by
Dave Phipps
| Aug 21, 2019
The Retreat, Links & Spa at Silvies Valley Ranch isn’t your ordinary golf resort where guests can come and play a world class golf course and enjoy the finer things in life. This resort offers so much more. Not only can you come and play one of only two golf courses in the country that are completely reversible, you are actually in the middle of an active ranch where you can view the day-to-day ranching activities and gaze at grazing elk, deer and antelope herds while dining and have a conversation with a real-life cowboy or a Peruvian goat herder.
GCSAA Past President Sean Hoolehan, CGCS, invited me and his best friend, Hawaii GCSA Executive Director Russell Dooge, CGCS, out to visit and see his operation. Given the location of the resort, we made the best of our trip and stayed over the weekend. To offer a perspective on where the ranch is located, Silvies Valley is nearly five hours east of Portland, Ore., and four hours west of Boise, Idaho. The nearest towns are John Day, forty miles north and Burns, forty miles south. We made the best of the journey and stopped for site visits in Prineville where we met with Steve Reynolds at Meadow Lakes Golf Course and Benny Sullivan at Prineville Golf Club.
Sean and his wonderful wife Kathryn put us up at their home which is provided by ranch owner Scott Campbell. Given the remoteness of the ranch, homes are provided for all the resort and ranch key personnel. No shortcuts were taken when they built these beautiful homes. Crafted with knotty pine interiors, spacious kitchen, dining and living areas, as well as three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. Not to mention, a beautiful view of the Silvies Valley.
When guests check into the resort, they are given a photo ID on a lanyard. There are no cash transactions on the resort, so this enables them to provide one simple bill when departing. Guests are also provided an electric golf car to get around the resort. All cars are parked outside the lodge. Charging stations are provided outside each resort accommodation to keep your golf car charged when not in use. As a day guest, we were also provided a golf car. Day one we played the Hankins Eighteen, followed by the Craddock Eighteen the following day. On Saturday, Sean treated us to a round on McVeigh’s Gauntlet, complete with the goat caddie experience.
The four courses at the resort are designed by Architect Dan Hixon out of Portland. Previous Hixson projects include Bandon Crossing in Bandon, Ore., and Wine Valley in Walla Walla, Wash.
The Chief Egan Course is a 9-hole, family-friendly par 3, set to 875 yards where goat caddies are available to enhance your golfing experience. McVeigh’s Gauntlet is a 7-hole challenge course set to 1,177 yards with a bonus par 2 hole. Goat caddies are also available here.
The featured golf course is a reversible, 18-hole layout that offers two completely different courses, each unique in design, offering varying views and shot selections.
The 7,035-yard Craddock Course is played on the even number days and is the clockwise rotation. It starts with an uphill par 5. It finishes with a relatively short par 4 which may present you with an opportunity to one-putt and show off to your buddies from the porch of the Hideout above. I just so happened to sink a forty-foot put for birdie which was the cherry on top of a perfect day. Either way, there will be a tasty signature cocktail waiting just a short distance from your last putt.
The 7,075-yard Hankins Course is played on the odd number days and runs counterclockwise. It begins with a beautiful downhill drive which runs along the Craddock’s 18th. From the way it’s presented, you really can’t tell there’s a hole coming the other direction. The same holds true for the remaining thirty-five holes. The meticulous effort it must have taken to route these two courses is commendable. Hankins finishes with a strong downhill par 5. They call this the Hixson hole where you are offered a chance to show off your driving length and “nail” your longest drive and win a signature cocktail for your group, complete with a horseshoe-nail-speared candied crab apple, taken from an onsite pioneer crabapple tree.
The Silvies experience would not be complete without a round of golf with a goat caddie. Sean saddled up Caddie Master, Bruce LeGoat, and we chose our best seven clubs and seven of our rattiest balls and headed for McVeigh’s Gauntlet, seven of what I would say are the toughest par threes I’ve seen. The first hole starts with a blind uphill 147 yarder surrounded by slopes and sage. It doesn’t get easier; the second hole is a 140 yarder across a 72-foot ravine to a small and split-level green. By this time, I’m wondering if the seven balls that I packed will be enough for the journey. By the time I get to the fourth hole I’m not sure if this round was going to be worth the time and effort when suddenly I’m presented with a bonus par 2 hole just prior to the fourth tee and next to the tee box is the famous Beer Tree. There you will find a Yeti Cooler filled with Budweiser, yours for the taking! Suddenly, my score wasn’t that important but having fun became the priority. I went on and parred the bonus hole then made par the seventh and final hole as well. It almost rivaled my birdie on the 18th of the Craddock Course!
The golf portion of this trip was only half of my experience at the ranch, but in the spirit of keeping this blog post short, I’m going to be writing part two later to highlight the environmental conservation work being done as well as some of the other offerings available.