Aspen Lakes Golf Course

William 'W.L.' Overdorf designed Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters, Oregon, first nine opened in 1996, second nine in 1999, playing to a modern 7,300 yards. Golf Digest named it the #8 Best New Affordable Course in America upon completion, a distinction that still understates the quality of this high-desert Cascade-foothills layout. The signature feature is impossible to miss: red sand bunkers. Rather than truck in expensive white sand from out of state, the owners discovered that naturally occurring red volcanic cinders on the Cyrus family property could be crushed down into bunker-grade sand, cheaper, local, and visually unlike any other course in North America. Bentgrass fairways, firm mountain greens, and the Three Sisters peaks towering over the back nine. Peak green fee $75-110. Fits a Bend trip as the 'the red bunkers on every other photograph' must-play round alongside Tetherow and Juniper.