96 HOLING OUT This month, Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, opened a new short course with one feature in particular that will capture attention. Cliffhangers is a new 18-hole parthree layout that has been created by resort owner Johnny Morris and his son John Paul and is the third par-three course at Big Cedar Lodge, joining the nine-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed Top of The Rock and the 13-hole Mountain Top, designed by Gary Player’s firm. Big Cedar also has three eighteen-hole courses: Tiger Woods’ Payne’s Valley, Tom Fazio’s Buffalo Ridge and Coore & Crenshaw’s Ozarks National. The new short course has been built on a dramatic 50-acre site high among the Missouri Ozarks and located beneath the resort’s Mountain Top clubhouse and overlooking Payne’s Valley. Morris and his son originally planned for the Cliffhangers site to be turned into a practice facility but after repeated walks of the property decided it would be ideal for another short course. The course offers dramatic elevation changes, panoramic views and has holes carved into the site’s limestone cliffs. The cart path takes golfers under waterfalls and into a cave, for a particularly memorable nineteenth hole, teeing off from the mouth of the cave and through the cascading water. “This is golf on the edge – literally,” said Johnny Morris. “We wanted to create something that celebrates the natural wonder of the Ozarks while delivering an unforgettable adventure for every golfer.” Holes range from 60 to 170 yards, with greens featuring bentgrass and approaches of Zoysia. Greens have some Instagram-worthy locations, including a near-island fourteenth green complex and others built next to or below the site’s limestone cliffs, atop a shelf over water or with multiple tiers. “Cliffhangers reflects everything we love about nature, adventure, and golf,” said John Paul Morris. “It’s wild, fun, and unlike anything in the game of golf today!” Golf on the edge A new par-three course at Big Cedar Lodge has one particularly striking tee location Photo: Big Cedar Lodge
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