Rare is the golfer who hasn’t driven past a wide-open patch
of grass and envisioned a golf course on it. Case in point: Jim Ramey, a former
California club pro and avid outdoorsman who
moved to Sunriver,
Oregon, in the mid-’70s. For years
as golf superintendent at Sunriver Resort, Ramey would look longingly on a
nearby meadow at the confluence of the Deschutes and Little Deschutes Rivers, picturing golf
balls landing where cattle then grazed.
As it turned out, other golf-minded types had the same idea.
The result is Crosswater, a garden spot for any golfer who relishes fresh air
and wilderness views between shots. And so subtle is the marriage of golf design
to landscape, one isn’t intimidated by what can be a punishing layout. The
target-golf routing crosses the Little Deschutes on five holes and requires more
than a dozen forced carries over water or wetland.
While labeled as private, Crosswater is open to Sunriver
guests, who flock to the 3,200-acre spread in search of every adventure from
skiing to mountain biking to whitewater rafting. Crosswater’s thrills include
the short par-4 8th and its wetland-encircled landing area; and the
left-swinging, seemingly endless 12th hole, a water-lined par 5 that stretches
687 yards.
No. 14 parallels the “big” Deschutes, which flows peacefully
here, as opposed to the whitewater froth that churns a few miles downstream,
closer to the laid-back tourist town of Bend. The adventure concludes with an 18th-hole
approach to an hourglass-shaped green set hard by the Little Deschutes.
In its short history, Crosswater has hosted the PGA of
America’s Club Pro Championship twice, and both the men’s and women’s NCAA
Championships. Crosswater’s role as a tournament venue furthers its reputation
as a world-class golf facility and casts the spotlight on a work of art
blueprinted by Bob Cupp and his former design partner, John Fought.
