Aspen Lakes

[SL_Solow]

I just received a notice that Aspen Lakes in Sisters Oregon is being auctioned.  The notice included development sites plus the course, clubhouse etc.  Does anyone know anything about this course?

[Pete_Pittock]

Built by current family ownership in 1996/1997 with William Overdorf as architect. Located a couple miles east of Sisters, OR. About 1/2 hour NW of Bend. Has hosted OGA events and USGA qualifiers. Has crushed red lava in bunkers. Rolling land through ponderosa pine forest. Probably played it 5 or so times, always enjoyable but not "special". In competition with more than a dozen other 18 hole courses within 45/60 minutes. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last July mentioned that COVA (Central Oregon Visitors Association) decided to focus on Bay Area instead of I-5 corridor, which may not be working out. 

[Craig Van Egmond]

That's William Overdorf.       He built some wild greens up there in the great northwest.  He built solid golf courses for not a lot of money.  One of my favorites was Classic Golf Course in Puyallup, WA, a wonderful course on a very small property. Also enjoy Meriwood in Olympia, WA.  He worked with Robert Van Hagge and some other in Florida.  Always had some great stories about Dick Wilson, Bob Hagge etc... 

When Aspen Lakes was built early in the boom, that area did not have a lot of good/great golf courses, but after the boom it suffered by comparison. A solid effort and he took advantage of materials on site for the bunker sand. Hopefully it will come through.

[Emile Bonfiglio]

It is a nice walkable course with some amazing views of the Cascade range. I never liked the red rock bunkers, there was no way I'm hitting my forged wedges out of them. My guess is this course will take new ownership and do just fine.

[Mark Dorman]

I don't know much about Aspen Lakes particular situation.


That's a challenging golf environment, business wise. Restaurant and wedding facilities can make or break you in a place like that, where there was/has become no shortage of either. A course has to be fairly dialed in their quality and service in an area with such stiff competiton.


If you can't draw, or continue to draw customers to those aspects of your course, they can quickly become sources of revenue loss. The wrong director in the wrong department can not only mess up the balance sheets for their years of employment, but damage the reputation of those services for years to come.


At this point the actual golf course is usually suffering, or beginning/about to. And then it's up for sale.


Not saying that happened at Aspen Lakes. They have generally good Google reviews, for whatever that's worth. Golf is a challenging business, especially in thriving, affluent, golf heavy economies like Bend.

[Tommy Naccarato]

Bill was one of the original guys from our Golfweb days!  A really nice and humble man who loved that we loved golf architecture!