At the beginning of your turn at Snake River Sporting Club, you pass a wooden booth the size of a turntable. No snacks are for sale here. It’s only the 3rd pit, you don’t need it. The cabin is a relic: evidence that the houses were there before Tom Weiskopfbefore the club, before any of this was given to golf.
In the early 1800s, this area of land near the Snake River, south of what is now Jackson Hole, Wyo., was fertile ground for the fur trade. Prospectors of other stripes came later, settled and built infrastructure of all kinds, including that modest log cabin. Another century passed before Weiskopf arrived. The former grand champion architect turned course designed a course that became the centerpiece of an exclusive golf club. The course opened in 2006, making it much younger than the cabin. Like the cabin, however, it fits the landscape. It seems as if it has always been there.
There was a time when you couldn’t play the course unless you belonged Snake River Sporting Clubor have been invited by a member. But now you can. Last year, the club opened the Sylvan Lodge, a luxurious yet easygoing retreat that fits the property’s frontier luxury aesthetic and sets aside a block of tee times for guests staying there. Reserve a room, and you can play the course.
The club, nestled in the folds of the Teton Range, feels far, far away from any hustle and bustle of work. But it’s not hard to get there. From Jackson Hole Airport, drive 40 minutes south, then bear left on a bright red bridge over the Snake River, through a gate and onto a sleepy access road. On the way, you are apt to see horses. This property was once a working ranch, and parts of it still are. You can also see the river, glistening in the sunlight, in a setting that looks straight out of a Robert Redford movie, as it flows south into Idaho before connecting with the Columbia River and spilling out into the Pacific. On that road, border the length of the course.
Weiskopf’s layout is a story of two nines. The front side is trees, its fairways framed by cotton, birch and aspen. The new one is more open, winding through the alpine meadows. Taxes are a common theme throughout.
Weiskopf, who won the 1973 Open Championshiphe was also a par-4 par-4 champion. Sure enough, you reach one on the 2nd hole, which moves downhill over a brow in the fairway to a green as tangled as those parachutes you threw in gym class as a kid. Bunkers guard the right side. A bench on the left allows you to feed your tee ball on the putting surface if you don’t have the length to fly straight. Eagle is in play. So it’s double bogey. That’s another topic altogether. The course provides a world of possibilities. You can be a hero or unfortunate opposite.
Courtesy Snake River Sporting Club
From the tips, the course measures more than 7,500 yards (on the scorecard, each tee is named after a fly-fishing fly, a nod to another popular activity at the club) but it’s more than a mile above sea level, which means you get the ego boost of golf in elevation – your ball flies farther than in thicker air. You also get the beauty of a tee shot that stretches out against a mountain background. Unless there is above. But that’s up to you.
The landscape does not let up. A stream runs through the par-3 par-3 4, its undulating green guarded by an earth-walled bunker. A lake lies on the left side of the 11th, the longest hole on the course. A steep grass wall frames the green at the par-3 15th, the hole that runs closest to the river — close enough that you can watch the current from the tee and trace the canyon that has been carved for eons.
This small and weathered cabin may blow your mind by the time you turn 18. But it’s worth a thought. Consider it a measure of how far things have come.
These days, “rough” at Snake River means the Sylvan Lodgewhich opened last year and gives external guests a way in an off-limits course. The lodge sticks to the same frontier-luxe register as the rest of the club—a grand lobby with fireplaces, a rooftop with panoramic views of the Tetons, and The Hub, a concierge operation that handles everything from fly-fishing trips to dinner reservations.
On this front, you also have options, including the River Room, where a bar serves cocktails of casual fare and the dining room offers fine dining. A meal that opens with elk meatballs might move on to dry-aged New York strip steak or brioche-crusted halibut, then close with a selection of house-made sorbets. The menu changes with the seasons.
Homesteaders never had it so good.
