Winter Rules: Chahelem Glenn Golf Course

Welcome to Winter Rules, where we look at how our local courses are holding up during the winter months. This week, we take a look at Chehalem Glenn Golf Course in Newberg, OR. This particular round was played on Christmas Eve, and was fittingly frost delayed. In the Northwest, if it’s actually dry around the holidays, then temperatures are likely freezing, and so was the case during our visit. By 10:15am, golfers were finally given the green light, and sent off the front and back side simultaneously to minimize further delays from the frost. Indeed, the greens were thawed by first putt.

Chehalem Glenn, being a newcomer to Portland area golf, has been well built to withstand plenty of rainfall. With much of the course situated on rolling, hilly terrain, moisture naturally drains toward out-of-bounds areas and hazards. This allows much of the playable areas that are lower-lying to remain relatively dry. The flatter hole layouts tend to be located on the higher elevated portions of the golf course, where saturation is naturally less of a factor. It’s also notable that Chehalem Glenn is surrounded by a wealthy amount of forested area which also plays an important role in maintaining stable earth.

It’s safe to say that (unless it’s a particularly rainy time) you will not plug in Chehalem Glenn’s fairways. In fact, throughout the entire course, we only spotted a couple areas that were soggy enough to plug; most notably, the elbow of Hole 9’s dogleg where 2 adjacent hillsides converge. To be able to pinpoint just one specific area of saturation on a NW course in December puts Chehalem Glenn at the top of our Winter Rules destinations. The greens were slightly moist due to the thawing of the frost and temperatures too cold to evaporate the surface wetness. But overall, they have remained dry enough to stay in good shape and provide a respectably true roll. Visit our in-season review of Chehalem Glenn Golf Course HERE.