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A Swing Through Eastern Oregon’s Back-to-Basics Golf Scene

Much has changed since the game of golf’s formative days, when shepherds in Scotland would pass long hours by knocking a pebble with a stick at a target, counting strokes along the way. The soul of the game remains true to those simple principles, but most golf these days is a whole lot swankier—not to mention expensive.

Photo Michael Waller

So, what would a buddies’ golf trip look like that eschewed all the trappings of modern resort golf? I decided to find out by getting back to basics this past summer with a golf road trip that took my crew off the beaten path. We loaded up my camper trailer and headed east toward Fossil and a rumor of a ghost town golf course. We extended our travels to Condon on the Columbia River plateau on the edge of wheat country. We wrapped up our travels in Seneca (don’t blink or you’ll miss it) where the Bear Valley Golf Course is a place that those swinging shepherds would have recognized for its no-frills approach.

Kinzua Hills Golf Club

Ghost Town Golf

Our first stop was the nearly mythical Kinzua Hills Golf Club, a six-hole course that once served a thriving logging town by the same name. Today the mill is gone, as is all evidence of the town that sprung up around it. Thanks to a local community organization, the Kinzua (pronounced Kin-Zoo) golf course lives on. With onsite camping available, and offered on a donation basis, the Kinzua golf course with its $11 green fee ($1 per hole plus a $5 “trail” fee) might just be the most laissez faire golf experience in Oregon.

From Bend, the drive to Kinzua traces the stunning scenery of the Ochocos east of Prineville and north on Hwy. 207 out of Mitchell through the dramatic John Day River canyon at Service Creek. A small sign about ten miles south of Fossil directs visitors toward Kinzua. We arrived at dusk, following a gravel road and an Apple map that inspired less confidence than my short game. I had read that the Kinzua golf course was taken out in the 1950s to create a baseball field that served as home to a minor league team affiliated with the mill. If that’s true, the calf-straining hills and valleys give no indication of just where a diamond may have been scratched out of the terrain. Luckily for us, the baseball heyday came and went, and the site was returned to a golf course, which it has remained even as the population of the valley plummeted.

After gathering our clubs for a late twilight round, we were greeted by greenskeeper Jerry Luther, who also serves as a caretaker on the site, which includes a clubhouse, complete with full kitchen and dining area that can be rented out for group events. Jerry also serves as a tour guide/caddy of sorts and offered to show us around the course. With his dog, Bear, a spry collie mix on his lap Jerry trailed us around the several holes on his four wheeler while we lugged our golf bags. He pointed out hazards and offered tips on shots and other tidbits of local knowledge. Most importantly Jerry pushed back the start time on the automatic sprinklers, saving us a good dousing.

Like most of the other courses on our pasture golf tour, Kinzua Hills operates on the honor system. Jerry cuts the grass, but he doesn’t count the cash. It’s your job to put the green’s fee in the box that sits on the porch of the clubhouse. If you want a cart to help negotiate those hills, you can talk to Jerry. He’s got a side hustle in rentals. If not, I suggest you lighten your bag a bit, since a full round at Kinzua is three loops around the up-and-down track.

In addition to the playing tips and irrigation assistance, Jerry ensured that the greens were cut down a nearly diabolical speed the following day. (Kinzua is known for its speedy and somewhat tricky green complexes, and Jerry didn’t want us to miss out on the experience). While no scoring records were threatened during our round, we were treated to a stellar sunset that painted Kinzua’s fairways a deep emerald against the red pines and golden rays that filtered through the valley.

We capped the evening with marinated steaks, fresh corn, and scalloped potatoes from a box, around a campfire. Soon a canopy of stars blinked on in the summer sky, the ethereal mist of the Milky Way galaxy stretching overhead. We were missing only a good bottle of single malt to toast a day dedicated to the simple things. We will be back, I’m sure, to raise that glass. 

Condon

High Plains Hackers

Apart from rural road biking and a revamped historic hotel, there isn’t much to draw visitors to Condon. The nine-hole golf course wasn’t designed to change that. It opened in 1967 for residents of this roughly 600-person town on the edge of the Columbia plateau. Though it’s not clear just how much use it gets from locals or anyone else.

We arrived at the Condon Golf Course to an empty parking lot, which it remained during the duration of our two-hour stay. A kiosk adjacent to a public restroom allowed us to drop our greens fee ($10 for nine holes or $15 all day). A relatively flat course that doesn’t offer much in the way of hazards, the track’s primary defense is wind, which can howl in the afternoon—one of the reasons that the horizon is dotted with wind farms. We timed our round for the morning, before afternoon gusts and heat settled in. The course proved more than enjoyable with sparsely tree-lined fairways that afforded creative recovery shots. The park-style layout makes for a pleasant stroll with a hulking steel-sided grain elevator adjacent to the ninth hole a reminder that wheat, not golf, is king in Gilliam County.

Bear Valley Golf Course

Out to Pasture

This sparsely maintained golf course in Seneca between Burns and John Day appears on several pasture golf lists and not many other places. The reason for such an omission is somewhat obvious when we arrive at the parking lot at Bear Valley, though parking lot is the wrong term since there is no pavement. (I did however find remnants of pavement on the second fairway which appears to cross an old parking lot).

If honest to goodness pasture golf was what I had set out to find, I hit the jackpot at Bear Valley, where greens as we know them are not part of the package. Instead a few extra passes with the mower through the straw that passes for grass are applied. An enlarged cup like those used for temporary greens on traditional golf courses is employed to counteract the lack of a real putting surface. I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t see any other golfers during my hour and a half round. But the lack of cows, that was a bit puzzling. Still, if you’re in the neighborhood, the price is right at $7, and you won’t have a lot of competition. That’s guaranteed.


Learn more about Central Oregon GOLFING.

Golf Getaways and Staycations

Avid golfers know that the best time to play golf is whenever there is room for a backswing. That is to say that real golfers don’t let weather or seasons determine if or when they play. For the rest of us though, there is a sweet spot. Perhaps a mid-summer afternoon or a perfect late spring weekend when winter storms seem a distant memory appear ideal. In Central Oregon, though, autumn is the underrated season. It’s a time to savor what remains of summer as if it were the last sip of wine from a bottle found deep in the cellar.

Come October, months of mercury-popping heat give away to mild days. It’s a time when you want to linger in, not flee, the midday sun. Tourists have scattered like the smoke from the wildfires and a quiet settles over the region’s trails and fairways. The days are made more perfect because there are so few of them and they aren’t always predictable. Knowing winter is around the corner makes it all the better.

“Fall, for me, is one of the best times to play golf in Central Oregon,” said Rob Malone, Aspen Lakes director of golf. “It’s cool in the morning. It’s beautiful and crisp and normally blue skies.”

There’s also another incentive to get out after Labor Day—the shoulder season is chock full of bargains. Whether you are a local looking to play 18 holes on one of the region’s award-winning courses or a visitor looking for a stay-and-play resort experience, there is a destination to fit just about any itinerary and budget. If you want to play golf at any of the premier destinations, without paying top shelf prices, now is the time. But don’t wait too long. Winter really is just around the corner.

Crosswater

Golf Staycation

Summer may be the busy season here for local golf courses, as evidenced by the $80 greens fees, but it’s also the busy season for locals who pack their calendars with road trips, hiking, camping and exploration. Golf is usually put on the back burner for busy moms and dads and others who choose to spend their time somewhere other than the practice green. As kids return to school and weekends are freed, resorts are looking to pull in locals to fill tee sheets and overnight rooms. Now is the time to round up your golf buddies that you’ve blown off all summer and schedule a man-cation. Here are a couple of itineraries:

A guys’ weekend doesn’t necessarily have to entail a stay at fancy lodge or resort room. Creating your own home base also gives you the flexibility to choose from a variety of golf courses. We recommend grabbing somewhere centralized that will let you spread out, but also somewhere that offers a kitchen for meal prep and snacks, ideally with a barbeque on site. (Bonus if you can find a place with a hot tub.) McMenamins cottages make an attractive option with the soaking pool and fire pits for evening gatherings, but your best bet might be a vacation rental. Like resorts, they are also looking to fill rooms in the shoulder season and deals abound.

In terms of golf, we recommend looking into some of the courses that consistently rate high with locals and visitors, but drop their rates in the shoulder season. Our shortlist includes Aspen Lakes near Sisters, which offers some of the best views and most enjoyable golf in the region. In Bend, Widgi Creek—which always offers a great evening special—will drop rates come October. Tetherow will also be open until the end of October and offers one of the most memorable experiences in Central Oregon. It’s also one of the few courses in the state to make the illustrious Golf Digest Top 100 list.

If a resort stay is in the cards, Black Butte Ranch with its two golf courses and wide range of home rentals is a perfect option. The resort’s newly upgraded pools and gym facilities located at the main lodge. Two award-winning golf courses, including the recently renovated Glaze Meadow, mean you never have to leave the property to get your fill of fairways. There’s even fly-fishing on the resort lakes, as well as on the nearby Metolius River.

“The first few weeks in October are spectacular,” said Jeff Fought, director of golf at Black Butte Ranch. “Not only do the rates drop, but you have a September feel of being a little colder in the morning and then getting up to 75 degrees.”

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