Big Sky Resort Golf Course

Overview: Big Sky Resort Golf Course is an 18-hole Arnold Palmer design in Montana's Gallatin Range. The course runs along the wildlife-rich banks of the West Fork of the Gallatin River, with mountain views, lodgepole pine, open meadow ground and changing elevation. At 6,800 yards and par 72 from the back markers, it is a substantial resort layout, but the natural setting and multiple tee boxes give it a broad range of playing options. The course's high-altitude setting also changes how far the ball travels and how weather can influence a round.

History: Big Sky Resort's official information says Arnold Palmer designed the course in the early 1970s and that it has been updated several times. The resort opened for its first winter season in 1973, and course-history reporting states that the golf course has operated since that same year. The layout was part of the original vision for a recreational community in the meadow, and it remains the resort's only public golf course.

Did You Know? The course sits at about 6,500 ft above sea level. A local history also preserves a story that, when the course was new, a mother coyote raised pups under sagebrush near the third hole and golfers were warned not to follow a stolen ball into the scrub.