A wooden bridge provides a path for golfers to the tee box for the eighth and 17th holes at Cedar Bend Golf Club, set on a peninsula in the middle of a pond. World Photo by Ron Jackimowicz.

OPHIR — For a golf course with only nine greens, Cedar Bend Golf Club has a major emphasis on playing 18 holes.

The course sets its green fees to encourage going around twice. For adults, nine holes costs $25, but 18 holes is just $5 more. (The junior rate of $5 for nine holes or $7 for 18 is hard to beat.)

But more than the lower fee, Cedar Bend offers a different challenge for the second nine holes.

The course north of Gold Beach is the only one on the South Coast with two pins on every green. The tees also are moved on several of the holes between the front nine and back nine, giving a different feel to the hole.

For example, No. 2 is a flat dogleg to the right measuring 347 yards, but on No. 11, the tee is up the hill in the trees, making the hole a little straighter, with nearly the same yardage.

No. 7 is a straight, and flat, par 4. But No. 16, the course’s signature hole, plays from an elevated tee. From the tee box, you can see the rock hillside along the creek in front of the green, which makes it the most scenic hole at Cedar Bend.

The course is not long, measuring 5,892 yards from the regular tees, but offers plenty of challenge.

The biggest obstacle is water, which comes into play on all but the second hole, mostly in the form of Cedar Fork Creek, which winds its way through most of the course. The creek runs clear and low during the summer, and its rocky bed makes it easy to find wayward balls.

In addition, several greens are either slightly elevated or are surrounded by protective mounds. The green for the par-3 sixth and 13th holes is a tricky bi-level putting surface.

Another potential problem for golfers who don’t hit the middle of the fairways is a great variety of foliage.

Trees ranging from native cedar, spruce, pine, fir, alder, willow and cascara to less-common oak, cypress, ornamental plum, English walnut and eucalyptus can be found lining the various fairways.

Many of the trees were planted in memory of club members who died, said General Manager Kathy Boice. Another, a redwood on the eighth hole, was planted in 1936 by the Miller family, which had a ranch on the property before it became a golf course in 1971.

Cedar Bend is owned by its members, who pay a reasonable initiation fee of $250 and then yearly dues of $960 for singles or $1,200 for families.

Club members have the benefit of participating in men’s day on Wednesday, ladies day on Thursday and a couples league on Friday evenings.

Boice said the club lost some of its membership when Salmon Run opened south of Brookings and Bandon Crossings was built south of Bandon. But Cedar Bend has many people who have been members for decades. And the course also always has enjoyed a lot of tourist traffic.

Though it’s only a couple of miles east of U.S. Highway 101 and the Pacific Ocean, the course is set in the peaceful Cedar Valley.

“It’s usually about 10 degrees warmer back here than it is at the ocean,” Boice said.

And though the area gets typical coastal rainfall, the course is playable nearly all year.

Boice credits that to longtime superintendent Alden Boice, her husband, who died earlier this year, and who also was the mastermind of the rock hillside on No. 7/16 and the tee box set on a peninsula jutting into the middle of the pond on the following hole.

“Alden put in drainage all over,” she said.

A bigger problem is cold mornings.

“This winter, we had the most frost delays ever,” Boice said.

But even on the worst days, the course is open by 11 a.m., plenty of time to get in 18 holes.