Sunriver Trip Report 09/2020

[spud3]

Along with a couple other WRX buddies, I decided to take advantage of the smoking good deal at Sunriver this week.  Their Stay-n-play package is one of the best around: two nights in their Lodge Village, three days unlimited golf (including carts, range balls, etc.) with a single room upgrade is $333.  And that allows for a round on Crosswater each day.  We are all a bit Covid-exhausted, so a few days away from jobs (which we are all grateful to still have) and other responsibilities on good courses, in a warm climate, is very welcome right now.  We did this same trip last October and ran into a freak cold weather system that didn't see temps above 40 for the entire three days.  Woke up the second day to a dusting of snow on the ground, and I called the pro shop to see if they were on any kind of a delay.  "Uh...you still want to play?" was the incredulous response.  We toughed it out and really enjoyed the courses, nonetheless.  This year, we're looking at temps ranging from the mid 70's to upper 80's in the afternoons, with lows that are just a bit below what the highs were last year.  What a difference a year makes...

 

The schedule is mildly ambitious (36 each day), but easily doable with the carts, playing Crosswater on each day, once in the afternoon and twice in the mornings.  We're filling in the other rounds with one each on Woodlands and Meadows, as we all enjoyed those courses quite a bit last year.  We're tossing in a round at Tetherow on the afternoon of the third day on the way home.  It's been about ten years since I played there, and my overwhelming memory of the place wasn't the golf course, but the heinous mosquito hatch that we ran into on the back nine.  Probably time to see if I can rectify that.  Plus, we're aiming to try the golf boards instead of the carts, and that just seems like it'll be a hoot (note to self: dig up some Dick Dale tunes on Spotify and bring a bluetooth speaker).

 

I'll be adding to this thread each day with some photos and comments on the courses.

 

Day 1: Crosswater (Bob Cupp), Woodlands (Robert Trent Jones Jr)

Up at 0-Dark-30 to get on the road from Portland to make the 10:15 tee time at Crosswater.  A more prudent plan would be to leave the night before and spend a night in Bend, but home/work responsibilities made that impossible.  No matter.  I've found it to be not a big deal to get up early in order to get to a tee time, even if it's 3 1/2 hours away.  Getting up that early to do most anything else is a struggle, which sort of explains why I'm on this board, I suppose...

 

In case anyone wasn't aware, we've got some serious wildfire issues in Oregon right now.  Several in the Cascades, and even a few in more populated areas.  These are being driven by super high winds and super low humidity.  My drive over Mt Hood in the morning was simply apocalyptic, with heavy smoke and debris flying around.  The rising sun only served to accentuate the eeriness.  Once I got east of the crest of the Cascades, things began to clear out.  

 

Pulled into the Crosswater parking lot in plenty of time, and we were off to the range.  One of our threesome was unable to cross the Cascades due to fire closures, so we were a pair for the morning round.  Chilly temps, even for September, persisted, and we never lost the winds, which were blowing 10-15, with some gusts around 20.  The course is in great shape, greens running brisk but not super fast.  I picked up a TM Spider putter last week and am giving it the immersion treatment this trip.  Preliminary results are good - the ball is going where I am aiming, which has not been the case over the past few months with the Cameron blade.  Putting is a zero-sum confidence game, and the Scotty has been letting me down recently.  More on that later.

 

We played the Member's tees (combo white/blue) at around 6500 yards.  We played the White tees last year, and found too many holes that take the driver out of play, even for my less-than-long driver.  Both of the guys I play with hit it quite a bit longer than I do (true WRX'ers), but the driver was behaving well this morning and the short game was crisp.  It was a very enjoyable round, despite a sad four hole stretch to finish, where we both lost a bunch of shots.

 

We picked up our room keys in between rounds.  Sunriver has (like everywhere) instituted full Covid protocols.  Masks indoors, no touch-y things everywhere, even have a guy who opens the Lodge door for you.  They are handing out rakes to each player, so you have to remember to take your rake with you when you end up in a bunker.  We both failed this test a couple times and had to walk back to the cart to get our rake.  The New Reality was clearly lost on several players who had gone before us, as there were still numerous unraked bunkers and even a couple rakes left out by bunkers.  Old habits are hard to break.  No pics of Crosswater from today, as I totally forgot that I had my camera in the bag, but I'll get some tomorrow.

 

Mid-round, we got word from our third guy that he had made it over the pass and would meet us at Woodlands for the afternoon round.  Having had nothing to eat since the McMuffin leaving Portland, I grabbed a bite of a PBJ sandwich I brought from home and headed out for the long drive across the Sunriver community to the Woodlands course.  One of the muni facilities we play a lot here in PDX (Heron Lakes) has two courses designed by RTJ Jr., and a lot of the same feel is present in Woodlands.  Several holes with doglegs around large bunkers that always seem right at the edge of what you feel confident carrying.  Our first time around this course last year (in temps that were struggling to get over 40F), we really enjoyed the layout, and that was reaffirmed with this round.  My sand wedge got a workout, not only from the bunkers, but from the rough as well.  It was thick and chewy and difficult to judge how the ball would come out (if it came out at all).  

 

Very different visuals from Crosswater, which is essentially a wide open course the meanders around and over a stream/wetlands.  Woodlands is tree-lined, but not clasutrophibic.  There seems to be an inordinate amount of trees in the middle of the fairways, or at least I seemed to consistently find the wrong side of the ones that were there.  The greens were also well-tended, and a bit quicker than Crosswater, though the morning round putts seemed to roll a little truer.  This was helped by my budding love affair with my new Spider putter, as it produced a few nice long putts for either birdies or par saves.

 

We finished up just as the sun was setting and the air was really chilling down, and made a beeline to the Sunriver Brewpub for burgers and beers.  All in all, a very nice start to the trip.

 

More on Crosswater tomorrow night, along with Meadows.  Here's a couple from Woodlands:

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by spud3

[Tipsy McHooker]

great info.  hope the fires don't make route to resort from pdx way longer

[mallrat]

2 hours ago, Tipsy McHooker said:

great info.  hope the fires don't make route to resort from pdx way longer

I know you are planning a trip, I believe you are going to have to go over Mt Hood, which from the airport should be shorter. This might open up a course or 2 near Mt Hood. Look at the courses near there. The other Route 22, is completely closed due to fires. 

[soregongolfer]

Is it smokey over there?  God awful here in Roseburg right now.

[Edaw68]

Monday was extremely smoky up in Redmond in the afternoon. The last couple days have been fine. The mountains are a little hazy but fine down in the valley.

[spud3]

6 hours ago, mallrat said:

I know you are planning a trip, I believe you are going to have to go over Mt Hood, which from the airport should be shorter. This might open up a course or 2 near Mt Hood. Look at the courses near there. The other Route 22, is completely closed due to fires. 

 

Got your PM, Tipsy.  I'll respond to that later, but mallrat is correct.  The only options for getting to Bend/Sunriver from Portland are 26 over Mt Hood, I-84 to 35 at Hood River, then south on 97, and I think 58 from Eugene is still open.  26 is the most direct route, but like I described above, it's hellish on its own.

 

Check the OGA course facebook page.  They are closed as of today due to smoke and fire danger, and most of Clackamas County is under some level of evacuation status.

 

You may want to change your plan to play there and go with a round at Heron Lakes, otherwise you'd need to backtrack about an hour back north (if OGA is even open).  No telling when this fire event will subside.  We're watching all this from Sunriver and I can't believe what I'm seeing/reading.  Smoke was fairly light today, but we'll see what the morning brings.

 

I'm going to hold off on posting about the rounds today as I need to check on family and friends in PDX and the Rogue Valley, which is really hurting right now.

[Tipsy McHooker]

plan as of today saturday 12th  is to stay at friends in the portland burbs sunday night , then next morning  take 26 down on monday and play juniper twilight, stay in bend.  

[edryer3]

We’re headed over on Monday. Gonna play Quail Run on Monday and than Sunriver stay and play until Thursday! Can’t wait. Called the resort yesterday and they said golf is still open besides the pool I believe 

[spud3]

Good luck, guys.  Latest word from NWS has things gradually clearing out over there Monday.  26 is still the way to go, no delays or stoppage.  Keep the windows rolled up.

 

BTW, the Sunriver courses are in great shape.  If you were planning on hitting Tetherow, they just punched and sanded the greens last week.

[spud3]

Finally getting around to completing the trip report.

 

Day 2: Meadows (John Fought), Crosswater

John Fought is one of my favorite course architects, and Meadows has a lot of his signature holes, which suits me just fine.  He designed my home course (Langdon Farms), plus the two courses at Black Butte Ranch, both of which I love.  We had a great round in the morning, after a slight unexpected frost delay.  We all played fairly well, with the exception of my ghastly snowman on the par 4 14th, which is not that difficult of a hole.  Just a pushed drive off into the weeds, followed by a bad decision to try for a hero shot, followed by a stymied punch from behind a tree, followed by a bad luck lie in the bunker, followed by a three-jack.  Classic.

 

Meadows is a very nice, open resort course, and I'd play it again in a heartbeat.  Here's a few pics:

 

Afternoon was at Crosswater, and not a lot more to say about the course, just some photos:

 

 

[spud3]

Day 3: Crosswater, Tetherow (David McLay Kidd)

One more round at Crosswater to end things in Sunriver.  Brief frost delay got us off about 30 minutes late.  This is also the beginning of my driver deciding to head back to Portland before the week was finished.  It was worse than a two-way miss.  It was "wonder where this one is going?"  Had the same thing happen on Pacific Dunes a couple years ago, on a perfect bluebird day with no wind.  Basically, my idea of hell.  I got so frustrated that I tossed a wedge on 15, and I never toss a club.

 

It wasn't even a good club toss.

As the name implies, you have to cross a lot of water on this course.  It could have easily been named "Carry Wetlands" instead.  And cross a lot of bridges, which are railroad tie-ish, and the carts all have been programmed to automatically slow down for the bridges, which can get sort of excruciating after the third time around. But there were good holes, some birdies and some 'others' and we headed north to Bend around 1:30.  The smoke was beginning to creep over the mountains, and we figured we'd be lucky to get the afternoon round in before it enveloped us.

Final round was at Tetherow.  DMK designed the first Bandon Dunes course, which is one of my favorites on the planet.  Tetherow was done when he was really feeling his oats, and it's taken quite a bit of flack, especially when it first opened, for being too....much.  He has in recent times pulled back his stated goal of making hard courses and concentrated on making courses that are fun for all levels (see: Gamble Sands).  They had punched and sanded the greens just a day or two prior, which actually helped our attitudes about the severe greens complexes.  The greens are generally huge, but with very clear areas for pins, and if you don't get your ball into the right section of the green, a three-putt is not only likely, but merciful.

The visuals on the course are spectacular, even though the multi-million dollar homes loom everywhere.  There's a lot of elevation changes (strangely, they mostly seemed to be downhill), so we opted to try out the golf boards instead of the usual carts.  Our reaction was mixed - the balance point and control took a little getting used to, and I've even got a history (albeit distant) of surfing and skateboarding.  After 9 holes, I decided it was a bit more work that I was after, and traded mine for a cart for the back 9.

The turf is very similar to Bandon, and we all felt pretty comfortable with the ball-striking, though my driver had completely disappeared by this time.  One thing: Tetherow is sometimes not kind to good shots, my only real complaint.  And if you are off the fairway by much... well, just bring a lot of balls...

We finished up around 7:15, and the smoke had completely covered the sky, leaving the sun as nothing more than a dull orange ball.  We said our goodbyes and I tallied up the final lost ball count for the day (12...sigh...) and headed north for the final leg of the trip.  A quick stop at Lucy's, a favorite taco joint in Redmond, and it was fighting the visibility for two plus hours back home.  

Here's a few photos of Tetherow:

 

 

[mallrat]

Tetherow is so weird to me, tee to approach it is an amazing course. THEN you get to the greens and What the He11. I can’t imagine there is a more punishing course for being on the wrong tier. Plus the amount of good approach shots that end up who knows where is crazy. 

[spud3]

Yeah, once your tee shot finds safety (no easy task, sometimes), the demands of the approach shot can be severe.

 

We played the tan tees (just under 6500 yds, which turned out to be a bit long for myself), and the slope rating is 132.  That's way low, IMO, especially considering the Members tees at the Sunriver courses are all 137-138.  Tetherow is a much tougher course.  All facets of your game need to be on point.

 

We all agreed that we would want to play this course at the front end of a golf trip, not the end.  And not every trip.

 

Good match play course.

Edited September 13, 2020 by spud3

[Edaw68]

After thinking about it for a few days for me Tetherow wasn't so much the greens that were too punishing, it was the vegetation too close to some spots.  (With the caveat that I totally see how the greens can get complaints, I had a couple lucky 20 foot comeback putts, and a couple great approaches, and still had 33 putts.)  There's quite a few spots where you can actually lose a ball despite being mere feet away from safety or actually in the lip of a bunker or something.  I specifically hit a tee ball on #9 and watched it hit the grass face of a fairway bunker, but the bushes are so thick it was lost in there.  I get hazards because sometimes pulling off a recovery shot is fun, but not after a drop.  Tetherow takes a mentality of "I'm not going to be trying to lower the handicap, I'm gonna try to pull off some wild shots."