Links style through and through. My buddies and i took a trip to Bend recently and handicaps ranged from 12 to 20. This was a ton of fun, if you had a miss, ball could easily roll up onto the green. H... Continue »

Links style through and through. My buddies and i took a trip to Bend recently and handicaps ranged from 12 to 20. This was a ton of fun, if you had a miss, ball could easily roll up onto the green. However, course did reward good ball striking as ball placement is key when going at the greens. Greens are very fast and many of them have have different tiers. Lots of elevation changes, many big shots to go at it from the tee box. Very cool design, excited to play there again.

This is what a golf experience is supposed to be like! This is a one of a kind course. I had one of the best golfing days ever playing here. If you want pure unflitered intense harsh golf this is y... Continue »

This is what a golf experience is supposed to be like! This is a one of a kind course. I had one of the best golfing days ever playing here. If you want pure unflitered intense harsh golf this is your course. I can definitely see why this is such a love / hate course which is appreciated. Golf courses should not appeal to everyone. If you try to make everyone happy you make no one happy. And I was happy. While its detractors may state this is not a true links course Who cares. Tetherow is Tetherow. It is a links course laid out on a seemingly harsh extreme unforgiving landscape. I love target desert golf. And this is extreme links target golf and it is awesome. No bumpbing and running here into the heavily protected elevated greens. Brutally difficult blind tee shots into rolling undulating fairways. Then follow with approaches into tucked pins on tiny slivers of greens protected by the most undulating greens of your life. The greens were the most challenging multi leveled undulating greens I have ever played. It took a few holes to adjust your focus to take into effect every break and dip of the greens. But there was a natural flow to the greens. I loved the putting challenge. Once you walk down from the parking lot and get a view of the massive ballpark that is Tetherow it is awe inspiring. There was a recent thunderstorm so the conditions were softer and more playable than usual. Conditions were near perfect. Having only played here once is the only thing stopping me from saying the conditions were near perfect. Every tee box was lush and level. No dead spots in any fairways, no cart damage areas to bee seen Greens rolled true and never bounced once. No one hits the greens so there are no ballmarks. Bunkers are natural and fluffy, yet compacted! Very easy to get out of. The sightlines from the elevated tee boxes here are remarkable. The designer really does a great job of making every shot appear narrow and hopeless. You cannot miss anywhere here. And great shots get penalized if you catch the wrong slope. One of my favorite rounds of all time and a brewathtaking course. Easily top 10 course for me and would say it rounds out the top 5.

Words that come to mind when I think about my round at Tetherow Golf Club: Interesting, fun, hard as hell, links, creative....

Bend has so many golf options (Sunriver, Pronghorn, Brasada Ranch, Tet... Continue »

Words that come to mind when I think about my round at Tetherow Golf Club: Interesting, fun, hard as hell, links, creative....

Bend has so many golf options (Sunriver, Pronghorn, Brasada Ranch, Tetherow, Aspen Lakes, Widgi Creek, etc.) and the interesting part of all of them is how drastically different they are. I think that is what makes Bend such a great golf destination. Tetherow, however, I would classify on it's own island. Its a rugged links design (David McClay Kidd) that visually resembles a hybrid of Chamber's Bay and Pine Valley. Lots of sand waste areas, fescue grass, and endless amounts of rolling fairways.

Conditions were excellent. Not your typical pure golf experience. The course was designed to play firm, fast, and dry. I believe it is similar to Chamber's Bay in that it is Fescue grass from tee to green. Grass coverage was excellent, with no bare spots on the entire course. Greens rolled true and about a 10.5 on the stimp which out here plays blazing fast with the undulations. Tee boxes, Sand, and rough (if there even was rough) were all in great shape as you would expect from a course of this caliber and greens fee (175$).

My overall experience was excellent. I would return truly because a course of this difficulty cannot be played only 1x before making a final judgement. I would want 5-7 rounds here to really get to know the holes, green complexes, and tee shots before I made an assessment to if the layout was gimicky or not. I had 3 birdies and still shot an 80 which is several strokes higher than my average round. I recommend this course as a must play simply for the experience and if you can enjoy yourself and forget about your score I think you will have a great time. Also, ask for Colton, he was a fine caddie and knew the greens very well.

Went on Bend, OR golf trip this past weekend. Took my brother and two friends to knock off 3 course from the Golf Digest Top 100 Courses you can play. Our itinerary was packed. We flew in SAT, Augu... Continue »

Went on Bend, OR golf trip this past weekend. Took my brother and two friends to knock off 3 course from the Golf Digest Top 100 Courses you can play. Our itinerary was packed. We flew in SAT, August 20th, played Pronghorn, On 8/21, we played Sunriver - Meadows in morning and then Tetethrow in the afternoon. On Monday 8/22, we finished our trip by playing Sunriver - Crosswater.

This review is for Tetherow.

We came to this course because of it's ranking, but also because David Kidd also designed Bandon Dunes. The last reason we came was because of Golfboards. This was the 1st course to have Golfboards in US. After a practice lesson from our caddy on how to use the Golfboards, were were off to play this course. $20 upcharge for Golfboards along with $175 green fee is super steep. We had to take a forecaddy with us too.

Pace of Play was 4.5 hours. We had the course to ourselves on a Sunday afternoon.

Fescue greens were rock hard and running at 12. Add that to the crazy undulations, made for a roller coast round of putting. Windy day added to the challenging layout. This course had more elevation change than Pronghorn and Meadows with some wonderful views of the course. The golfboards were not easy to use and distracted from the golf. Because this was our 2nd round, it took more energy to stay on golfboards versus riding a cart or even walking. If you don't pay attention, you'll crash your Golfboards into rocks, fences, and other hazards normally you won't even pay attention to in a golf cart. The fairways were in good shape, but this type of links course will never yield immaculate conditions. The sand straps were super soft and quite a contrast from Pronghorn. The rough was also non-existent, but hazards are abound everywhere on this course. Will return, but probably won't do the golfboards again.

Played here 9/17/15. First time here. Spent a couple nights at the resort, and had a spectacular view from 3rd floor balcony, right above the first tee. This course looks pretty amazing from that vant... Continue »

Played here 9/17/15. First time here. Spent a couple nights at the resort, and had a spectacular view from 3rd floor balcony, right above the first tee. This course looks pretty amazing from that vantage point. True links course, or as the caddie there puts it, links-style course. More elevation changes than a more classic flat links course, but it certainly felt like I was in Scotland. Day I played was about 45 degrees, windy and raining when I started. Had a little weather break later, but conditions were tough. The course is also very difficult, no matter what set of tees you play. Wild mounding on and around greens made it very tough to get a ball close to hole. Some very crazy fairways as well. Our group of 3 had a forecaddie who was helpful with lines from tee, but he even had trouble reading some greens. On to the conditions: Fairways were thin and hardpan throughout, very little green grass anywhere, and more undulating than what I can handle. Tough even to get the ball in the right area of the fairway to set up approach. Greens were disappointing in some ways, but I understand the concept. As links course, the greens don't look very good, more dirt than grass in some areas, however, oddly enough were still fast and rolled pretty true. Very difficult to hold shots, extremely firm. Don't think I repaired more than 2 ball marks all day. Bunkers are everywhere and can be very penal with shaggy overgrowth around the edges. Looks great but card wreckers if you find too many. Service was outstanding, great options for drinks, breakfast, and lunch, and I recommend in that order. While I left here a little disappointed, I'm definitely going to give it another try. I got my butt handed to me, which is not the fault of the course, caddie or weather. Just tough day overall, but look forward to playing again in slightly better conditions. Designed by David McLay Kidd of Bandon Dunes fame. Give it a shot...

For the final round of my two quick days in Bend, I chose Tetherow. Mainly because I had my OB Sports card from the GK raffle, which made it $125 to play here (any day/time) instead of the normal $175... Continue »

For the final round of my two quick days in Bend, I chose Tetherow. Mainly because I had my OB Sports card from the GK raffle, which made it $125 to play here (any day/time) instead of the normal $175 it would have costed me otherwise. They really don't allow walk-on players here because a forecaddie is required and they book them at least a day in advance. However, I called ahead earlier in the morning and they were able to help me out a lot at the last minute by arranging a play-along caddie to go with me as a single. Basically, he was just on an off-day playing his own round, so they paired him with me to provide my caddie services. It was a bit weird, like just playing with a guy who happens to know the course well and provided some assistance from time to time, but unlike a normal playing partner I was obligated to tip him at the end.

Still, I was grateful that Kelly in the pro shop was able to work things out for me at the last minute. There was hardly anyone out there anyway, so we zipped through in 3 hours without anyone in front of us.

It's hard to compare the conditions at Tetherow to other more "lush" Bend courses because it is a true links style course and things are meant to be browner and tighter. The course was designed by David McLay Kidd, the Scottish designer who designed Bandon Dunes, so it's very much in the same style. No pot bunkers, but links landscaping through the high desert terrain. Anyway, the conditions were good and similar to what I've experienced on visits to Bandon. Fescue fairways cut super tight, but the turf underneath was soft, so not hard to adjust to. The first cuts of rough were pretty short and thin/wispy fescue, so not penal at all. Then, of course there's the longer fescue found on small mounds in the fairways and along the edges. Not as deep, thick or difficult as some links courses, but you never know what kind of lie you'll get. On the first hole, I found myself hitting out of a bush with my ball hovering 2 feet off the ground. I actually hit it clean from there in case you are wondering.

The greens are firm, medium fast and thin turf. Actually a mix of fescue, bent and poa on the greens, which I found interesting. As in Bandon, they look like they will be bumpy, but they roll smooth and true.

I could not have picked four different style courses on my visit to Bend and Tetherow was a fun way to finish this trip here. True links golf always takes some getting used to. That along with the challenging layout and crazy greens here means plenty of challenge. However, it does seem like a course you can score well on when you know how to play all the holes and have all the right shots in your bag. I had one of my best ball-striking days in awhile and was playing great tee to green, but my short game goes to hell on these types of courses. So hard to chip on the super tight lies and long putts from off the green are so hard to judge without a lot of practice. Oh well, really fun and unique course. Definitely recommended, especially if you can get a decent deal like I did.