Bend’s Jesse Heinly was just getting settled into being a college freshman in September when he played his first collegiate golf tournament.

In that way Heinly, a former Summit High School golf standout now in his first year at tiny Concordia University in Portland, is no different than any college golfer anywhere.

But Heinly got a bit cozier start to his college golf career than most.

His first golf tournament was the Cavalier Classic, a two-day event Concordia hosted at Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Prineville — just a 45-minute drive from Heinly’s hometown.

“It was a lot of fun,” Heinly says of the experience. “I was definitely a lot more comfortable playing because I had played (at Meadow Lakes) a bunch: All the tournaments that I played there that summer and previously in high school, it wasn’t a huge deal (to play in college).”

Heinly MUST have felt at ease. He finished the 54-hole tournament at 4 under par and alone in third place.

“That was definitely nice to start out (my college career),” Heinly says, noting that the Cavalier Classic might have gone even better for him if not for “a few blow-up holes.”

Starting his college golf career so close to home might seem like a fluke — and in a way it was — as it was the first time NAIA Concordia had ever hosted its tournament in Central Oregon.

But as it turns out, many of the small, mostly private, colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest have played golf in Central Oregon this fall.

The Cavalier Classic — a 16-team tournament including both men’s and women’s teams — was the first of four small-school golf events held in this region during the last two months.

George Fox and Pacific staged a men’s dual match in early October at Juniper Golf Course in Redmond. That match was in preparation for the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference’s Fall Classic, which was held last weekend at Juniper. Also last weekend, the women’s NWC Fall Classic was held at Lost Tracks Golf Club in Bend.

For good measure, Portland’s Warner Pacific College, which played in the Cavalier Classic, held a dual match with Eugene’s Northwest Christian University and held a fundraising tournament last weekend at Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters.

That is a lot of small schools visiting Central Oregon, the closest of them being Eugene’s Northwest Christian.

“When the (NAIA’s Cascade Collegiate Conference) asked where I wanted to host my tournament, and because College of Idaho (also of the CCC) is way over there (in Caldwell), and we’re way over here, I just thought that (Meadow Lakes) would be a great place,” says Ronn Grove, the men’s and women’s golf coach at Concordia. “It’s a good golf course, and I thought it would be a really great course to open the season.”

The Northwest Conference has a long history of hosting golf tournaments in Central Oregon.

The NWC women’s championship was held at Aspen Lakes in 2008, the last time it was held in Central Oregon, ending a decade-long run for the event in Central Oregon at either Aspen Lakes or Redmond’s Eagle Crest Resort.

In the mid-1990s, the NWC men’s championship was held at both Awbrey Glen Golf Club in Bend and Black Butte Ranch’s Big Meadow Course.

But after skipping this region the last few seasons, Linfield College in McMinnville, which was tabbed to pick a host site for the NWC’s Fall Classic this year, decided to make a return trip to Central Oregon.

Linfield golf coach Greg Copeland does have a connection with Central Oregon. Ryan Whitcomb, the son of Lost Tracks owner Brian Whitcomb, played golf at Linfield in the 1990s.

And Linfield junior Alex Fitch, a former Redmond High School golfer, works summers at Juniper.

“One thing we can’t do in the Fall Classic is have a tournament at one of our (courses) that we practice at,” Copeland notes. “So we have to go to a neutral site. It’s sometimes hard to get some of the nicer courses around here (in the Portland area), and typically if you don’t have a relationship, you have got to go to a public one. And they tend not to want to give us that great of a deal.”

But both Juniper and Lost Tracks were supportive of being a host for the Fall Classic, Copeland says.

“And you can depend on the weather there better in late October,” Copeland says, though the weather last weekend for the Fall Classic was less than ideal.

“It’s kind of nice to get out of town, too, and get the teams together. And they’ve all been willing over the years to travel to Central Oregon.”

James Robertson, head golf coach for Warner Pacific, also finds booking a tournament in Portland to be difficult.

“Even though the market is bad, the country clubs up here don’t want to work with us,” Robertson says.

“I have two objectives,” he adds. “I want to get them on good courses, and I want to get them off campus for a weekend. My players need to get to know each other, and this is a way.”

Robertson already has plans for another match in March at Aspen Lakes.

“Aspen Lakes was nice enough to get the tee times, and yes, we’re paying,” Robertson says. “But it’s a great course, we can get the tee times, we can get an inexpensive place to stay, and it’s away from campus for the weekend. It’s just a great package.”

Concordia’s Cavalier Classic is not planned to be held in Prineville again in 2011.

That tournament next season is scheduled for March 2012, “and that’s no time to have a tournament in Prineville, because it’s very cold there then,” says Grove, the Concordia coach.

But he has not ruled out a return trip in fall 2012.

After all, golfing in Central Oregon is a treat for his players, Grove says.

“While we can’t go back next year, we want to go back the year after,” he says. “It just worked out really well. It’s not a hard place to get to, and it’s not tremendously expensive. All things considered, it was a great place to play it.”