By Tom Bedell
Because of Payne’s Valley 19th hole wow finish, the recommended pace of play at the Tiger Woods-designed course at the Big Cedar Lodge Resort in Branson, Mo., is five hours. Meaning you can get around in roughly the same time as an average visit to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield.Johnny Morris is the impresario of both Big Cedar and the Bass Pro Shop empire, now numbering close to 200 Bass Pro or Cabela shops. The Springfield, Mo., location is the mother ship and calling it a shop is woeful understatement. Yes, it sells a ton of outdoor gear, but it’s really an entertainment complex, with museums, halls of fame, an aquarium, shooting range, archery range, bar, cafe, and indoor waterfalls, in 500,000 square feet. More than 4 million people pass through annually – the No. 1 tourist attraction in Missouri.Not bad for a guy who started selling fishing lures in his dad’s liquor store, commanding all of eight feet of counter space. Morris is a rabid outdoorsman who would much rather fish than play golf, but now he’s also running a nature outpost and golf empire at Big Cedar – five courses and a sixth on the way. And given his showman proclivities, he employs stars: Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have each contributed short courses, Tom Watson a putting course, and the three 18-hole tracks are by Tom Fazio, Coore-Crenshaw, and Woods.
If this isn’t a story of American enterprise, nothing is. Morris, now 76, was No. 253 on the latest Forbes World’s Real-Time Billionaires list with a net worth of $10.1 billion. Morris dipped his figurative toe into the lakes around Branson in 1987 by buying property, drawn to the area for the same reason as many others, its great boating and fishing, ever since the Army Corps of Engineers started damming White River (which begins in Arkansas and ends in Mississippi) in 1913, creating Lake Taneycomo, Bull Shoals Lake (1951), and Table Rock Lake (1958). But Branson has long been far more than a whistle-stop.In the 1890s Branson’s major industry was tomato canning, transporting love apples nationwide and even abroad into the 1960s. (It’s plausible that Branson tomato cans were literally pressed into service as holes on early, primitive U.S. golf grounds.) The main industry today, tourism – some 10 million annual visitors – also began in the 1890s after Marble Cave (now Marvel Cave), was opened to the public.A 1907 novel by Harold Bell Wright, The Shepherd of the Hills, about the Ozark Mountain people he had encountered over eight summers, really lit the fire. By 1918 it had sold over two million copies and in 1919 spawned the first of four movies – John Wayne starred in the 1941 version. As a play, it’s now performed in Branson three times a week May through October at the Shepherd of the Hills theme park. (And who knows how many visitors the hit Netflix series Ozark is drawing to the region.)
By the mid-1950s Branson had become a magnet for live country and western music shows. To be sure, that Branson still exists; there are more than 40 theaters and over 50,000 seats, beating Broadway’s 49,342 and all of them cheaper. It’s entirely possible to go to Branson, never play golf, and still have a rip-roaring time.“Everything here is about God, family, country,” says Mike Stanford, who has driven thousands from the Springfield airport to Branson over the last decade. “The season gets going in March, really picks up from Memorial Day to Labor Day, moves into harvest festivals, and then in November it all goes Christmas, with incredible light shows.”As attractions go, Big Cedar is right up there. There is a plethora of activities centered on family fun and nature, and all three of its 18-hole tracks are on Golf Digest’s best-in-state list. But it is, hence, a pricey one; a round at Payne’s Valley goes for $400 for resort guests ($450 for non-guests). And if packages exist for other resort attractions, the golf rates are fixed.So, it’s worth noting that there are five terrific and less costly alternatives in town. Branson Hills was long rated the No. 1 course in the state until Ozark National at Big Cedar came along. Elevation changes, creeks, and rock outcroppings distinguish LedgeStone Country Club. Both courses have variable pricing; the top rate at Branson Hills is $175, at LedgeStone $145. And the course at the Thousand Hills Resort is a cheeky par-66 Bob Cupp design that is a steal at its $99 top rate.
If intent on filling the dance card at Big Cedar, the resort’s director of golf sales and marketing, Matt McQueary, says a minimum of three nights should be booked to take in all the courses. “But if you’re bringing the family to see everything else the resort has to offer, make it a week – there’s a lot here.” He’s not kidding.The resort may seem outsized, but there’s nothing eccentric about the golf. McQueary suggested that players coming in use their first day to play Top of the Rock, the Nicklaus par-3 course that hosted the Champions Tour Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar from 2014 to 2019.Day 2, take in Buffalo Ridge in the morning and Mountain Top in the afternoon. Fazio’s Buffalo Ridge opened as Branson Creek in 1999. After Morris purchased the course in 2013, he and Fazio tweaked it (more waterfalls and, yes, bison herds alongside some holes) and renamed it. If Payne’s Valley and Ozark National get more recent ink, there’s nothing also-ran about Buffalo Ridge, possibly the toughest of the three.If Jack’s par-3 course, Top of the Rock, is verdant with flora and water holes, large bunkers, and forced carries, Gary’s par-3 layout, Mountain Top, is more rough-hewn, sans forced carries, ample challenge around the greens, and some interesting foot paths along vertiginous rock walls.
Day 3 is for the big finish, 36 to appreciate the distinct approaches at Payne’s Valley and Ozark National. “They’re right next to each other, but couldn’t be more different,” McQueary says. “As far as playability Payne’s Valley is much wider off the tee, with very generous fairways; it’s almost double the amount of turf grass than other courses, some 200 acres, so it’s easy to hit a ball and not lose it. There are a few drivable par 4s and reachable par 5s.”Byron Bell, the president of TGR Design, says that was deliberate: “Tiger has definite ideas how he thinks golf should be played and designed; he’s played in enough pro-ams to realize that most amateurs aren’t that great, and he has no desire to have them get beat up on one of his golf courses. That’s not what he wanted to do.”The challenge at Payne’s Valley is anywhere around or on the greens. “There’s a lot of movement, undulations, tiers and bold slopes,” McQueary says. But here, too, there’s some help as the resort’s predominant Meyer Zoysia grass gives way to Zeon Zoysia inside of 80 yards to the green. It has a finer blade, with tighter lies, “so you can putt from anywhere,” he adds.Stylistically, Payne’s Valley just plain looks gorgeous with its water features and all-white sand bunkers. Every tee is elevated, every flag visible. All of the Ozarks seems visible, actually; there’s a sense of grandeur to it, all about breadth and long views. Okay, and waterfalls.Ozarks National is a different beast, with a grittier, more natural look – tan bunker sands, with rough bunker eyelashes of native grasses. But it has its own grandeur, just a thrilling way the holes unfold and ramp up in difficulty. As is their minimalist wont, Coore and Crenshaw moved little dirt during construction, building along existing ridge lines. While the fairways are relatively generous here as well, they require more precision, the fairways running off straight into buffalo grass; there’s no primary or secondary rough.
A little course knowledge helps here, as the tee shots are trickier to analyze. “It’s as close to a links-style course as you can find in Missouri, and also probably one of the few walkable courses in the state,” McQueary says. “In brief, the challenge at Ozarks National is driving, at Payne’s Valley the short game and putting.”If it wasn’t there already, Payne’s Valley really put the big into Big Cedar, which calls Tiger’s first public design, “The 19th Wonder of the World” (making one wonder what 8 to 18 are). If Bandon Dunes is the Louvre, Big Cedar is Disneyland. One may be more ethereal, the other more raucous. Golfers are lucky enough to be able to embrace both.Certainly that 19th par 3 is a wonder, designed by Morris himself. After putting out on 18 on the regulation course, the adventurous cart ride splashes through water and roams up and over a stony path alongside and under limestone outcroppings. Golfers emerge to a waiting area where they can buy cocktails while preceding groups have their picture taken before launching their shots. The island green is in a moat with an ascending amphitheater of more rock walls – with a waterfall – – some 80 to 135 feet away, depending upon the chosen elevated tee.Put it in the hole and you win fabulous prizes – a gift bag worth $1,000, including a Payne’s Valley flag signed by Tiger Woods. To date, 22 people have done just that, two on the same day once. Is it gimmicky? Unquestionably. Is it fun? Absolutely. If the hole is an example of the Morris design philosophy, one can only wonder about the par-3 course, Cliffhangers, he’s putting together with his son, John Paul. Above Payne’s Valley early last May, the bulldozers were a-rumbling in the limestone cliffsides above the course, shaping some fifty acres into the resort’s third short course, expected to open this summer. A sign at the construction site read: “The most fun par-3 course in the world.”Hyperbole, perhaps. But it wouldn’t be surprising.
Photos Courtesy of Dan Shepard Public Relations