Everyman's Oregon Favorite, Tokatee Golf Club, T. Robinson

[Garland Bayley]

At the beginning of the month, I went on a short trip with a buddy from my club to play some Oregon courses including Tetherow and Juniper that I had not seen. My buddy's favorite of the trip was Tokatee Golf Club near MacKenzie Bridge in the Cascade Mts. Although it is a pretty average layout, it is a wonderful "walk in the park" as it has magnificent views of Cascade Mt. peaks and is a wonderful forest setting. If I were to take my seldom playing wife on a retreat in Oregon where we would play at least one round of golf, I think I also would choose this course. However, don't make a mistake and think it measures up anywhere close to Tetherow or Juniper for golfing interest and fun.

We start from the clubhouse


#1 382/337/307
Tee


Green


#2 437/387/359
Tee


Approach


#3 561/538/523
Tee


Approach


#4 168/148/148
Tee


Green


#5 388/343/319
Tee


#6 508/484/484
Tee


Approach


Green


#7 422/394/365
Tee


Approach


#8 208/188/158
Tee


#9 364/347/326
Tee


#10 422/393/374
Tee


#11 193/170/147
Tee


#12 497/485/485
Tee


#13 416/378/332
From in front of tee to give view around dogleg


#14 363/322/297
Tee


Approach


#15 374/348/330
Tee


Approach


#16 534/487/487
Tee


#17 151/116/116
Tee


#18 418/380/365
Tee

[JohnV]

I always enjoyed Toaktee although I haven't been there in nearly 20 years.  There were a number of interesting holes that required thought and execution. 

Some I remember well are:

#5 with the two trees that narrow the fairway for the second shot.

#6 with the pond on the right that required you to either layup or take on a very tight tee shot and the green is hidden around the corner requiring a hook.

#12 which is a short double dogleg par 5 that can be reached by hitting two good shots that cut corners.

#16 with the creek that crosses the fairway at just about the range I could hit it back in the days of balata and wood.

[Jim Tang]

Garland -

Great pics of Tokatee!I

I've played Tokatee once, back in August of 2003.  I liked the course, didn't love it.  I agree it has an excellent location and I liked the proximity of the course to the mountains; they're right on top of you.  Some holes your drive or approach was to a green dwarfed by a forested mountain directly behind the green.  A very cool visual as your ball is framed nicely by the mountain.

I like how the course was very tight and narrow, requiring more accuracy off the tee than length.  I felt like there might have been a few too many doglegs, but overall, I felt the course was worth playing at least once.

The entire golf course has an out of the way feel to it.  You're basically in the middle of nowhere.  I remember not being able to get cell phone service out there.

[Garland Bayley]

...
I like how the course was very tight and narrow, requiring more accuracy off the tee than length.  I felt like there might have been a few too many doglegs, but overall, I felt the course was worth playing at least once.
...

Actually, I thought the course was wider than a lot of courses in Oregon of similar quality.

Interestingly, the front 9 has only a slight dogleg on one or two holes, while everything except perhaps 18 on the back has at least some dogleg ranging on to a couple of near 90 degree turns around the trees.

[Garland Bayley]

I always enjoyed Toaktee although I haven't been there in nearly 20 years.  There were a number of interesting holes that required thought and execution. 

Some I remember well are:

#5 with the two trees that narrow the fairway for the second shot.

#6 with the pond on the right that required you to either layup or take on a very tight tee shot and the green is hidden around the corner requiring a hook.

#12 which is a short double dogleg par 5 that can be reached by hitting two good shots that cut corners.

#16 with the creek that crosses the fairway at just about the range I could hit it back in the days of balata and wood.

Your list pretty much matches mine. I would drop 6 as a top hole and add 11.

#16 is probably the best hole, with interest on the second shot for both those going for it in two, and those trying to find a layup area.

[JohnV]

I really don't remember much about 11 other than what your picture shows.

I liked 6 because I had to choose whether to layup off the tee or take on the lake.  But, if I took on the lake to the point where I could reach the green, I usually had to also be able to hook the second shot to get around the last trees.  I guess a really good player ( I was about a 10 or 11 in those days) could put it close to the lake and reach from there without the hook, but it would be pretty risky.  All-in-all, I liked the options I was given on both the first and second shots.

I had no real knowledge of architecture in those days (not that I have much now), but I recognized that hole and some of the others as giving me interesting options.  In some ways, Tokatee was one of the primary courses that opened me up to golf course architecture.

[JohnV]

A couple of stories from Tokatee that I've always enjoyed.

A friend worked in the pro shop there while in college.  He would get concerned that the pace of play was slow enough that they last players might not get to finish.  He said that the owner would look at him and say, "Don't worry, we always catch up at dark."

Another friend played a college event there.  One of his teammates came up after the round and said he had saved himself a penalty stroke on #16.  He had driven it into the creek which crosses the fairway, but was able to play it out backwards 20 yards with a wedge.  My friend pointed out that by taking the penalty, he could have dropped it out behind the hazard and been 15-20 yards closer to the green.  The guy didn't get it, just insisting that he had saved the penalty stroke.

[Patrick_Mucci]

I enjoyed Tokatee a great deal.

I also thought it had great potential to be enhanced to an even better golf course.

There's a measure of blandness that hides potentially good/great holes.

[Dan Herrmann]

Patrick - that's well said.   

But I'll tell you - the beauty of the place more than makes up for architectural shortcomings. One of the most scenic courses I've ever played.  A really cool, fun place to play golf.

[Will MacEwen]

The pictures remind me of Whistler GC in Whistler BC.  Mountains in view, trees in play, but not a tricked up mountain course.

[JohnV]

The other nice thing about Tokatee is that it was always reasonably priced.  I just looked and it is $42.00 which is not bad.  Of course, it is remote enough you might spend another $20-$30 on gas just getting there.

[Mike Mosely]

Yes, John that is an excellent price.

[Garland Bayley]

The other nice thing about Tokatee is that it was always reasonably priced.  I just looked and it is $42.00 which is not bad.  Of course, it is remote enough you might spend another $20-$30 on gas just getting there.

Makes you wonder how well they could do if there were one or two more courses there, instead of being the "accursed" single course resort. They are a lot closer than Bandon to the vast majority of Oregon population. What they need is a Eugene Dr. to get tired of DRing and find the land to put Hixson (Bandon Crossings) to work on.

[Craig Sweet]

It reminds me of The Resort on the Mountain in Welches.....

[Garland Bayley]

It reminds me of The Resort on the Mountain in Welches.....

I have not been there, but it is in my mind that they have 3 executive nines. Is that correct?

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Last time I was at Tokatee my watch clicked past 5 hours and 45 minutes and we still had three hole to play.  We walked in. 

Not sure it was exciting enough to endure that very often. 

Lovely setting in the mountains and a great value on a faster day.

[Craig Sweet]

Garland...3 nines, all regulation.  Maybe one or two pretty good holes.

[Richard Boult]

added to our photo tour directory at:

http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Oregon

[Brock Peyer]

Thanks for posting.  Tokatee was a favorite course of my favorite Uncle who is now deceased.  I had never seen the course before but he had told me about it many times.  I love those views out there.

[Dan Herrmann]

Craig - I think Tokatee is a LOT better than Welches.  But you are right up against Mt Hood Nat'l Forest at Welches and have some incredible mountain views, don't you...

[Carl Rogers]

These pics strike as the kind of course that many of you professionals could get your hands on, remove some trees, add (maybe subtract) re-work and enhance some of the bunkering, create some contour in and around the greens and get your self one heck of course ... but do these things with a lot of restraint.

[Garland Bayley]

Last time I was at Tokatee my watch clicked past 5 hours and 45 minutes and we still had three hole to play.  We walked in. 
...

I can understant that kind of pace during the summer when the place must be hoping. We played a weekday after school started a week earlier. The group in front of us let us through on the 3rd hole, and we almost caught the group that had started 30 minutes ahead of us. We playe d in about 3 hours.

I didn't try to capture any of the best scenic pictures. It would have been hard, as we played in the morning, and the sun was coming from behind the mountain peaks.

[Matt_Ward]

I have played Tokatee on a few occasions when traveling through the greater Bend area but frankly the Ted Robinson course is a dated one and could use the benefit of a buzz saw on a few holes.

Carl is right on target regarding the need for a make-over that keeps the spirit of the place but also adds a bit more to the overall shotmaking challenges.

Carl, the place is simply vanilla in many spots -- no doubt it does offer some interesting spots but the quality of public golf in Oregon and in the greater Bend area has come a long ways since Tokatee first came onto the scene.

One great benefit of the course is the relative low cost to play. However, the layout is a bit tired -- and the bar for quality public courses is no longer what it was when Tokatee first opened years ago.

[Garland Bayley]

I just happened to visit geoffshackelford.com for the first time in a while. This is the quote of the day he had up.

"These are my standards to laying out a golf course: Make each hole present a different problem. So arrange it that every stroke must be made with a full concentration and attention necessary to good golf. Build each hole in such a manner that it wastes none of the ground at my disposal, and takes advantage of every possibility I can see."  DONALD ROSS

I think it pretty much sums up the problem with Tokatee. There are about 14 holes presenting the same problem over and over again with few exceptions. However, most golfers love it for the reasons presented above.