Sunriver Resort Lights Up Oregon

If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten-path golf destination that’s well worth the effort to get there, Sunriver Resort is the place for you.  Located in the high desert country near Bend in the center of Oregon, the resort offers three excellent golf courses—each one unique—as well as an unending array of outdoor activities, lodging and dining choices, and seasonally mild weather year ‘round.

One of the most spectacular shots in Westchester golf history was actually struck at Sunriver. It was a 95-yard wedge that Rob Labritz, GlenArbor’s Director of Golf, holed out in 2013 during a playoff to earn a spot in the PGA Championship that year.  The shot went viral on ESPN and marked the spot, the eleventh hole on the Crosswater Course at Sunriver, as a must-try for thousands of golfers.

Crosswater at Sunriver

Crosswater is the premier course at Sunriver.  Designed by Bob Cupp, Crosswater features open water or marshy hazards on almost every hole as it skirts the Deschuttes and Little Deschuttes Rivers running through its 600-acre site.  Additional features include a couple of daunting forced carries and strongly contoured greens.  There are seven sets of tees measuring from 5,213 to a ridiculous 7,683 yards.  Even with the distance you gain from the high altitude and thin, dry air, you’ll want to choose appropriate tees to avoid unnecessarily punishing your scorecard.

Meadows at Sunriver

A completely different golf experience is found at the Meadows Course.  Architect John Fought paid tribute to American course design from the 1920s with a layout featuring classic features like directional and cross bunkers requiring a tactical, rather than pure power, approach to the game.  For a little extra fun (with or without the kids), tackle the nine-hole putting course located at the Meadows Course.

Woodlands at Sunriver

Yet another choice is the Woodlands Course, a Robert Trent Jones, Jr., design featuring rock outcroppings and impinging stands of trees that favor the accurate rather than the long-hitting golfer.  It’s a tight but not claustrophobic golf course that will hold your interest throughout the full eighteen holes.

For some extra family fun, Sunriver offers Caldera Links, a nine-hole course expressly designed to introduce your kids to the game—or to hone your short-game skills.  Holes from 60 to 185 yards feature bent grass greens and bluegrass tees and are kept in pristine condition.

Sunriver Resort began as a second-home community, so you can choose from a variety of accommodation options including single-home vacation rentals, condos, and the hotel-style Sunriver Lodge.  Nearby Sunriver Village offers a double handful of restaurants to complement the five excellent dining choices offered at the resort itself.

Non-golf activities at Sunriver are practically limitless.  Topping the list has to be float trips of several kinds—canoe, kayak, rafts, tubes, individual or group—leaving from the Marina on the picture-perfect Deschutes River.  Biking is another great way to experience the beauty along 35 miles of paved bike paths, or for the more adventuresome, on the rugged forest service roads nearby.  Guides are available for volcano tours, rock climbing, fly fishing, and many other outdoor adventures.

Resort rates and golf greens fees vary greatly by season.  For details, visit www.sunriver-resort.com.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf