Big Cedar Lodge

Few golf developers have the vision or wherewithal to go to the lengths that Johnny Morris has to serve up engaging experiences for every flavor of golfer. For example, Ozarks National, the Coore & Crenshaw course at Big Cedar Lodge, is the one for golf purists like myself. I enjoy some of the kookier indulgences that happen at Payne’s Valley and Cliffhangers, but the sort of seriousness and architectural rigor of Ozarks National – combined with stunning natural beauty – is what I value more at the end of the day. That’s not to say O.N. is not also a fun golf course – it absolutely is. But as a more traditionally-tuned golf experience, it is excellent, and far and away the course on property I would be most excited to play on back-to-back days, given the opportunity.

Payne’s Valley might just be the ultimate modern resort golf course. It hits all of the pleasure centers for today’s traveling golfer: massive scale, player-friendliness, impressive scenery, eye-candy design features, premium conditions and ample opportunities to stock up on drinks. It also offers something wholly unique to Big Cedar Lodge: an island-green bonus 19th hole at the base of limestone waterfalls, with a separate tee-side bar, followed by a winding cart ride back up to the clubhouse. On the way, though, there are several compelling holes like the short par-4 3rd and the long pr-4 17th, where the huge corridor width of the holes gets broken down into compartments that require strategic decision-making as well as execution off the tee. Payne’s Valley is as much a serious golf experience as an amusement-ride on grass.

The golf courses designed by Gary Player are a mixed bag, but Mountain Top is a home run. It enjoys a wonderful piece of ground in the form of a finger ridge of the Ozarks, complete with limestone faces exposed during construction. But it’s the thoughtful design of its 13 par-3 holes – a really nice mix of yardages, bunker schemes and green contours – that makes it shine. One of the best 90-minute golf experiences you can find, with arguably the smoothest greens at a resort full of them.

Condition wise, this course was about as well conditioned as I have ever played. There were times I was standing on the fairways and thinking I was standing on Astroturf. Every grass blade was the same width, height, color, not a weed or other turf variety in sight. As for the layout, it's big, wide, and resortish. Not a whole lot in the way of challenge. Kinda hard to lose a ball here and knew this going in. As for the scenery, pretty spectacular. The 3sum I was paired with had golfed all the courses here on this week and all agreed that Payne's Valley was the most scenic of all the tracks there. But they agreed that for challenge, Ozarks National was #1. I golfed Buffalo Ridge Springs here a few years ago and though it was more challenging and scenic than Payne's Valley. As for the drive back to the clubhouse from the bonus 19th hole, I don't need a Disneyland ride after a round of golf, thank you.

Would I recommend playing here? If you've never played it, yeah, it's a fun round and a good started course to prime your game for the other tracks there. Would I run out and play here again? Not anytime soon.

Perhaps they should change the name to “Over the Top”, because that’s how everything felt. The course design, the condition, the views, the hospitality; all sensational! You could definitely feel a sense of Jack and Augusta influence on the course design. Everything at the Big Cedar Resort is impressive and exceptional.

After your round here, take the drive down the hill and check out the lodge and also go see the other courses up at Payne’s Valley.

How good of a course this is remains polarizing among the golf cognoscenti. Despite its’ newfound appearance in one publication’s top 100 public play list, some say it’s too easy with not enough trouble lurking off the tee.

It’s a big ballpark. These are among the most generous fairways I’ve seen outside of Scotland. And that may be because you can definitely sense the Old Course’s influence on Tiger’s work here in the Ozarks, particularly on the short par 4s. I surmise Augusta National was prominent in his mind as well, given so little rough.

The closely-mown Zoysia around the greens make chipping and pitching endlessly interesting. Those greens aren’t overly contoured. He relies more on the natural gravitational pull of the surrounding valleys and angles of those greens, as well as a handful of nasty false fronts.

Many critics will opine about what Payne’s Valley isn’t. But what is important is what it IS! A Disney-esque experience for golfers has been created, replete with eye candy and maybe the best 19th hole in the world. It is hands down the best ride back to the clubhouse I’ve ever seen. That’s why full tee sheets abide, despite the hefty greens fee.

Excellent course from the conditions to the staff. We played all three courses in the cedar lodge area and they all have very attentive marshals, cart girls, starters, and bag staff is top notch. We never encountered any negativity from any staff anywhere on all 3 courses. Who ever does the hiring and training of all aspects of the courses should be commended.

Great course even though a little pricey. The 19th hole and the ride up to the clubhouse reminds you of being on a ride at Disneyworld. Even though a little costly for our group we will probably be back at some time.

Everything was great from the staff to the course layout.

These were probably the worst greens we played on all year and we play all over the country. Weeds , bare patches and ball marks everywhere. The greens at Ozark national and paynes valley were 10 times better. Scenery and course other than that were a 10.

My 1st choice in the area. Every hole is a postcard. Very challenging and fun to play. Course conditions were top of the line. If you are looking for a quick round, not the course to play. Everyone is taking pictures and enjoying the round. A lot of trouble if you don't hit straight.

After playing Paynes Valley the cart boy said we were in for a big change and challenge at Ozarks so we asked him what he meant. He said: " narrow fairways, elevation changes and blind shots." And boy he wasn't kidding. In our group, I think I heard the same comment after every hole. "Boy, if I played this again I would definitely approach it differently." If you are trying to score well a forecaddy would be worth the money. The conditions were nice but with being past my prime a few of the carrys' were challenging.

I agree with the previous write up. Was not expecting much from the ratings. But it exceeded all expectations.

Really good players will find it boring because it's wide open with a lot of room in the fairways. Every hole is a postcard. The 19th hole might be a gimmick but it was fun to play and the ride after that was extraordinary. Very winding the day we played so it added a little more challenge but I didn't feel it needed any more of a challenge. Played all three courses, Buffalo Ridge and Orarks National and this was the easiest but by no means a walk in the park. I'm from upstate NY so mountains are nothing new but this was an entirely different kind of experience.

Prior to playing this course I ALMOST let the overall 3.4 rating sway me from playing it. Thankfully, I relied on past experience with inaccurate ratings to guide me to give it a shot. The fairways were perfect , ( you can’t get a bad lie!) the greens were quick and true. Bunkers were consistent . The fairways were generous and every other hole is a postcard ! Yes it was a five hour round but just more time to take pictures and replay the previous hole with playing partners ! I’ve played 48 of the golf digest top 100 in the country and believe me - you don’t want to pass this one up !

This was an amazing experience. The course was in great shape and one of the best courses I have ever played. The beverage girl ( Taylor Yakes) made our experience great! I would definitely play this course again.

This course is everything wrong with golf right now. It’s prohibitively expensive, painfully slow (the starter says 5 hours is the goal, it’s often longer), and walking is not allowed. Let me say that again, because there is conflicting information online - walking Payne’s Valley is NOT allowed. Golf is a walking sport, but no one at Payne’s Valley seems to understand that. The reason walking is not allowed is because of the 1.5 mile cart ride through the rock formation from the 19th hole back to the club house. This is the strangest feature I’ve ever seen on a course. Strange in a bad way. Who finishes a round and thinks “I’d like to drive a windy path for 15 minutes up an artificial rock face with fake waterfalls and ponds”. Also the gimmick of the 19th hole island green is just that, a gimmick. We skipped it, after 5 hours I don’t need to hit to another island green - oh yeah, there’s already an island green par 3 on the course! As to the course itself - it’s huge and “pretty” I guess, but the bunkers look good but the sand is poor quality. The greens I found uninteresting. There are no stand out holes that make you think as a player. I wouldn’t play this course again if it were free.

If you’re at Big Cedar play Ozarks National instead, that course is simply incredible.

My group of golfers played all three Big Cedar 18 hole courses, and this was our favorite. You do see buffalos and it is on a ridge, hence the name.

The only negative, was the pace of play at 5 1/2 hours, which is incredibly frustrating. As I mentioned in the Payne’s Valley review, the course Marshalls are super nice and give our cold wet mint towels which are need due to the heat and humidity. They just don’t push people along, which should be their primary job.

The course itself is awesome, especially for the price. I like the layout, and scenery, which keeps getting better through the second nine, with number 15 being their signature hole. The bent greens were great.

If I were to play any of the three courses again, this would be my first choice.

Out of the three Big Cedar 18 hole courses, this course was our second favorite, (Buffalo Ridge was our first) . Note that It is currently ranked as Golf Digest’s #155 course in the country, which seems a little surprising, but i like playing highly rated golf courses.

The pace of play was the best of the three at 4 1/2 hours. There are a lot of blind tee shots and approaches, which is not ideal at a resort course (forecaddies are available which would have helped, but we didn’t see many groups using them).

The course did have a lot of character and was fun to play. This course, while relatively forgiving, certainly had carry shots making it the most challenging of the three. Not a course for beginners.

This course had the best and fastest greens, which was great. There were some very challenging pin positions. Definitely play this course as part of a golf trip.

I really wanted to love this course, given it is a Tiger Woods design and the tribute to Payne Stewart. Out of the three Big Cedar 18 hole course you need to play, I’d rank this as number three.

The first disappointment was the pace of play. When I set up the tee time, I was told to expect 5 hours, but it turned out to be 6, which is ridiculous. The course Marshall’s are the nicest I have met (they give out cold wet mint towels which were awesome with hot and humid temperatures), but they didn’t push anyone.

The second disappointment were the greens. They were the slowest of the three course, primarily because there is so many ridges in them. You basically have to be on the right side of the green each time, or you have a ridiculous putt. Since most people play this course on a one time golf trip without a caddie, you don’t really know where to land the ball on the green (as if you can control it that much anyway).

Positives are that is a wide open and forgiving golf course, and is fun to play. The customer service is awesome, and they are building a new driving range right by the pro-show, although it has not yet opened. The 19th hole (golf hole - not bar) is awesome and the drive back up to the pro shop, while cool, felt a little like going through “It’s a Small World” at Disney. The courses is certainly worth playing once as part of a golf trip, but probably wouldn’t play it again.

Also, $300 is expensive for 6 hours.

Anyone who has been to Disney World with their kids knows that Space Mountain is a lame roller coaster made exciting by being covered so that it is in the dark. Ozarks is similar, in that it has a ton of blind shots, a cheap way for a golf course designer to add difficulty. You can have a challenging golf course--such as the Ocean Course at Kiawah--that is also fun and interesting to play, but Ozarks was simply unpleasant. I've played other Coore/Crenshaw courses that great, but this one is simply frustrating. First, there are blind shots all over the golf course, which makes club selection and direction difficult. Second, the course is completely mis-rated. We played the white-blue combo tees, which had a slope rating of 122, when 132 would have been more accurate. I play a 6050 yard set of tees at home that is rated at 127; the white/blue combo at Ozarks was 6300, with the back nine being 3300 for a par 35. The course is always windy and most approach shots are uphill, so this course played very long. There are no stakes of any kind--red, yellow or white, and many fairways have no rough and fall off into wilderness areas, resulting in many lost balls. If you do play this course, agree among your group to treat such shots as lateral hazards, otherwise you will spend much time and frustration looking for balls that, coming off the club, seemed like a good shot. If it is wet and the course is cart path only, seriously consider doing something else--you cannot see anything from the cart path on most holes, meaning you have to lug 4-5 clubs up to your ball, then discover it is a blind shot, hit, lose sight of the ball, go back to your cart and try to guess where it is for the next trudge out. The course is also dangerous--the designers inexplicably placed the tee box on one par three on the back nine immediately to the right and downhill from the green on a par five that has several blind approaches--you could easily be beaned by a shot just a little off line on the slice side. By comparison, the other two courses at Big Cedar Lodge--Buffalo Ridge, a Fazio design, and Payne's Valley, a Tiger Woods design--are delightful to play, with great views and plenty of challenges.

Buffalo Ridge Springs is just phenomenal. This course has it all: a great setting, a memorable layout, nearly perfect conditions, and is extraordinarily beautiful.