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Central Oregon Golf Tour: Meadow Lakes

Prineville's inexpensive track is an example of what a municipal course should be

By Zack Hall / The Bulletin

Published: April 09. 2008 4:00AM PST

PRINEVILLE — Meadow Lakes Golf Course is not an elite track.

But the 15-year-old facility is everything a municipal golf course should be — relatively inexpensive, easily accessible, and well-maintained.

That is not an accident.

Meadow Lakes was created as an imaginative way to dispose of Prineville’s wastewater while at the same time providing a valuable form of recreation to the people of Central Oregon.

Fifteen years after opening, the course is still delivering on its original promises.

Meadow Lakes will never make the high-profile national “best-of” lists that feature such Oregon courses as Crosswater and Bandon Dunes.

But Meadow Lakes has never tried to be one of those courses.

Instead, it has focused on filling an underserved niche in Central Oregon as a place for local residents to play a good golf course at a reasonable price.

“Every golf course doesn’t have to be Augusta (National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., home of the Masters),” says Wayne Van Matre, Meadow Lakes’ director of operations and course superintendent. “And that’s what we are proud of. We have a very affordable public golf course that people can afford to play. But it’s still quality.”

Meadow Lakes’ weekend and holiday greens fees top out at $35 for a round played during the peak summer season.

A midweek 18-hole round for a local during the current shoulder season runs $25.

And the course sees plenty of play. Last year, about 31,000 rounds of golf were played at the Prineville course. On its exceptionally popular $10 Tuesdays, Meadow Lakes sees about 300 golfers, Van Matre says.

“We are starting to get a pretty good following, which is nice,” says Van Matre, who has been at Meadow Lakes since its inception. “We are starting to get a real good return following from the Bend area because we are a fairly nice facility at a reasonable price. So people have started to return more often.”

It’s more than just affordability that keeps golfers coming back, though that factor can hardly be ignored.

The greens, though aerated last week, are currently playable. And in the peak season, the greens tend to be the best feature on the course.

And like the private Prineville Golf & Country Club east of town, the west-side Meadow Lakes is friendly unpretentious.

Perhaps that reflects the humble nature of the residents of Prineville, a town of about 10,000 people.

“We try to make (golfers) feel that we are glad they are here, and that we welcome them,” Van Matre says. “Sometimes you don’t see that (at other courses). They kind of run them through there like cattle. We try not to do that.”

Good scores are also attainable at Meadow Lakes, thanks to expansive greens with few undulations, generous fairways and, at 6,731 yards from the back tees, a relatively short setup.

The course’s most prominent feature is its water hazards. Meadow Lakes includes 10 man-made lakes, and the Crooked River snakes through the course, coming into play on six holes.

The result is a golf course on which water is present on all 18 holes.

But the water hazards are mostly a mental obstacle. The course has few forced carries over water — the exceptions being Nos. 9 and 18, which both force golfers to hit approach shots over the Crooked River.

But in most cases, the water becomes a factor only if a golfer hits a poor shot.

“Maybe the first time you play (the water is) a little troublesome because you are not sure where it is at,” Van Matre says. “There are 10 lakes out here, but there are a lot of open areas around those lakes that the water doesn’t have to come into play. It can if you hit a bad shot, and it will cost you. But you can still hit in a lot of places and still be in play. All levels can score on (the course), and that is nice.”

Of course, like most tracks, Meadow Lakes includes a handful of extremely difficult holes.

The 351-yard par-4 sixth hole, for instance, can be brutal if the pin is placed to the rear of the green. The three-tiered green, through the middle of which runs a ravine, is protected by a lake to the right. If the pin is back, a golfer’s landing area is tiny. If the ball isn’t hit to the same tier as the pin, good luck with a two-putt.

No. 7, a 420-yard par 4, is long, with water protecting the right front of the green and a large bunker guarding the left side. The Crooked River runs alongside the right of the fairway, punishing a slice off the tee.

And Nos. 9 and 18, a pair of similar par 4s, each forces a golfer to be precise off the tee to avoid hitting into the Crooked River, which runs in front of both greens. No. 18, in particular, may require a long second shot into the green because there is so much room between the river — which only the longest hitters can carry — and the green.

It’s not as if Meadow Lakes is a perfect golf course. But to its credit, the course doesn’t pretend to be.

Minor improvements, such as adding water jugs or water fountains every few holes, or a walking bridge over the Crooked River on the par-5 No. 1 that would greatly shorten the walk from the back tees to the fairway, would help.

But the course is the kind of track on which many golfers develop their love for the game. And that is enough for Meadow Lakes.

“This has been a great project,” Van Matre says. “We’re very proud of it. You wouldn’t (normally) see something like this in a community this size. When we opened it, Prineville was 5,000 people.”

Zack Hall can be reached at 617-7868 or at zhall@bendbulletin.com.

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