Tetherow Resort — Restaurant in Bend

Avid golfer here. I go to Central Oregon each year for a guys golf trip and was looking forward to re-visiting Tetherow after not playing here for a few years. While the course was in fine shape, the service of the employees was so far below what I'd expect in a $150/ round course my friends and I will probably not be back next year. Now specifics... There was a block group of about 6 foursomes teeing off ahead of us. Not a big deal, the pro shop, starter and marshal assured us they would keep pace (told it was expected to by 4 1/2 hours). They even have a timer in the GPS enabled carts that warns when your behind pace. Well it turned out to be over 5 hours and made us miss the afternoon time we booked for a replay (more on that later). At one point there were 5 groups on a par 5. One on the green, one in the fairway, one just teeing off, the group in front of us waiting, and us driving up from the last hole. We shared our concern with the marshal at the turn and he assured us we weren't that far behind pace and to relax and enjoy the sun. We drove straight from the 18th tee to the pro shop to ask if we could still get out for the second 18 (we figured the course would be empty by 3:30pm). He said there was a six(!) person group playing the first hole and if we played through the course would be "wide open" after that. Well, we caught up with that group on the second tee and they informed us it was completely stacked up in front of them. We played that hole as a group of 9 (!) to see what it looked like after, and saw group after group over the next few holes. We quit and went in to ask for a refund. So the big takeaways are: A) They seem to care more about catering the the larger groups (who they make more money on) than the "daily" players and B)Despite all the technology from the GPS in the carts they have no idea (or don't care) how packed the course is.

Next year....We'll skip Tetherow and go...

This is strictly for the golf course and the experience I had this week. Two of my friends and I visit the Bend area each May for a buddies golf trip and we had played Tetherow before with no issue. The golf course itself is fantastic and a blast to play. However, we were behind a group of four foursomes who did not appear to have much experience playing. We were told that with the new GPS systems in the carts that playing time had been reduced and we should expect a 4.5 hour round. With that in mind we canceled a tee time for an afternoon round elsewhere in Bend in exchange for a replay rate on Tetherow 5 hours after our morning time. The GPS systems are great and they tell you when you are behind pace, which we were from the start. At the turn we were about 17 minutes behind pace and we were told to “relax and enjoy the sun”. Well, it would have been easier to relax had we not had to wait on every shot and that is not an exaggeration. We got to know the group in front of us well as we saw them on every hole. We wound up finishing in just over 5 hours and had to sprint to our next time. We got placed behind a five some in like 4 carts. The staff was kind enough to drive out there to ask them to let us play through and promised it would be smooth sailing once we got through them. When we got to the tee at #2 there were 4 groups on that hole! We wound up playing that hole as an 8-some and when we got to #3 we were waiting on a TWOSOME to finish! And all we could see in front of us were group after group. I felt like the pro shop should have been honest with us about how busy it was and the likelihood of us finishing at a reasonable hour. Thankfully they refunded our fee after we drove in only having played two holes. When we got back there was no apology at all and basically got the feeling that they didn’t care about our experience. I expect far more when paying $150 to play a golf course than what we got out of...

Overall it’s a great place but only giving 4 stars for a specific and important reason, see below. My wife and I don’t go on vacation a lot. We work a lot. When we go on vacation we want to relax, workout, eat good food, go to bed early. This is a great place to do that. The service at the Row restaurant was terrible. We ate there 5 times in the first three days (breakfast and dinner) because the food was good, it was walkable and we have a toddler. We are good tippers and are not in a rush. And we tipped well every time we went to the Row, even as the service sucked, honestly, I just felt bad for the people working there. We want to eat, entertain the toddler and drink (water, coffee or wine/beer). The ability to get water refilled, a second adult beverage (booze or coffee) or one night just our first drink… side tangent: the last night we had dinner there they didn’t bring out our drinks. I couldn’t get anyone’s attention. The dinner arrived, I asked again and the server sent another server to us to ask what we wanted to drink again. Yes the is was on big screw up. They didn’t even comp our drinks. But all 5 times we ate there, it was so hard to get our drinks (even just water) refilled because the staffing was awful and other customers would walk up to kitchen entrance and flag down the severs (I ended up doing this twice as I broke down). After our 5th meal I called and spoke with someone at the resort and explained our issues, they apologized and said a manager would call me, that never happened. I filled out an online survey after our stay and explained this. No one called. It’s been 6 weeks. Very disappointed. I recommend this place if you don’t care about service, but it’s hard to imagine us...