Consider: There’s almost nobody here.
The Seneca, Oregon-based resort has only 34 rooms and 46 total beds. There is a reversible 18-hole course, a nine-hole course and a seven-hole “gauntlet” course. The idea is to disappear into Eastern Oregon’s wide-open solitude, wide-open golf courses and limited guests. Social interactions are encouraged through nightly dinner seatings and S’mores sessions by the fire pit. But if you want to be alone and unbothered, Silvies Valley Ranch is pure gold.
Silvies’ goat caddies work on the McVeigh Gauntlet Course, wearing Seamus Golf-made custom-designed backpacks to carry a few golf clubs, extra balls and tees, refreshments and peanuts (those are for the goats, but they don’t usually mind sharing) for the round. The McVeigh course is only 7 holes, but very steep in places to get to hilltop greens – hence, the need for goat caddies. (No humans lost their jobs to the goats.)
The courses are as linksy as one could hope for in a high-desert setting, with vast, speedy fairways; bold, imaginative bunkering; and massive green complexes with innumerable hole locations. The spectacular rural setting and 160 feet of elevation change ensures players will use every club in their bag, and every shot in their arsenal.
Silvies’ eight lakeside log cabins have one or two bedrooms with king size beds, luxurious rain showers, a stocked in-room wine cooler, stone floors, hot tub and a comfy living room with fabulous views. Located just down the boardwalk from the Lodge, they’re plush with western decor, including operable skylights, copper sinks, large flat-screen TVs and a fireplace.
Silvies is actually a 144,000-acre working ranch, so should players ever tire of golf, there’s plenty of other activities: ranch tours, pistol and rifle shooting, homestead tours, and biking, hiking and fishing are among the offerings, and the Rocking Heart spa and fitness center offers a rock-climbing wall, a half-Olympic sized lap pool, and a weight/workout room. After all that, you might need a massage, scrub and/or a facial, also available at Rocking Heart.