History

The inaugural rounds at Bend Golf Club were played May 3, 1925, when Joe Hixon posted a 10-over-par 44 for the low score of the day. The course was initially nine holes built on 250 acres south of Bend donated by the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company.

For the first two years of the club’s existence, the fairways were dirt and the greens were oiled sand, until turf was first introduced in 1927. The original nine holes are currently the back nine of the modern-day course. And while the city of Bend has since grown to surround the course, the interior is still free of residential development, just as it was in 1925.

The initial nine holes were designed by two-time U.S. Amateur champion Chandler Egan—the renowned architect of Oregon golf courses such as Eugene Country Club, Riverside Golf and Country Club, and Waverley Country Club, as well as a 1929 renovation of Pebble Beach Golf Links with Alister MacKenzie.

In the 1940s, Brooks-Scanlon granted Bend Golf Club another 309 acres, making it possible to add a second nine holes to the course, which were opened in 1973. The course was remodeled in the 1990s by William Robinson. Most recently, architect Dan Hixson designed a long-range renovation plan for the course that was started in 2013.

H. Chandler Egan