Heron Lakes Golf Club (Greenback & Great Blue Course)

Located on Columbia River lowlands just minutes from downtown Portland, and offering clear views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, Heron Lakes is a flagship of urban public golf. At Robert Trent Jones II we believe that golf courses can serve as the lungs of a city. Heron Lakes helps Portlanders take a deep, fresh breath. The first course opened in 1968, while the second was created nine holes at a time in the late 80s and early 90s.

Greenback Course: A Parkland Gem

The original 6,608-yard Heron Lakes Golf Club Greenback Course is a flexible layout featuring elevated, bunker-framed greens and a generally easy-going demeanor. This parkland-style course attracts beginners, seniors, and others who welcome a moderate challenge in a beautiful setting. Greenback incorporates trees, six ponds, and 86 bunkers as it plays toward large, welcoming greens.

Great Blue Course: A Favorite Challenge

But the Great Blue Course at Heron Lakes Golf Club (named after the course's heron rookery) is a favorite challenge among Portland golfers. The 6,916-yard course's fairways ramble between Scottish-style mounds and pose a collection of excellent risk/reward riddles from all four sets of tees.

Toughest Holes and Classic Finishes

Many Pacific Northwest locals consider the 466-yard par-four eighth hole among the toughest to solve. Big hitters can attempt to squeak a long drive between a line of trees and a pond that guards the fairway, but more conservative players will opt for a three-wood or long iron aimed at a directional bunker, leaving a long approach shot into a green tucked against the pond's edge. Great Blue's three finishing holes all present classic risk-reward dilemmas. The par-four sixteenth fairway is split by a lake and wetlands; in a tournament several years ago, NFL quarterback Jack Trudeau made a hole-in-one by hitting a prodigious drive into the left fairway that bounced over a deep bunker, onto the green and into the hole. Seventeen unfurls between a slough and bunkered mounds for its entire 523-yard length. The eighteenth green is tucked behind a lake that runs parallel to the right side of the hole.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones II

Designed by golf course architect Robert Trent Jones II, this course also features fantastic practice facilities, including a driving range, practice green, and separate chipping green. Don't miss your chance to play this fantastic course.