @mallrat was correct, we can get on the Faz at Pronghorn without staying, but is going to run $350, so trying to decide if that's worth it. I get that's ~$100 more than those courses out on the OR coast we all know and love, but figure it's probably the only time we'll try and play it and one of the guys in the group has some loyalty program knocking the Nicklaus to $100, so think we're going to bite the bullet but that's TBD as of now. Our itinerary as of now-

 

Fly in from Seattle Thursday 9/29. Those that get in early are going to play Juniper off the plane. We were hoping to play Juniper on the way out on Sunday, but they are hosting the OR Team Championship that weekend and booked solid. Bummer for us, good for them. Think that speaks to what a fantastic muni you guys have in the area. 

Friday 9/30- 36 at Pronghorn. Deciding as a group if we do 36 on Nicklaus or bite the bullet and play the Faz in the afternoon.

Saturday 10/1. 36 at Tetherow. I know it's a love it or hate it, I like it and a lot in the group want to get out and play it. 

 

Where I'm stuck is Sunday. We're staying NE of Bend near Pine Nursery park, so don't want to travel too far if we can avoid it. The leading candidates are Lost Tracks, Rivers Edge, and Widgi Creek. Any thoughts on a clear winner (or one to clearly avoid) of the three? Is there a 4th we aren't considering but should? 

I cannot advise against Rivers Edge strongly enough. It is the most asinine round of golf I have ever played. Someone took an unforgiving hillside, loaded it up with homes and then said, "Fill the rest in with a golf course." The first hole might be the most inexplicable thing I've encountered with a golf club in my hand. And it got worse from there. 

 

Literally ANYTHING else would be a better use of your time. 

[garneson]

Going to Bend this year as well. Is Crosswater a must play? Would much rather stay in downtown Bend. If staying downtown, Pronghorn (Jack) and Tetherow are in. Looking for recommendations on two others; Juniper, Eagle Crest (Ridge), Widgi, or maybe Woodlands.  
 

[spud3]

23 minutes ago, garneson said:

Going to Bend this year as well. Is Crosswater a must play? Would much rather stay in downtown Bend. If staying downtown, Pronghorn (Jack) and Tetherow are in. Looking for recommendations on two others; Juniper, Eagle Crest (Ridge), Widgi, or maybe Woodlands.  
 

Of those: Juniper and Woodlands

[Flogolf]

14 hours ago, Kernel said:

I cannot advise against Rivers Edge strongly enough. It is the most asinine round of golf I have ever played. Someone took an unforgiving hillside, loaded it up with homes and then said, "Fill the rest in with a golf course." The first hole might be the most inexplicable thing I've encountered with a golf club in my hand. And it got worse from there. 

 

Literally ANYTHING else would be a better use of your time. 

Haha, just checked this topic out because I've played courses around Bend for years and I couldn't agree more about this. We were there one Memorial Day weekend and we skied/snowboarded Bachelor all morning then played Rivers Edge in the afternoon, what a mistake that was! The other non-high end courses around Bend are way better IMHO.

[mallrat]

Rivers Edge is never an option, I’d play the Old Back Nine before River’s Edge. Lost Tracks used to be fun but I haven’t played it in a couple years. Last time I played it the conditions were HORRIBLE. From my understanding there was a new owner and he thought he could do the Supers job. 
 

Also the only course I haven’t played up there, which multiple friends say is the best is Brasada Ranch. 
 

Another one to consider on your last day is Crooked River Ranch. Not overly challenging but a fun quirky course and pretty close to Redmond airport

[Wardonation]

Brasada, Pronghorn(Fazio) no Tetherow (goat track) Lived in Bend for 25 years. The best track is Bend Golf Club...

[mallrat]

2 hours ago, Wardonation said:

Brasada, Pronghorn(Fazio) no Tetherow (goat track) Lived in Bend for 25 years. The best track is Bend Golf Club...

Where did you end up moving to? I’ve heard it is changing a lot and FAST. 

[Wardonation]

12 hours ago, mallrat said:

Where did you end up moving to? I’ve heard it is changing a lot and FAST. 

Eagle, ID. IMO the town has lost its charm and is way too big. I do not want to get political at all but it used to be a blue collar mill town and is no longer...

[mallrat]

12 hours ago, Wardonation said:

Eagle, ID. IMO the town has lost its charm and is way too big. I do not want to get political at all but it used to be a blue collar mill town and is no longer...

I get you and totally understand. Our son went to St Francis and out of 16 kids  in his class only 5 had parents who actually worked in Bend. The amount of $ that has moved to Bend is insane and actually really sad. It has completely priced out all the middle class people who made the town what it was. Of the guys I worked on turf crews with the majority have had to move to Redmond and they are even starting to get priced out of there. 

[soregongolfer]

2 hours ago, mallrat said:

I get you and totally understand. Our son went to St Francis and out of 16 kids  in his class only 5 had parents who actually worked in Bend. The amount of $ that has moved to Bend is insane and actually really sad. It has completely priced out all the middle class people who made the town what it was. Of the guys I worked on turf crews with the majority have had to move to Redmond and they are even starting to get priced out of there. 

My buddy's mom had a home there before he moved her to facility here in Roseburg.  He put her home up for sale and it was purchased, sight unseen, by an out-of-state company for $30K more than he asked.  

[doc52]

On 1/10/2022 at 8:38 PM, soregongolfer said:

My buddy's mom had a home there before he moved her to facility here in Roseburg.  He put her home up for sale and it was purchased, sight unseen, by an out-of-state company for $30K more than he asked.  

 

And he still probably could have gotten more. Homes in PDX are routinely going for 50-100K over ask.

[soregongolfer]

2 hours ago, doc52 said:

 

And he still probably could have gotten more. Homes in PDX are routinely going for 50-100K over ask.

This was 6 or 7 years ago.  My point is that a company bought the home.  That's another reason why housing prices have risen so dramatically.  I've read one in seven houses are being purchased by corporations as investments.  

[kaschreiber]

22 hours ago, soregongolfer said:

This was 6 or 7 years ago.  My point is that a company bought the home.  That's another reason why housing prices have risen so dramatically.  I've read one in seven houses are being purchased by corporations as investments.  

Zillow just had to shutter this portion of their business. They reportedly have 7k homes worth ~$300M they need to offload at a loss. Hopefully it spurs other businesses to stay out/get out of the same line of business. We're just outside of Seattle and couldn't afford to live where we now live after being here 2 years (~50% increase in value). We were fortunate and have benefitted, but it's absurd in this corner of the world.

[mallrat]

One more Pronghorn note, take a cart, it’s a serious hike. There is a pretty good distance between a lot of the tees. 

[erichake]

On 1/8/2022 at 7:31 PM, garneson said:

Going to Bend this year as well. Is Crosswater a must play? Would much rather stay in downtown Bend. If staying downtown, Pronghorn (Jack) and Tetherow are in. Looking for recommendations on two others; Juniper, Eagle Crest (Ridge), Widgi, or maybe Woodlands.  
 

Juniper and Widgi Creek are worth a look.  Aspen Lakes in Sisters has been going downhill for several years.  This past summer their water pump went out so they brought in water trucks to hand water the tees and greens.  The fairways were baked out and brown and cracking in places.

 

Lost Tracks is home of the blind shots.

Black Butte, especially Glaze Meadow, is worthy.

[mallrat]

My must plays out of those are Juniper and I love Quail Run in La Pine. 

[soregongolfer]

2 hours ago, mallrat said:

My must plays out of those are Juniper and I love Quail Run in La Pine. 

Both have the desert look we don't have west of the mountains.  I like that.  

[erichake]

On 1/13/2022 at 3:55 PM, mallrat said:

One more Pronghorn note, take a cart, it’s a serious hike. There is a pretty good distance between a lot of the tees. 

The mark of a flawed design...HAVING to take a cart

[puttnforthe8]

4 hours ago, erichake said:

The mark of a flawed design...HAVING to take a cart

Congrats on the current dumbest comment of 2022!

[soregongolfer]

1 hour ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Congrats on the current dumbest comment of 2022!

Was that necessary?

[puttnforthe8]

1 hour ago, soregongolfer said:

Was that necessary?

Yes

[erichake]

16 hours ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Yes

But was it? Designing a course that's unwalkable is flawed by nature.  Do you work there or something?

Edited January 19, 2022 by erichake

[puttnforthe8]

1 hour ago, erichake said:

But was it? Designing a course that's unwalkable is flawed by nature.  Do you work there or something?

Sure was.  Yeah...I work there - I fly 2 hours every morning on my private jet to be there in time for the first tee time. And then fly back in time for a late dinner.

[Jeff58]

2 hours ago, erichake said:

But was it? Designing a course that's unwalkable is flawed by nature.  Do you work there or something?

Although walkability is a desirable course characteristic, neither Pronghorn course is unwalkable, nor did anyone say that they were. On the contrary, unlike any number of courses that are walkable but force the use of carts to pad their income, Pronghorn absolutely allows walking and has walking rates.

 

As far as design, as you can see from the map, since you don’t seem to have actually been there, the great beauty is that almost every hole exists in isolation. The feeling during play is that you are very much a part of the environment, and the surrounding vistas, rather than feeling that you’re “on a golf course. In order to achieve that level of separation, there must obviously be separation.

 

 

If your primary design esthetic is ease of walking, there are certainly an infinite number of locations with essentially 18 parallel lines on a square plot. They also often have the advantage of being less expensive. 
 

Central Oregon has arguably the second greatest density of golf courses in the country. Unlike S. Carolina or that other Oregon “B” location, we have the advantages of multiple climatic zones and topography variation. The best facility in this area, easily IMO, is Pronghorn.

[soregongolfer]

Pronghorn was immaculate when I was there.  The only headscratcher is the road.  It should be dead straight but has hairpin turns instead.  

[mallrat]

On 1/18/2022 at 2:04 PM, erichake said:

The mark of a flawed design...HAVING to take a cart

Actually both courses are outstanding designs with the Nicklaus course being as fair and stiff a test of golf as I have played. 
 

Now, Pronghorn was designed as a resort course combined with a very high end summer membership course. In designing the members course it was expected that they would be older and prefer taking carts so distance from green to tees was not an issue. On the Public side it is more about an enjoyable round of golf. This is a large part of the reason you most likely will never see a Marshall. They used to have 14 minute tee times and often wouldn’t book back to back tee times unless you were a group. But they also used to have Pro- V1’s as their range balls until they were all found on the course. 
 

There is a reason that Nicklaus has said it was one of his best designs and it was Troon’s flagship property for years. 

[mallrat]

15 hours ago, soregongolfer said:

Pronghorn was immaculate when I was there.  The only headscratcher is the road.  It should be dead straight but has hairpin turns instead.  

Pronghorn, IMO, was the epitome of “not a blade of grass out of place” thought process. Some of the details that were addressed were nuts (if you were in the dog house he would have some take 2 sod knives and clean out the cracks on the pavement). The conditions, honestly, were immaculate. However the housing costs in Bend & Redmond, the pay scale, available housing have all greatly contributed to a labor/staffing shortage. When I was there we had 40+ people on the crew, in it’s prime, there were 60+ on the crew with over 40 people working daily. I understand this year they ran with a crew in the mid teens. 

[soregongolfer]

2 hours ago, mallrat said:

Pronghorn, IMO, was the epitome of “not a blade of grass out of place” thought process. Some of the details that were addressed were nuts (if you were in the dog house he would have some take 2 sod knives and clean out the cracks on the pavement). The conditions, honestly, were immaculate. However the housing costs in Bend & Redmond, the pay scale, available housing have all greatly contributed to a labor/staffing shortage. When I was there we had 40+ people on the crew, in it’s prime, there were 60+ on the crew with over 40 people working daily. I understand this year they ran with a crew in the mid teens. 

I've commented that they don't have mowers at Pronghorn.  They have hairstylists who only use scissors.  🙂

[Golferpaul]

On 1/8/2022 at 9:31 PM, garneson said:

Going to Bend this year as well. Is Crosswater a must play? Would much rather stay in downtown Bend. If staying downtown, Pronghorn (Jack) and Tetherow are in. Looking for recommendations on two others; Juniper, Eagle Crest (Ridge), Widgi, or maybe Woodlands.  
 

We just did a Bend golf trip last September.  Yes, Crosswater is a must play.   Both Pronghorn courses are a must play.

 

If we went again, we would skip Tetherow.  We all thought it was the worst course of our trip.

 

We rented two houses in the Tetherow resort, and they got us on Crosswater, Brasada Canyons, and the Pronghorn courses.  The Tetherow houses are very nice.

 

[Golferpaul]

On 1/18/2022 at 4:04 PM, erichake said:

The mark of a flawed design...HAVING to take a cart

I'm not sure why anyone would say that.  What's with the cart hate?