Black Butte Resort shows off new look at Glaze Meadow after year-long re-modeling

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Updated: July 3, 2012

As you stand on the first tee of Black Butte’s Glaze Meadow, you have to do a doubletake. It sure doesn’t look like the same course that originally opened back in 1980.

What you see is the course after the Black Butte Ranch homeowners voted to spend $3.7 million to hire Pacific Northwest architect John Fought to re-model and course. After a year-long shutdown, the course has re-opened and Glaze Meadow looks nothing like it did.

There are new tees, new greens, new bunkers and the first three holes looking nothing like they did before. The opening hole is now a gentle dogleg par-4 instead of a twisting par-5, the second hole is a fair par-5 instead of a tight par-4 and the third hole is a short par-4 with a new green pushed toward a water hazard. The course is a visual and challenging treat.

“We got the holes back to where they were when it first opened,” said Fought. “Things had grown up and was making the course tight.”

So the re-model project included removing 1,500 trees, opening up fairways and adding bunkers along the way.

“We were losing the better players because we were taking driver out of their hands,” said director of golf Jeff Fought, John’s brother. “But now we’ve lengthened the course 500 yards and we hope to get the better players back.”

In fact, Fought hopes the re-model will help Glaze Meadow get such tournaments as the Oregon Open back on the schedule. The course now plays 7,007 yards from the back tees.
The re-model also added tee boxes. There are five sets of tees on each hole, including a new family set of tees built forward to encourage kids and families to play together.