Widgi Creek Golf Club (Bend, OR on 08/02/20)

The final stop on our weekend golf trip to Bend was at Widgi Creek Golf Club. My friend has played almost all of the courses in the area so it didn’t matter much to him where we played.

I’ve spent a lot of cash on green fees the last month and hoped to keep the price reasonable for Sunday’s round. Thankfully, I found an online deal for $50 each (walking) which was quite the savings off the regular $95 walking rate. I’ve even seen $112 to ride here, which is crazy considering you can play at Pronghorn in the afternoon for $100.

If you can find a satisfactory price to play Widgi Creek then I think you’ll enjoy the day. I know we did! What I liked most about the course is that it showcases the beautiful area. A relaxed pairing helped as well.

The short 6th allows a chance for birdie.

Widgi Creek is on the west side of Bend and with its location comes that eye-catching forest setting. Every hole is framed by large ponderosa pines and you get a mountain feel throughout the round, just without the severe elevation change that you might expect at a mountain course. Still, it isn’t the perfect property as a major road runs nearby and telephone wires are in play on multiple holes.

Robert Muir Graves designed the course and the highlight of the design for me were the par-3’s. The 5th is a short one (138 yards) and features a clever green. Most of the green’s surface is hidden from the tee. I hit what I thought was a great shot only to find out that the right half of the green is lower than the left half, where the flag was perched on a tier! The right half also features a small back tongue that could make it difficult getting a short iron close. Besides the par-3’s, I thought the green complexes at Widgi Creek were pretty good.

The 11th and 16th are also pretty par-3’s. The 11th plays over water to another interesting green and the 16th is in a secluded spot, with the tee box being close to the Deschutes River. While you cannot see the river because it is in a large canyon, you can hear the rushing water!

Beautiful colors on the par-3 15th.

We played the black/blue combo tees which are 71.3/139/6674. The fairways are extremely narrow, trees pinch tee shots and there are some odd doglegs (the 13th and the 17th for example). I stood on a couple tees wondering if there was even a fairway out there. Widgi Creek is one of those courses where position is important and not one where you’ll want to hit it crooked. In fact, I didn’t hit my driver the entire round, which worked well!

The conditions at Widgi Creek were impressive! The turf was great (very lush) and so were the greens. I never had a poor lie in the fairways and the rough was thick. The greens were quick and pure. The course’s awesome conditioning probably makes it worth a play if you are in the area.

Widgi Creek turned out to be a solid course with its nice conditioning and quality setting. Just know that it doesn’t have the playability of Lost Tracks nor the views of Aspen Lakes.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):

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