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WILDHORSE
Golf Course
PAR 4 463 YARDS
Pendleton, OR
800.654.9453
www.wildhorseresort.com
Whether in a friendly match or with the Senior Oregon Open Invitational title at stake,
no lead is safe if you have not yet faced the 18th hole at Wildhorse Golf Course. In
fact, water along the right side of the fairway can commandeer shots not once, but
twice, making a long straight drive necessary to have a chance at par. Wildhorse, a
beautifully manicured links-style layout, is located in the high desert near Pendleton.
Designed in the 1990s by John Steidel, it was the first modern tribal golf course in the
Northwest, and it builds to a terrific finish.
For most of the way, undulating, quick greens protect par at the scenic Wildhorse
course. But on the 18th, getting to the green is the challenge. The hole measures 474
yards from the gold tees with out-of-bounds left and water coming into play about 240
yards off the tee to the right. As you move up sets of tees, the water at right looms
for everyone. The second shot on the 18th still must contend with it, but also with a
bunker on the left. There are reasons to lay up, but the area 30 yards short of the
green actually narrows a bit.
The course sits next to the Wildhorse Resort & Casino, a destination so popular
that the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation—the Cayuse, the
Umatilla, and the Walla Walla—have added a 10-story, 202 luxury room hotel, as well
as a five-screen cinema, while at the same time doubling the size of its gaming floor.
The course is well worth playing; at Wildhorse, the fun does not stop at the 18th hole.
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Photograph by Ric Walters, Studio 421
