2021 CENTRAL OREGON GOLF PREVIEW • THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2021 13
Groundskeepers mow around a new bunker on the 10th hole at Bend Golf Club.
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Bend Golf
Club gets a
makeover
The venerable club’s membership
is completely full for the first time in
16 years as changes are made
BY MARK MORICAL • The Bulletin
B
end has become a hotspot for professionals who work remotely and can live
pretty much anywhere they choose.
Many of these newcomers to Central Oregon are golfers.
So as the housing market has surged in Bend, so has the demand for golf as the
COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year.
Proof of the increase in the popularity of the
game can be found in the memberships at Bend
Golf Club.
The venerable club’s membership is com-
pletely full for the first time in 16 years, accord-
ing to Bend Golf Club general manager Jeff
Keller.
“There’s a lot of folks moving to town,” Keller
said. “If people can work from home, where do
they want to live? That helps. We’ve done what
we’ve done over the last three years (at Bend Golf
Club), and we’ve done no advertising. So every-
body’s talking about who we are, and it’s been fun
to watch.”
Central Oregon’s oldest club has an-
nounced big changes for this season, includ-
ing more than $270,000 of upgrades that are
under way.
“Once we became debt-free, we were able to
focus our efforts on who we really are as a club,
and what we needed to do to our facility and
course to attract those golfers who shared our vi-
sion,” Keller said.
See Bend / 14