Bar Run Recovers
The Southern Oregon course makes it through the flooding
As Bar Run Golf Course and RV Resort approached its four-year anniversary last summer, Head PGA Professional Cris Risley and his staff had big plans.
“We thought 2025 was going to be our breakout year,” Risley recalled. “Everything was going really good, and then the flood happened.”
The flooding of the South Umpqua River on March 17 last year shut the Roseburg golf course and RV park down for four weeks, and the staff spent the rest of the year getting the course back into its previous condition.
“Now, 2026 is going to be our breakout year,” Risley joked. “We are really hoping this is going to be a big year for us. The course is just about back to where it was before the flood.”
The flood washed out the road into Bar Run so nobody could get in to begin working on the course for three days. By the time work began, the superintendent had left on a scheduled trip to Europe.
“We knew it was coming, we knew there was potential flooding, but what got us was something with the Galesville Dam – they had to open its gates, and that is what really got us,” said Risley, who added that it wasn’t quite a 100-year flood, but closer to 50-year. “It was pretty painful.”
Staff were able to save the tee boxes and greens, but the fairways suffered damage, which led the grounds crew having to reseed five of them.
“It was a lake, all underwater,” Risley said while recently looking out on the 10th and 18th fairways. “The fairways got toasted, we had steelhead swimming on them. No. 12 is kind of a bowl, so it was just holding water there. We had four feet of water in the pump house and that steel bridge out there, the water was about a foot from the top. Our priority was to get the greens uncovered and the tees uncovered. We’d figure out the fairways after that.”
The course was modified to open back up in April as the 12th and 18th holes were cut down to par-3s and the second hole was shortened. There was some damage to the 17th green so it was extended and the bunker was redone.
Two skid steers and two mini excavators were used to get rid of water; but at the same time some water was needed to move the mud, so two water trailers and three water trucks were brought in for that duty. By the middle of May, the course was back to an 18-hole layout.
“It was not great in some areas, but we got it back,” Risley said. “It was just a chaotic mess. If not for our ownership, the Guido family, being able to move quickly and have the equipment and people to throw at it and get it done, we probably wouldn’t be open right now. It was bad. We had quite a few locals who helped us out; it was a community outpouring to help us get going.”
Bar Run initially opened with a 10-hole layout in July 2021, and Risley arrived two months later. The full 18-hole, Par-70 layout, designed by noted Pacific Northwest architect Dan Hixson on reclaimed sand-gravel mines, was ready for guests on July 10, 2022.
The golf course is part of Bar Run’s glamping-and-golf model, as 66 full-service RV hookup sites and six cottages give golfers a chance to wake up and walk to the course. Lodging can be booked one year in advance - including tee times - while the course generally begins taking tee times two weeks out.
There is also a pool, including one of the few lazy rivers in Oregon, that opened in April and drew a crowd when 70-degree days arrived shortly after that.
“We opened the pool a little earlier this year,” Risley said. “Generally, we look at Memorial Day to Labor Day as the window, but October in this particular part of Oregon can be really good so we plan to keep it open longer. We have been fortunate to get good weather this year.”
Bar Run is continuing to expand its options, as an onsite coffee shop opened up recently. A new clubhouse is in the plans, as well as a snack shack and bathroom in the area surrounding the third, sixth, and 13th holes. The driving range will soon be covered, and an enlarged short-game area and practice green are also on the way.
“As they say, you are never done building your golf course and we are always tweaking a little bit here and there,” Risley said. “The flood was a major setback for us, but we were fortunate to get through that.”