Most Challenging Course: Tetherow Golf Club, Bend, 541-388-2582
Like an artist paints his canvas, so has David McLay Kidd seemingly painted occasional spots of green onto the stark high-desert landscape of Tetherow Golf Club, the result equal parts golf course and work of art.
Of course, while that natural, minimalist philosophy – also on display at Kidd’s previous Oregon effort, Bandon Dunes – makes for stunning beauty, it also creates unique challenges.
Wildly uneven surfaces in the place where a green is supposed to go? Leave it.
Thick desert scrub on all sides of the fairways, which most courses would bulldoze to create a second cut of rough? Leave it.
Tetherow’s fairways are broad, but stray off of them, and you’ll be lucky to find your ball – if you even dare reach into the prickly bushes that frame each hole. Large greens with roller-coaster contours make club selection and iron precision key, as a miss of just 5-10 yards on your approach can mean the difference between a two-putt and a four-putt.
The course builds to a peak at No. 17, quite possibly Oregon’s best par-3 outside of Bandon. The tiniest green on the golf course is tucked into a bowl at the base of a shallow ravine, appearing like an island green in a desert sea. The surrounding slopes allow golfers to play the ball in from seemingly every angle, kicking a short iron off the hillsides and letting it roll breathtakingly towards the pin.
So, to summarize, all it takes to succeed at Tetherow are straight drives, accurate irons and great putting, and an ability to focus amidst stunning desert scenery. That’s not so hard, right?