The new ‘Cliffhangers’ 18-hole par-3 golf course at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, USA, is expected to open for play in summer 2025.
This story was originally reported by Golf Course Architecture magazine.
Big Cedar Lodge opened in 1996 and already has two par-3 courses: the 13-hole Gary Player-designed Mountain Top and the nine-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed Top of the Rock, which was the first par-three course to host an officially sanctioned PGA Tour event.
Resort owner Johnny Morris, who created the design for the new course, and his team have “high expectations” for Cliffhangers to follow suit.
The new course, which is being built on a hillside adjacent to the Payne’s Valley layout, will feature holes ranging from 60 to 165 yards with significant elevation change and a combination of large and small greens which have severe slopes and tucked locations for challenging pins.
“We wanted to put people in touch with different vistas, beautiful spots of nature all along [the course],” said Morris.
“There were a few question marks along the way [about] how we’re going to fit 18 holes on this crazy, steep hillside,” said Morris’s son John Paul. “I think we ended up with a heck of a routing and some unbelievable golf holes.”
The teeing area for the fourth, which sits alongside a water feature that falls down limestone cliffs, gives golfers views of the surrounding Ozark Mountains and Table Rock Lake.
During construction on the third, the team uncovered a natural limestone cave. “We’ve made it safe and structurally sound,” said John Paul. “We’ve got a big spring above us so there’s water that’s going to be running down. Golfers will be in the middle of one of our natural Ozark caves and they’ll hit a shot out and the waterfall will be coming down on either side, so they will have a little narrow gap to hit their ball through. It’s going to be an amazing experience.”
Morris’s design placed the eighteenth adjacent to the bonus hole at Payne’s Valley, which lies at the foot of a towering limestone wall.
