EVERY YEAR, the PGA picks only about 30 places to play its Champions Tour. There are reasons Central Oregon always makes the list: 300 days of sunshine, rugged desertscapes, and an audience of snowy giants watching over every drive. Of course, you don’t have to be Tiger to enjoy the best of Bend golf. With 22 courses easily accessible from town, Bend promises a delightful—and, during spring, discounted—escape from the soggy greens west of the mountains. The new Central Oregon Golf Trail, a collaboration of 22 Bend-area courses, makes coordinating your trip a gimme. PGA pro Tommy Berg, who helped establish the trail last summer, can give you insight about the character and difficulty of each course and even help you book tee times at some of Bend’s private courses, such as the much ballyhooed Pronghorn resort. Built in 2006 as a private, gated golf community, Pronghorn opened to the public last May, offering weekend stays at its posh villas and access to its perfectly manicured greens. So go on, pack up your sticks and see how the other half lives—and plays.

STAY

Pronghorn Resort
pronghornclub.com $150

Nestled in a juniper forest, Pronghorn resort’s lavish suites come complete with a gourmet kitchen, jetted tub, two fireplaces, plasma screen, and outdoor fire pit. But our favorite amenity is the freshly baked cookies awaiting your arrival. 

Oxford Hotel
oxfordhotelbend.com; from $189

This year-old boutique downtown hotel pulls off modern rustic with panache: think white leather sofas, silver stump end tables, and splashes of lime green. And if the fire crackling on the plasma screen doesn’t help you sleep, the Oxford’s “library” of five pillows will.

DO

Pronghorn Courses
pronghornclub.com; $145

Pronghorn’s 7,379-yard par 72 designed by Jack Nicklaus offers the best of high desert golfing: fast greens, jaw-dropping water features, and vistas of nine snowcapped peaks along the gently undulating terrain. Pronghorn’s second course, Tom Fazio’s 7,456-yard par 72, features challenging obstacles—like the exposed lava tube on the par-3 eighth hole—that give the place an otherworldly feel (but you’ll need a member or staffer along to play this course). Oh, and both courses’ fairways, not just the greens, are seeded with bentgrass. Did we say otherworldly? We meant out of this world.

Pronghorn PGA Tour Academy
pronghornclub.com; $125/hr

Pronghorn also boasts one of only nine PGA Tour Academies in the country, where PGA pro Joey Pickavance fine-tunes your swing with V1 video analysis. Using three cameras, Pickavance records your swings and then uses computer software to create a split-screen diagnostic, including comparisons to pros.

Tetherow
tetherow.com; $99

Created by Bend resident David McLay Kidd—who also designed Bandon Dunes and the Castle Course at St. Andrews—Tetherow’s 7,298-yard par-72 links-style course was named the country’s no. 1 new golf course when it opened in 2008 by Golf Digest magazine. Perched atop a lava flow that was cleared of trees by a fire 20 years ago, Tetherow bobs and weaves along a rolling landscape of fescue-fringed bunkers, with majestic views of the Cascades at nearly every tee.

Widgi Creek Golf Club
widgi.com; $25

Towering ponderosas line the fairways of this par-72 course, which follows the graceful curve of its namesake creek and boasts one of the longest par 5s in the country (the 653-yard third hole). Fortunately, Widgi’s generous forward tee boxes assure that—despite what Twain said—even novice golfers will enjoy their walk along Widgi Creek.

Anjou Spa
anjouspa.com

Anjou’s 60-minute sports massage ($90) promises to work the links-induced kinks out of your back and shoulders. (But you’re on your own when it comes to working the kinks out of your swing.)

EAT

Chow
chowbend.com
Brunch spot Chow showcases the best of Bend with inventive dishes like bacon French toast (French toast, poached eggs, bacon, and maple- lime hollandaise) and classics like corned beef hash, all made with ingredients from local vendors.

The Blacksmith
bendblacksmith.com
If you like the Ringside, you’ll love the Blacksmith, an old-school steak house dressed in exposed brick and dark woods and serving up perfectly seared cuts of meat and equally well-considered sides.

10 Barrel Brewing Company
10barrel.com
One of the younger members of Bend’s eight-brewery Ale Trail, 10 Barrel’s newly opened brewpub regularly hosts a wait. But it’s worth it for a taste of the Apocalypse IPA.