109
THE RESORT
AT THE MOUNTAIN
Pine Cone Nine
PAR 4 426 YARDS
Welches, OR
503.622.3151
www.theresort.com
From the very beginning, you notice something special about this place on the
shoulder of majestic Mount Hood. Like, on the very first hole, you step over a serious
salmon working its way up what they affectionately call the Wee Burn. As it works its
way down the left side of the first fairway on the Pine Cone Nine, Wee Burn—not the
salmon—can become the big pain, a hazard pinching in the left side of the fairway
as you try to avoid the bunker on the right side of the fairway.
While saving salmon has been a 10-year-long project, The Resort at The Mountain
golf course has been there nearly as long as the mountain, debuting in 1928 as
Oregon's first resort golf course. Over the years, the resort has added holes—it now
has three nines—to become a haven for golfers in the summer and skiers in the
winter. In one of his final projects, John Harbottle III added bunkers, like those on the
first hole of Pine Cone, and made as much use of the Wee Burn—a tributary to the
nearby Salmon River—as he could.
The key at the first is a drive that avoids the burn and the bunker, although there
are those who can drive it over the bunker for a much shorter approach to a two-
tiered green guarded on the left by a deep bunker. Only the bombers should apply,
however, as it is 250 yards to clear the back of the fairway bunker, aided perhaps by
the resort's 1,300-foot elevation, but probably not enough.
1
Photograph by Gary Randall
