Photo courtesy of Black Butte RanchThe 14th hole at Black Butte Ranch provides stunning views of fall color and Three-Fingered Jack.

Each fall, most Central Oregon golf course superintendents face the same dilemma.

Every facility must weigh the benefits of keeping the golf course open during what are often near-ideal conditions against the advantages of prepping the turf early for what is usually a long winter, increasing the likelihood of healthy grass come spring.

“I believe always the better we can go into the winter, the sooner and the better we come into spring,” says Chris Condon, the superintendent at Tetherow Golf Club in Bend since before the course opened. “Do we extend the season longer as far as prime playing conditions and maybe suffer in the spring when people are all excited to play? Or vice versa?”

Regardless of what a superintendent decides, before any winter prepping begins, golf courses are often in the best shape of the year. And for most facilities, those conditions typically last through at least mid-October.

Add in discounted rates at nearly every daily fee facility, and the next three weeks or so can be high time for Central Oregon golfers.

“Usually, the fall is the best time for golf,” Condon says. “The putting greens, he adds, are “rolling good. They’re firm. They’re fast. They’re dry. … Overall, usually the golf courses are in fantastic shape during the fall.”

There is good reason for this.

The peak-season crowds have long dissipated by this time of year, and the temperatures tend to be mild, allowing the turf to heal from the hot, busy summers. In addition, prolonged nighttime freezing is generally not an issue yet, and most facilities have already had a chance to aerify the greens and allow them to heal.

Plus, because many golfers have already put their clubs away for winter, a player can often whip around the course in far less time than during a summer round.

“We wonder why (there are fewer golfers) because some of the best golf weather of the year is had during the first half of October and the second half of September,” says Mark Shepherd, the superintendent at Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters since 1999. “Once the morning frost delay is gone, it’s pretty good the rest of the day. The golf tends to shift from late morning to early afternoon as far as good starting times. If you can play during that core of the afternoon when it’s the warmest before it starts to cool, well, it’s really good.”

Of course, playing golf in the fall is not without its downsides.

Courses are mowed less frequently than during the summer (the turf also grows slower in the fall), which means green speeds may vary from day to day. And the weather can be unpredictable. Plus, morning frost delays quickly become the norm.

How long that window of ideal autumn golf stays open in Central Oregon is anybody’s guess.

“I’ve had snow here the first weekend in October before and then that’s gone away and we’ve been great until mid-November,” says Richard Jensen, the superintendent at Crooked River Ranch since 2000.

“And then we’ve had years where it’s snowed at the end of October and we don’t see the turf again until mid-February.

“If any of us could control that weather, I can tell you, I wouldn’t be working this job.”

By the end of October in Central Oregon, nighttime temperatures usually consistently dip well below freezing, which will turn the turf on golf courses beige as it goes dormant for winter.

In addition, superintendents always aim to winterize their golf courses before the first snow falls.

Until then, though, the golf season does not have to be over.

“Golfers don’t know what they’re missing,” Aspen Lakes’ Shepherd says of those who have already abandoned the game for the year. “It’s really nice.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7868, zhall@bendbulletin.com.