Bass Pro, Big Cedar Lodge unveil new golf course

RIDGEDALE — Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris squared up to putt down the cliff on the first hole of his new par-3 golf course.

Downplaying his golf game, Morris tapped the ball, which rolled down the hill, along a slope, and past the hole. The ball went halfway up a hill and down, rolling ever so close to a hole-in-one. He missed it by just about a foot.

Morris wore the same smile that he had on since guests started to arrive for an event to unveil his new “Cliffhangers” course to the world. He looked at his new creation, overlooking the Ozark Mountains, and continued to be in awe of the area he’s loved his entire life.

“This is what I love; just the beauty of our home,” Morris said.

Morris and his son, John Paul (JP) Morris, debuted the course they designed, which runs adjacent to the Tiger Woods-designed Payne’s Valley Golf Course and the Tom Fazio-designed Buffalo Ridge Golf Course. The newest course adds to the portfolio that has made Big Cedar Lodge one of the world’s top golf resorts.

More: Did Tiger Woods contribute to the new Big Cedar Lodge course? Here’s what we found.

The 18-hole course opens to the public on July 4. Rates start at $200 for resort guests and $250 for public guests.

Built into the Ozark Mountains, the course capitalizes on its water features, allowing golfers to tee off from inside a cave behind a waterfall and drive the ball over several different ponds. On the golf carts, participants drive through the various waterfalls along the cliff and even have an opportunity to drive through a bunker en route to the next hole.

Like at Payne’s Valley, the course features different elevation changes and holes carved into the limestone cliffs and creeks of the hill. Holes range from 60 to 170 yards, offering different challenges throughout. Living up to its “Cliffhangers” name, there are plenty of steep edges when driving or playing the course. A cart path winds through a cave en route to Hole 18.

“We’ve had a lot of people come through for preview play who aren’t very good at golf, but they’re having a lot of fun,” JP Morris said. “I’ve been coming down to just watch guests hooting and hollering, and high-fiving. I’m just like, ‘Alright, we did it.’ That’s what this is all about. We’re just trying to have fun.”

The origins of the course date back four years, when the Morris father-son duo began building what they planned to be an “amazing driving range” to complement Payne’s Valley. When Johnny Morris started driving around the range at sunset, he scrapped the idea and began daydreaming.

Once Johnny Morris begins to daydream, he usually makes it come true in the most significant way possible. Whether it’s by selling fishing supplies in the back of his father’s Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield and elevating it to a multi-billion dollar business in Bass Pro Shops, or deciding he wants to build one of the world’s best aquariums, he makes it happen.

This time, rather than creating a driving range, he decided to take it a step further by creating a new golf course alongside his son.

And he made yet another dream come true.

“To me, the bottom line is spending time in nature with your buddies, and your best buddy (pointing to JP),” Johnny Morris said. “It’s about having happy times in life, whether it’s fishing or playing golf. It’s about happy times.”