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Big Sky, Montana

For Driver Distance, Widen Your Arc

Creating driver distance is all about a wide, even arc, and generating as much clubhead speed as you can.

It doesn’t matter if you’re at sea level, or at high altitude, as I am here on the first tee of Tom Weiskopf’s beautiful Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky, Montana. You’ll hit longer drives if you get these key fundamentals right.

What I like to do is start my swing from my core. While keeping my arms long and wide, I generate clubbed speed by rotating my core and shoulders back and through, as I’m doing in the photo at right.

Timing is everything. If you can’t come back to contact straight and with a square club face, you better start over.

As I’m doing in the photos below, Stay Wide, Watch Impact, and Keep Your Balance.

Kali Quick, PGA, is Director of Golf at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky, Montana

The Soaring Golf Song Of Montana’s Spanish Peaks

Mountain golf is a genre all its own, but mountain golf of the caliber conjured by Tom Weiskopf at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky, Montana, is on a whole new level, literally and figuratively.

Not that it’s the highest track in elevation in America, in Montana or even in its neighborhood — the Yellowstone Club one ridge away grabs that distinction, and the Jack Nicklaus-authored course art Moonlight Basin a few miles to the north, on the other side of horizon-hogging Lone Mountain, comes close — but in terms of making the most of challenging terrain, and creating a hole-to-hole experience that immediately leaves you wanting more no matter what your score, Spanish Peaks reaches some rarefied air indeed.

And don’t let the fact that’s a private club deter you, at least in the short term. With several luxury rental cabins available to the public through the 2019 season, and the under-construction, high-end Montage Hotel set to offer guests course access come summer 2021, golfers who find their way to the soaring peaks of southwest Montana, about an hour’s drive south of Bozeman and not far from the West Gate to Yellowstone National Park, should plan to spend a day immersed in Weiskopf’s handiwork.

At least four things will come to mind as you take the winding, rising road from the village at Big Sky to Spanish Peaks Mountain Club.

The 360-degree sweep of mountain beauty is truly and undeniably awe-inspiring
This place is hopping with home construction — though not one handsome structure interferes with the golf experience or ventures that overbearing, “hey, look at me” ethic found at more than a few private golf enclaves throughout America
Perched perfectly between the front nine below and back nine above, the clubhouse complex is as luxury-meets-rustic welcoming as any comparable structure in the modern American West.
There are smiling member faces everywhere, and they’re not all of a certain, uh, advanced age. This a family club and development through and through and multi-generational enjoyment is encouraged if not expected.

In fact, during a round you’re liable to see mom, dad, kids and a grandparent or two loaded into a couple carts and heading for one of Spanish Peaks’ coolest perks: A “Snack Cabin” loaded with refrigerated drinks, pint-sized hot dogs and snacks ranging from classic candy bars and chips to fresh fruit and health-conscious protein bars. There’s one on the front, one on the back, strategically placed to serve a half-dozen holes, so there’s no excuse for getting parched or letting hunger pangs interfere with even one swing.

Then again, hunger or thirst have a tough time competing with the sheer joy of just being there to follow Weiskopf’s muse, to let his best mountain course’s seductive song of “polished seclusion” carry you through every swing, good and bad, with gratitude.

“I like playing fast, but I would never object to being held up all day at Spanish Peaks,” said Mike Fish, a visitor from Syracuse, New York enjoying his first extended foray into the Montana wild — not only for golf, but for hikes around Big Sky and in Glacier National Park, several hours’ drive to the northwest. “I will treasure this round. It’s special.”

Special enough, indeed, to be rescued from a 2011 bankruptcy filing on the heels of the worldwide economic collapse, which laid many a fledgling golf club low. After closing for a couple seasons to round up partners with the cash, clout and foresight to keep this Weiskopf wonder from disappearing into the woods forever, Spanish Peaks returned in 2013. It’s been adding members and racking up raves ever since.

But what makes the course itself so special, other than its rugged, God-given setting?

For one thing, among modern architects, Weiskopf has always been known for giving his layouts a certain pacing and rhythm that draw the player in right away, asking for his or her best game until the last stroke and throwing in a few features that, in lesser hands, could sink into gimmickry.

At Spanish Peaks, for instance, he designed the 18^th hole with alternate greens — it’s a par 4 to one, par 5 to the other. In either case you’ve got to keep your downhill, half-blind tee shot short of a broad ravine choked with greenery and tall grass — tricky at plus-6,000-feet above sea level — and clear it with your second shot. That could be a simple (maybe) flip wedge to the short green or a big decision to the long one, which hovers on a small cliff with the hotel rising in the distance behind it: hit a lay-up to a relatively flat lie or just go for it with a hybrid or fairway metal? It’s a common quandary on many a par 5, but ol’ Tom manages to give it a little extra pucker factor.

The course’s other three par 5s are just as tasty in their own way, including No. 2, which boomerangs around a long, narrow lake to plateau green, and No, 11, which, at around 230 yards from the members’ tees, narrows to just a few yards between a bunker and piney outropping — negotiate that bottleneck and the green is there for the taking with a well-placed baby draw.

So where is the trademark Tommy W. drivable par 4? That would be No. 17, which tips out at 342 yards, translating to about 305 at elevation for a single-digit player. He puts one bunker right in landing zone, of course, but it’s also an apt aiming point. What the hell — if the wind is favorable, pull the dog and give ’er a go.

But it’s a par 3 that seizes “signature hole” honors. No. 15 is a heart-stopping, suitable-for-framing mountain tableau that just happens to have a broad, inviting green in the foreground. It plays downhill with a water feature left, trees right and behind and the soaring, serrated edge of the Spanish Peaks themselves soaring into the distant horizon.

Might want to take an extra deep breath before pulling the club back here, friends. And when driving down to the green, take a moment to appreciate the way Weiskopf mirrors the shape and line of those mountains on the course’s sculpted scapes. “You might call it peak, or peek, symmetry,” said Mike Fish. He’s right both ways.

In fact, playing this course is a lesson in that brand of man-in-nature symmetry all too few of us experience enough. Every step, swing and breath is a blessing.

Clearly Spanish Peaks has mastered the language of mountain golf, backed by a crack maintenance crew that can bring every hole back to midsummer form within a few days of a freak snowstorm, and even has the chops to erase, overnight, the dance-on-the-green tracks of resident elk.

Fish marveled at the conditioning, and what must be some impressive technology behind it. “I’m guessing there’s a subtle, world class drainage system that each spring prevents the winter snowpack from destroying the manufactured artwork blending in beautifully with Mother Nature’s sloping canvas,” he wrote in an e-mail several weeks after his round there. “How many miles of drainage pipes must be involved?”

And how many miles on the road or in the air is a trip to Spanish Peaks worth? As many as it takes.

If you have time to add rounds at The Reserve at Moonlight Basin (also private but accessible via onsite lodging) and Arnold Palmer’s public Big Sky Golf Course while you’re up there, all the better. But start at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club, and do so while the sun is still high in the sky. By late September, Big Sky’s collective mind turns to winter sports (Big Sky boasts North America’s largest expanse of skiable terrain), and the snow may even be flying by then. By mid-October the golf courses bed down until May at the earliest. (Remember, the course will be closed to the public in 2020 only, then available when The Montage opens.)

Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport is served by Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue and United Airlines, with direct flights from several large cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Reservations/Information:

www.spanishpeaks.findyourbigsky.com

Ski resorts are expanding summer activities; here are 7 that are year-round destinations

After the snow melts, hiking, biking, horseback riding, zip lining, concerts and outdoor summer fun await at ski resorts in the summer season. Many U.S. ski resorts are investing in warm-weather programs and activities to make them year-round destinations.

“Although summer recreation at ski resorts isn’t necessarily a new trend, all ski resorts are seeing a boom in summer visitation and are focused on creating new activities in the summertime,” says Dan Sherman, Chief Marketing Officer of ski.com. “Most ski resorts have recognized the trend and are aiming to attract even more travelers in a variety of ways, including festivals; mountain biking; and on-mountain activities like ropes courses, zip lines, outdoor climbing walls and alpine coasters.”

Developments like Snowmass, Colorado’s new on-mountain activity center; new electric bike tours at Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain; and Jackson Hole’s Via Ferrata — an alpine climbing adventure through suspended bridges and along granite walls unveiled two years ago — are just a few of the initiatives that have enhanced summer recreation at resorts that are primarily thought of as winter destinations.

Here are seven ski destinations to consider visiting this season:

Big Sky

Location: Big Sky, Montana

Big Sky Resort is home to summer recreation like hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding trails and fly-fishing on the Gallatin River. Big Sky is located between Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport and the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Local resort taxes have increased 218% from July 2009 to July 2018 due to increased summer tourism, according to the Big Sky Resort Area District Tax Board.

With summer becoming more popular at the ski destination, two large music festivals have started in the past year: the Moonlight Music Festand the Peak to Sky festival.

The 10 best mountain golf destinations in North America

Enjoy low humidity and soaring drives at these elevated destinations from Vermont to California.

Big Sky, Montana: Best mountain golf courses: The Club at Spanish Peaks, Big Sky Resort Golf Course, Reserve at Moonlight Basin.

Comment: Avid skiers/travelers say Big Sky – while booming – still has that small-town mountain feel like Aspen, Colo., or Jackson Hole 25 years ago. I got my first taste of Big Sky golf last fall, playing both Spanish Peaks and Moonlight Basin – two private clubs purchased by the same owner during the recession. There is limited access to both by renting a home within their high-end communities. High-end resort hotel projects (a Montage at Spanish Peaks and One&Only at Moonlight Basin) are in the works. The resort course, while relatively flat near the burgeoning town, does have a unique hook. It is Arnold Palmer’s first-ever design, dating back to 1973.

Ski in, snowboard out, or snowmobile around this pair of winter playgrounds for sale in Big Sky, Montana

There are a ton of ski-in, ski-out homes out there on the market. In Big Sky alone, just check out these alpine-worthy chalets in Moonlight Basin, Diamond Hitch, and Spanish Peaks. However, finding ranches for sale that also happen to have pictures of snow on the property — that’s another story. But ’tis the season for jolly, wintery, snowflake-filled merriment, and this duo of snowcapped rooflines should give you just enough flurries to start the season right — or at least hold you over until the next real estate roundup.

Moonlight Basin

Big Sky, Montana | 1.13 acres | $5,800,000
7,349 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 6.5 bathrooms
Listed by Ania Bulis, The Big Sky Real Estate Co.

This incredible custom-built home is perched on the hill with commanding views of the Spanish Peaks and has phenomenal ski access. Conveniently located in the heart of the Moonlight Basin community, this well-crafted and thoughtfully planned home has ample space for family and friends and is the perfect mountain ski home. —Ania Bulis, The Big Sky Real Estate Co.

Yellowstone Club

Big Sky, Montana | 2.41 acres | $8,750,000
6,882 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 5.5 bathrooms
Listed by Dave Kisko, Yellowstone Club Realty

The exterior of this mountain home welcomes you with natural landscaping, several two-dot sandstone patios, an outdoor hot tub, and classic fire pit. On the inside, history and functionality join forces to add yet another layer of character—the floors are reclaimed fir from an historic Montana schoolhouse and an Alaskan cannery; the stairs are made of ocean side pier wood; countertops are horse stall planks; and the ceiling and wall paneling is recycled corral boards. Combine the richness of these woods with an imaginative design that gently echoes the classic lodges of Yellowstone Park, and you begin to see why this home is so compelling. The layout delivers intimacy without sacrificing spaciousness. —Yellowstone Club

Real Estate Roundup: Ski In, Ski Out

Ski in, snowboard out, or snowmobile around this pair of winter playgrounds for sale in Big Sky, Montana.

Moonlight Basin

Big Sky, Montana | 1.13 acres | $5,800,000
7,349 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 6.5 bathrooms
Listed by Ania Bulis, The Big Sky Real Estate Co.

“This incredible custom-built home is perched on the hill with commanding views of the Spanish Peaks and has phenomenal ski access. Conveniently located in the heart of the Moonlight Basin community, this well-crafted and thoughtfully planned home has ample space for family and friends and is the perfect mountain ski home”. —Ania Bulis, The Big Sky Real Estate Co.

Yellowstone Club

Big Sky, Montana | 2.41 acres | $8,750,000
6,882 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 5.5 bathrooms
Listed by Dave Kisko, Yellowstone Club Realty

“The exterior of this mountain home welcomes you with natural landscaping, several two-dot sandstone patios, an outdoor hot tub, and classic fire pit. On the inside, history and functionality join forces to add yet another layer of character—the floors are reclaimed fir from an historic Montana schoolhouse and an Alaskan cannery; the stairs are made of ocean side pier wood; countertops are horse stall planks; and the ceiling and wall paneling is recycled corral boards. Combine the richness of these woods with an imaginative design that gently echoes the classic lodges of Yellowstone Park, and you begin to see why this home is so compelling. The layout delivers intimacy without sacrificing spaciousness.” —Yellowstone Club

A Ski Resort Grows Under an Expansive Montana Sky

BIG SKY, Mont. — Stephen Kircher has fond memories of the first time he visited Big Sky Resort, in 1976. A native of Michigan, he traveled to Montana on a reconnaissance mission with his family, the owners of Boyne Resorts. Having passed on opportunities to buy Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming, his father, Everett, was considering adding Big Sky Resort to the company’s growing portfolio.

“Big Sky was a far cry from what it is today,” said Mr. Kircher, now 52 and president and chief executive of Boyne Resorts, which his father founded in the 1940s. The resort had four chairlifts, 70,000 skier visits per year and a gravel road from Highway 191 to its base. “There was one direct flight to Bozeman, and that was from Billings,” he added.

Even so, the family saw promise in the expansive resort, 40 miles south of Bozeman and about 20 miles north of the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. “It was a blue bird day,” he said, referring to the azure sky, “and I remember seeing Lone Mountain as we came out of the canyon. We said ‘Dad, we have to do this.’” And they did, paying $8.5 million.

Forty years later, the Big Sky area is in the midst of a building boom, with an estimated $1 billion in development set to go up over the next decade.

The resort, which plans to spend $150 million on improvements between now and 2025, is one of three entities looking to transform the area. With 5,800 skiable acres and 4,350 feet from its highest point on Lone Mountain to its base, Big Sky Resort is one of the country’s largest ski areas. Yet it is still relatively undiscovered.

Big Sky has “this enormous ski area with only 500,000 skier visits a year versus Vail at more than two million,” said Matthew E. Kidd, a principal in CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm that bought the nearby Yellowstone Club out of bankruptcy in 2009. After getting the Yellowstone Club, which runs its own private ski operation, on solid footing, CrossHarbor saw an opportunity to develop luxury real estate outside the club. In 2013, it bought two other struggling Big Sky developments: Spanish Peaks Mountain Club and Moonlight Basin. CrossHarbor formed the Lone Mountain Land Company to oversee its real estate development outside of the Yellowstone Club.

The community of Big Sky, which has a year-round population of about 2,500, is also brimming with new construction. Most commercial development is in Big Sky Town Center, a 165-acre development between the highway and Big Sky Resort. In the last few years, the area has evolved into a downtown commercial district with shops, restaurants, a movie theater, an amphitheater and an ice-skating rink. In late 2014, Big Sky got its first full-service grocery store, and in December 2015 the new Big Sky Medical Center began offering emergency services, diagnostics and inpatient care.

For 40 years, the absence of a downtown had been “the rap against Big Sky,” Mr. Kircher said. “Everything is coalescing at a fast rate, and we are finally getting a town center.”

Some of Big Sky’s growth reflects what’s happening in the region. Bozeman’s population has more than doubled to 43,000 since Mr. Kircher’s first visit. Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport now has more than a dozen direct flights, including the recent addition of flights from Dallas-Fort Worth. Nearly a million cars pass by Big Sky every year; much of that traffic is bound for Yellowstone National Park. Big Sky Resort, for its part, has steadily grown in skier visits, adding roughly 100,000 per decade.

Development has picked up considerably since the recession, said Bill Simkins, whose father bought the land that is now Town Center in 1970, three years before Big Sky Resort opened. The land was undeveloped until the early 2000s.

The recession delayed many plans, he said, but it also gave the unincorporated community an opportunity to gear up for growth. “This is a huge area and it straddles two counties,” Mr. Simkins said. Rather than having a mayor or a city council, Big Sky is governed through special-purpose districts that make decisions about such things as transportation, parks, sewers, schools and development.

In retrospect, the bankruptcies of the Yellowstone Club, Moonlight Basin and Spanish Peaks may have been beneficial to the area’s long-term growth, Mr. Simkins said. Not only are the developments now on more solid financial footing, but the relationship with the Lone Mountain Land Company is “symbiotic,” he said. “There is a lot more cooperation than there was before, and that has helped spur development,” he said. “We need the resorts to be successful for us to be successful, and vice versa.”

As with most growing resort communities, the lack of affordable housing tops the list of local concerns; most of Big Sky’s work force commutes to the area. And at a time when development is ramping up, “I’m concerned that there is a lack of planning for the future,” said Randy Carpenter, the program director for the Bozeman-based Future West, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable community development. “A comprehensive plan for growth for issues of affordable housing, wildlife habitat, water and infrastructure — that has not been done.”

The Yellowstone Club is relatively self-contained. Many of its owners don’t want or need to leave the club, and new owners are often friends or acquaintances of existing members. The success of Spanish Peaks and Moonlight Basin, however, is closely linked to the town and the mountain resort. The amenities and services of Town Center are a selling point for would-be buyers, as is access to skiing. Both developments offer residents ski-in and ski-out access to Big Sky Resort. (Moonlight Basin operated its own ski area until 2013; its ski terrain is now part of Big Sky Resort.) Likewise, prospective buyers initially learn about the developments after visiting Big Sky Resort.

The Lone Mountain Land Company has focused its attention on bringing more visitors — and potential buyers — to Big Sky. That entails building hotels and bringing more foot traffic to the still-nascent downtown. The developer has three commercial projects in the works in Town Center: Construction will start this spring on a hotel, and two mixed-use buildings will house retail, restaurant and residential space, as well as development and sales offices.

Back on the mountain, Big Sky Resort unveiled two new high-speed chairlifts this ski season, including one six-person chair with heated seats and plexiglass bubbles to block the wind. It is also opening new restaurants. These are early steps in a decade-long plan to inject a more European experience into an area, which Mr. Kircher likens to the Alps. The resort will move forward with its plans regardless of what happens elsewhere in Big Sky, he said. Nevertheless, more real estate near the slopes and better services in town make his vision more attainable.

“It’s a three- or four-legged stool,”Mr. Kircher said. “You can’t have more people coming to a place unless there are more hotels and restaurants, and in order for that to happen, you have to have a community.”