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BEAR MOUNTAIN RANCH
Golf Course
PAR 3 237 YARDS
Chelan, WA
509.682.8200
www.bearmt.com
Talk about an infinity hole; this is infinity and beyond. At the seventh hole at Bear
Mountain Ranch, your first thought is not about club selection but rather how the
green blends into the blue of Lake Chelan and Lake Chelan into the massive
Cascade Mountains beyond.
Bear Mountain Ranch is the dream and design of Don Barth, who made golf holes
where others made photographs. The seventh is a par 3 that can be played from as
few as 100 yards to a back tee location of 237 yards. The hole plays downhill and
over a small pond that suddenly, once you've surveyed the landscape, appears
bigger than it is. There is no question you need a club to reach the green, but there
lingers the fear of going too long. Right of the green is a bunker, and beyond is,
well, beyond.
Orchards and vineyards help frame the hole on one of the most scenic spots of a
very scenic—and challenging—course. Bear Mountain is noted for its wonderful, lush
fairways and its prepared greens. Built in 2005, it was quickly recognized as one of
the country's best new courses. There is no signature hole at Bear Mountain Ranch,
but many of them. It is a signature golf course, able to accommodate even the very
best players from a distance of 7,213 yards. It has an elevation loss of 700 feet from
top to bottom, all of which at times seems to happen on the hole you're playing.
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Photograph by Dean Crane
