Brand new Tetherow Golf Course will make Bend, Oregon a top notch golf destination

Golf course architect David McLay Kidd is one hot tamale. He’s a relative up-and-comer and I’m not horribly versed in his works, which include Bandon Dunes down the road and Fancourt in South Africa. But I do know any designer who lands the St. Andrews No. 7 project has more street cred than that internet fighting sensation Kimbo Slice.

I had the opportunity to get a sneak preview of one of Kidd’s newest courses slated to open this summer: Tetherow Golf Club in Bend, Oregon. Bend is a little city in the central Oregon desert that has experienced an incredible boom in the last decade. It’s just a 20-minute drive to skiing in Mt. Bachelor, and is home to plenty of microbreweries and restaurants owned by nationally-recognized chefs. It also boasts a dry, desert climate that allows golf year round.

The best way I can describe Tetherow what I saw of the course Friday is that it’s a kind of hybrid links. It has fescue grass wall-to-wall and relatively wide fairways with these little pot bunkers scattered around them like land mines. But it also has a great deal of elevation and topography variance. The 17th plays through an old quarry mine (it reminds me a little of Bay Harbor in Northern Michigan) and there are ponds and rock-walled water features guarding other greens. Tetherow is also going to include forecaddies in their $175 green fee.

It’s sure to shoot to the top of Bend’s golf offerings, which include nearby Crosswater at the Sunriver Resort, Pronghorn’s Nicklaus and Fazio, older courses like Lost Tracks, River’s Edge and nearby Aspen Lakes in Sisters. These courses and more make Bend a great choice for an extended weekend golf trip in the northwest.

While Chambers Bay just north of here in Seattle is getting all the press this year, look for 2009 to be the year of Tetherow in the Pacific Northwest. The ‘Big Mags’ are scheduled to pay a visit later this year, and expect them all to rave about it in due time.

Brand new Tetherow Golf Club will make it’s way to the top of Bend’s golf offerings in Oregon.

Nearby Crosswater Golf Club at the Sunriver Resort />