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In an era where golf clubs and resorts across the country are scrambling to build their first short courses, one American golf resort is preparing its third.
Big Cedar Lodge, the sprawling Branson, Missouri-area retreat that is the brainchild of Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, is embarking on a third par-3 course project. Its as-yet-unnamed brand-new course is approaching the construction stage. It is expected to be an 18-hole, par-54 layout. No specific opening date has been projected as yet.
Per a release, the new course will sit adjacent to Payne's Valley, the sprawling 18-hole, par-72 course at the resort, designed by Tiger Woods and Beau Welling for TGR Design. It opened in September of 2020 with a made-for-TV match pitting Woods and Justin Thomas against Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose.
Each of the resort's first five courses, plus an elaborate synthetic-turf driving range and a putting course, were laid out by different designers or firms. Top of the Rock, Big Cedar Lodge's first golf course, was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1996. Then, in 2013, Johnny Morris acquired the course now known as Buffalo Ridge Springs, hiring Tom Fazio to renovate his initial 1999 design. Mountain Top, a 13-hole par-3 course by Gary Player, opened in 2017, followed by the Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw-designed Ozarks National in 2018 and then Payne's Valley in 2020. The aforementioned driving range and putting course are attributed to Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, respectively.
More than any other multi-course golf facility other than perhaps Bandon Dunes, whose own third short course is also coming together, Big Cedar Lodge shows that small-acreage golf need not be any less spectacular than the bigger, more formal varieties. Top of the Rock's nine holes are terraced beneath Big Cedar Lodge's shopping, dining and entertainment complex of the same name, and its rock-garden-tour-with-golf-clubs vibe makes it a fascinating attraction unto itself. Mountain Top, with its near contiguous carpet of turf winding around a finger-shaped headland and eye-catching limestone outcroppings, is its own unique specimen in the world of destination golf. With the new par-3 routing set to sit nearby, there is little reason to doubt that it will have a dramatic flavor all its own, despite its non-championship length.
Big Cedar Lodge's focus on par-3 course development is likely based as much on available land as anything else, but it has the effect of potentially reshaping what visitors might consider a full golf day. Playing 36 full-length holes in a day only appeals to certain groups, but just about any visiting gaggle of golfers can be persuaded to tack on an extra short course to the day's main round. Once the new course opens, many Big Cedar Lodge guests could have a great three-day visit where each day includes a big-course round and a short-course round. That's a clever formula of which Johnny Morris is a clear pioneer.
More golf course news & notes
NEW SHORT AT SHANGRI-LA - The Battlefield, a Kevin Atkinson and Tom Clark-designed 18-hole par-3 course, just opened alongside a 27-hole big course at Shangri-La Resort east of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The new loop, whose holes range from 110 to 245 yards and which cost a reported $15 million to build, is just part of more than $100 million invested in the resort since it was bought by current owner Eddy Gibbs bought it in 2010. [LINK: KFOR]
CRYPTO CLUB SECURES SPEY BAY - Links Golf Club, a society of cryptocurrency-and-golf nuts, which formed in late 2021 with the intention of buying a golf course, have accomplished that lofty goal, purchasing Spey Bay Golf Course, a coastal layout not far from Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands. They have hired the architecture firm of Clayton, DeVries & Pont to renovate it. [LINK: The Golf Wire]
NOT JUST A SOOTHING VOICE - Jim Nantz, one of golf's most prominent broadcasters, may be getting his hands dirty in rural Minnesota, as he has been named a design consultant for Tepetonka, a brand-new destination private club. The voice of the Masters will be in the ear of the firm of Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead as they turn the 228-acre property into an 18-holer, plus a short course. [LINK: The Golf Wire]
NET REQUESTED - Old Hickory Country Club near Nashville, Tenn., dates back to 1926, but recently, nearby residents have been noticing errant golf balls wandering farther afield from ever, and some want a net erected along the course boundary in order to keep cars and neighbors safe. [LINK: WSMV]
GOLF-ADJACENT - Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC) is not a green-grass facility. Rather, it's the first team unveiled as part of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL, a tech venture that will bring televised indoor competitive golf to the world in 2023. LAGC's ownership is from outside of golf: Serena Williams, husband Alexis Ohanian and their daughter, Olympia. The team's three professional golfers have not yet been named. [LINK: NBC Los Angeles]
(CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed the design of Big Cedar Lodge’s new par-3 golf course to Tiger Woods and Beau Welling. In fact, the architects who will design the golf course have yet to be named.)
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