Tetherow vs. Broken Top: Comparing Two of Bend's Premier Golf Communities

Tetherow's single 18-hole course was designed by David McLay Kidd, the architect behind Bandon Dunes and Gamble Sands, and is marketed as a semi-private, high-desert design with mounding and Cascade views. Broken Top's 18-hole, 7,161-yard, par-72 course was designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and is a fully private, member/guest-only layout. Both carry real design pedigree; Tetherow's course sees a broader range of play given its semi-private positioning, while Broken Top's is strictly limited to members and their guests.

This is the clearest, most consequential difference between the two communities. At Tetherow, this research confirmed -- across two independently sourced references -- that Resident Club membership is bundled with most on-site property purchases and transfers automatically with the home at resale; homeowners are required to carry at least a Social/Resident-tier membership. At Broken Top, by contrast, the club and the Broken Top Community Association (the neighborhood HOA) are confirmed to be structurally separate: homeowners inside the gates may join the club at any tier (Sport, at $4,000 initiation, or Full Golf, at roughly $890/month combined dues for a family) or may not join the club at all. A buyer who wants golf access guaranteed with their home purchase, with no separate membership decision to make, is better served by Tetherow's model; a buyer who wants the flexibility to skip club dues (or join at a lower, non-golf Sport tier) while still living in a prestigious gated golf community is better served by Broken Top's.

Broken Top carries a genuinely unusual structural feature this research surfaced: the Broken Top Community Association (the homeowners' own HOA) purchased the golf club's course and clubhouse assets outright for $6.4 million in a resident-approved 2019 vote, meaning the neighborhood's own homeowners collectively own the club as an asset, even though day-to-day operations are managed by Troon and individual membership remains separate. Tetherow, by contrast, operates as a more traditional resort-community model with a hotel, restaurants, and vacation rental component alongside its residential neighborhoods -- it reads as more of an open resort with residential enclaves (some, like Tartan Druim, separately gated) than a single perimeter-gated community, whereas Broken Top is gated as a whole via a 24-hour manned gatehouse.

Both communities carry premium pricing well above Bend's citywide median, but Tetherow generally runs higher: a recent median sale price around $1.94-2.2 million versus Broken Top's median list price around $1.21 million. Both markets can reach considerably higher for premium/custom properties -- Tetherow's premium homes have reached $3.5-6.5 million.