50 Words or Less
Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow is a beautiful, secluded golf course in central Oregon. Tree-lined fairways lead to accessible greens. Can yield low scores. Excellent conditions.
Introduction
If you prefer your golf and vacations a bit further from the beaten path, Black Butte Ranch is calling your name. With acres and acres of forest at the base of the Cascade Mountains, Black Butte Ranch feels more like a nature retreat than a golf resort. But that doesn’t mean they don’t take the game seriously. After a recent $3.75 million renovation, Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow is a course that can hold its own with central Oregon’s best.
Practice Facilities
The enormous Black Butte Ranch is home to two courses – Glaze Meadow and Big Meadow. Both courses have their own complete practice facilities with a driving range and practice putting green. At Glaze Meadow, both the range and green are within shouting distance of the first tee and large enough to house a couple foursomes.
Amenities & Customer Service
At Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow, you’ll find a medium-sized pro shop with all the soft goods you’d expect to find at a quality resort course. There’s also the Glaze Grill, which has a convenient walk-up window, for turn snacks or post-round refreshments.
The carts at Glaze Meadow do not have GPS units. While this is a little disappointing, the course doesn’t demand much local knowledge, so it’s not a big deal.
Learn why Central Oregon is one of the best golf destinations HERE
Glaze Meadow and its sister course Big Meadow are just two of the amenities at the sprawling Black Butte Ranch. This property has homes, condos, and cabins available for groups of any size to rent. The list of activities is nearly endless – hiking, bike trails, kayaking, a spa, and a kids activity center are just the start. Also, they recently added the Little Meadow Putting Course which is a great way to get younger family members interested in the game.
Beauty & Scenery
This section typically focuses on what a course looks like, but Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow demands that I start with a different sense: sound. This is among the quietest golf courses I’ve ever played. That quiet gives space to a wonderful array of natural sounds – dozens of birdsongs, frogs, woodpeckers, and more. Even if you love having music on the course, I’d implore you to let quiet reign for this round.
Glaze Meadow is no slouch when it comes to visual beauty, too. The course is tree-lined and lush, painting the entire visual space in shades of green. Moderate, rolling elevation keeps your eyes engaged, and the course opens up from time to time to provide aesthetic variety.
Tee Shots
Off the tee, Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow provides defined lines of play. Your goal – and the obstacles – are put right in front of you. This is a tree-lined course, though some holes feel open, others cramped.
The fairways are average in width, though a couple stand out as offering more or less room for error. They’re also mostly flat, so you can feel confident that a ball that lands in the short grass won’t take a catastrophic bounce. Most of the fairways are lined with a healthy section of rough before you get to the real trouble. Should you drive it into the trees, it’s a coin flip whether or not you’ll be able to find your ball.
Overall, Glaze Meadow is straightforward off the tee. It doesn’t demand pinpoint accuracy, but driving it wildly won’t lead to good scores. There are five sets of tees from 7,007 yards to 4,909 yards, with four combo sets on the scorecard. Though many tee boxes are elevated, the fairways are not particularly fast, so you shouldn’t expect to gain too much bonus distance.
Approach Shots
Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow rewards accurate drivers with premium approach shot opportunities. The fairways have very modest movement, so your stance won’t be compromised. Additionally, the fairways are left at a comfortable length, so those that sweep the ball will feel more confident in hitting a good shot.
Driving the ball into the rough increases the difficulty in two ways. First, the rough is average in thickness and length and can create a wide variety of lies. If the ball sits down, you can easily get a flier. Having the ball sit up can feel like a break, but that can make it difficult to achieve a clean strike. The other challenge is that the terrain is more uneven off the fairway, meaning the ball can be significantly above or below your feet.
The greens at Glaze Meadow are typically elevated a bit above their surroundings. This elevation combines with the longer fairway cut to discourage running approaches. Outside of that, the greens are inviting targets that are mostly conventional in shape without false fronts or dramatic undulations.
Greens & Surrounds
The greens at Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow will delight the skilled putter who is looking to show off their green reading and speed control. The greens run at a quick pace and are extremely smooth. The undulations are modest but impactful – a stark contrast to nearby Tetherow [review HERE]. You won’t make many putts by simply slapping the ball toward the cup, but this isn’t a course that will force three putts down your throat, either.
The bunkers are the primary defense of the greens at Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow. While they don’t cover a huge amount of square footage, most of them are fairly deep. The sand is soft and consistent throughout the course. If you’re a competent bunker player, these won’t cost you any sleep. If sand traps make your knees shake, do your best to avoid them.
Outside of the sand traps, Glaze Meadow’s surrounds feature the traditional three cuts in the surrounds. The rough isn’t horribly long or thick, but you can draw a variety of lies in it. There isn’t much dramatic mounding or elevation around the greens, so basic pitch and chip shots are all you need to save pars after missed greens.
Favorite Holes
#8 – Par 3 – 172 Yards
This Redan-style hole offers golfers a choice: hit your tee shot to the right where the ball can run onto the green or challenge the deep bunker that guards the front and left sides of the putting surface. The pin placement can change this hole from a fairly easy par to one that’s quite difficult.
#6 – Par 4 – 411 Yards
This is the one tee shot that at Glaze Meadow that stands apart. You’re forced to play over water, though you get to decide how much. Choose the right line, hit a club that will keep you in the fairway, and you should set up a reasonable chance at birdie.
Conclusion
In our traveling party, the Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow golf course was hyped up by one of the locals as his favorite. It’s not hard to see why. Glaze Meadow provides exactly what many golfers are looking for on vacation: scenic views, pristine conditions, and a balanced layout with ample scoring opportunities.
Visit Black Butte Ranch Glaze Meadow HERE
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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