Overview: Payne's Valley is the most recent edition to the Big Cedar Lodge golf portfolio. Payne's Valley officially opened in September of 2020, with the Payne's Valley Cup ...Tiger and Justin Thom... Continue »

Overview: Payne's Valley is the most recent edition to the Big Cedar Lodge golf portfolio. Payne's Valley officially opened in September of 2020, with the Payne's Valley Cup ...Tiger and Justin Thomas faced off against Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose.
Payne's Valley pays tribute to the Ozarks native Payne Stewart. Payne's Valley is the first public-access golf course designed by Tiger and the Woods-led golf course design firm, TGR Design. Payne's Valley stands out due to its large fairways and greens, beautiful water features and the spectacular 19th hole ... the Big Rock at Payne's Valley.

Clubhouse: The clubhouse has a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding Ozark Mountains, Payne's Valley, the Mountain Top Course and Tom Watson's putting course. The clubhouse has the pro shop and a bar/restaurant on the main level, and the locker room, a private dining room and a pool table room on the lower level. On each level, there is an outdoor area where you could go and sit and eat or just look out at the view. As at Buffalo Ridge, we were the last group on the course for the day, and we decided to eat in the clubhouse after the round. The views of the setting sun were spectacular.
The food was good and the prices were very fair, but the service was very slow. We waited almost 40 minutes for our food ... with only 6 tables being occupied in the restaurant. The manager was great about the situation and took care of 50% of our bar bill. Very nice of her.

Practice Area: The driving range at Payne's Valley is still under construction. When it's completed it's going to be spectacular, and it will be interesting to see how they get the range balls back to the top of the hill. The range looks like it's going to be on a severe down slope, and I have no idea how a ball picker will be able to go back up the hill. In the mean time, golfer's need to drive about 3-5 minutes to the driving range at Ozarks National. The range is not in the best of shape because it has double the people hitting on it, but it was fine.

Course: A very nice layout that flows naturally, but if you are playing the right set of tees the course is very score able. The course has wide fairways and large greens and does not have a lot of elevation change other than #1, a couple of the par 3's and the last 2 or three holes. In my opinion ... it's a very nice course with a lot of good holes, but only a couple of great holes.
The condition of the course was amazing though. Just like Buffalo Ridge the greens are bentgrass, were smooth, rolled true and were a little more firmer than the greens at Buffalo Ridge. The Augusta white sand was just as good as the sand at Buffalo Ridge, and the Zoysia fairways were even better than those at Buffalo Ridge (and I gave those fairways a 10 out of 10). The rough was not as penal as Buffalo Ridge, but you could still not tell if the ball would come out fast off the club face.
The 19th hole ... the Big Rock at Payne's Valley. This was Johnny Morris's idea. Hole was only playing 100 yards on the day that we were there, but the fun is really after the hole on the 10 - 15 minute (one mile) ride back up the "Cliffhanger Trail" to the clubhouse.

Final Thoughts: As stated earlier, a very nice course that has some very good holes and at best maybe 2 great holes and then of course ... #19. The condition of the course was great and it was super playing Tiger's first public access course. With it being Tiger's course though, this was the most expensive course at Big Cedar Lodge, but we got the 2nd twilight tee time of the day and by doing this we saved $135 dollars off the regular price. My suggestion is to play the course when we did ... finishing about 30 minutes before sunset. This allowed us to get some great photo opportunities on the "Cliffhanger Trail" and up at the clubhouse before sunset.