Gary Player course opens at Top of the Rock

Photos provided by BIG CEDAR LODGE

Officials unveil the course, which reaches varying levels of elevation and runs alongside cave-like formations.

Officials yesterday added a new Gary Player-designed golf course at Top of the Rock within the Big Cedar Lodge resort.

Dubbed Mountain Top Course, the 13-hole, par-3 course is adjacent to limestone cave-like formations with varying levels of elevation. Officials introduced it during an announcement at the April 19-23 Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge event.

“Mountain Top reveals 300 million years of nature,” said Player, a retired professional golfer with over a dozen major championship wins, in a news release.

He also noted the course “transitions between wonderful rock formations and magnificent views.”

Mountain Top Course joins two other courses, Top of the Rock and Buffalo Ridge Springs Golf Course, at Big Cedar. A fourth is coming online in 2019.

Mountain Top Course, where Murder Rock was formerly located, is south of Buffalo Ridge on the east side of U.S. Highway 65. In a valley between Buffalo Ridge and Mountain Top, Tiger Woods’ 19-hole Payne’s Valley is under development, said Big Cedar spokeswoman Janet Glaser.

Woods recently visited Big Cedar Lodge again to meet with Bass Pro and Big Cedar owner Johnny Morris about the course, according to Twitter posts. Woods was on hand in April to announce Payne’s Valley.