A partnership led by a former European PGA Tour player has purchased Tetherow Golf Club from Eugene-based Spring Capital Group.

Chris Van der Velde, who lives in Sisters and has been with Tetherow since its inception, and partner Willem Willemstein have purchased the golf course and clubhouse for $10.5 million under a partnership named Tetherow Golf Course LLC, Van der Velde said Friday. The course is just west of Bend’s gated Broken Top community.

The deal that closed Friday occurred one year after Spring Capital assumed ownership from developer Arrowood Development LLC to finish the course after Arrowood encountered worsening credit markets and slow lot sales.

“The golf course is in great hands with me as director,” said Van der Velde, who had a partial ownership stake in the Tetherow development and was its original director of golf development. “And I have a really strong cash partner (Willemstein) behind me. So I feel comfortable that we can weather this storm” from the slumping housing market and recession.

Tetherow has been almost universally lauded by the national golf press since the Scottish links-style course opened in July.

Van der Velde originally intended to buy the golf course from Arrowood, which still owns a block of lots at Tetherow, through his investment group, Dutch Pacific Golf LLC. Those plans were nixed with Spring Capital’s takeover last spring.

But Van der Velde began talks with Spring Capital last summer about possibly buying the golf course he had helped build since 2005. He eventually partnered with Willemstein, a wealthy Dutch businessman whom Van der Velde befriended in a golf tournament about a decade ago, to complete the cash purchase.

Willemstein, who founded European petroleum refiner and wholesaler Petroplus in the early 1990s, lives in the Netherlands but owns a residential lot at Tetherow, Van der Velde said.

“I think (Spring Capital) thought that it would be better for the golf course and the community to have myself, who was the original director of golf development from day one, and part owner on day one, (as partner in the golf course),” Van der Velde said. “We will go forward running the golf course in a first-class fashion, just like we built it.”

Spring Capital still owns about 160 residential lots around the golf course. Hayden Homes and Arrowood also own lots there.

Bill Bernards, Spring Capital’s spokesman and owners representative, said Friday that the company will lose money on the deal to sell the golf course. But Spring Capital took over the course last spring to complete it and get value out of its remaining lots, Bernards said.

“What was important to us was that when the time came, somebody needed to step up and finish the golf course for the community and what was going on out there,” Bernards said. “I think we did a good job.”

With Van der Velde at the course’s helm, Bernards thinks Tetherow’s lofty image will be maintained, helping the entire development, including the home lots.

“I think they are the perfect owners for the golf course,” Bernards said. “We are going to be working together for the next five-plus years, with the golf course and my lots. I am very happy that they stepped up and took ownership.”

The course will remain private, but Van der Velde plans to make at least some changes to the ways golfers can play it.

One change calls for selling memberships for $30,000, plus monthly dues of $425. Previously, memberships were only available with the purchase of a Tetherow lot. Currently, the golf course has about 60 members, Van der Velde said, adding that the new memberships will go on sale next week.

Also, Van der Velde said Tetherow will continue to make limited tee times available to the public, without membership, until the planned Hotel Tetherow opens, which could be years off. The public fee to play the course last year was $175.

Van der Velde considers increased access to the course critical for Tetherow to weather the recession.

“An important aspect for me is that we stay in touch with the community,” Van der Velde said. “I think when you have this nice of a golf facility that is getting recognition from all over the country and the world, that people have the ability to play it and see it.

“Membership has its privileges — they have first dibs to almost everything at the golf course. And then we fill it in with the community and other people around.”

Tetherow was designed by David McLay Kidd, who lives in Bend and has earned worldwide acclaim for designing the namesake course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort on the southern Oregon Coast and other high-profile courses around the world.

Golf Magazine named Tetherow the country’s Best New Course of 2008. And the magazine named Kidd the nation’s Best Course Architect.

In addition, Tetherow made Golfweek’s list of Best New Courses for 2008.

Van der Velde said those high standards will be maintained.

“It got best new course in America,” Van der Velde said. “And I plan to keep those accolades coming in one way or the other.”