Old Works Golf Course

Old Works Golf Course represents one of golf's most audacious environmental redemptions—a world-class championship layout carved from the site of Anaconda's century-old copper smelter and a federal Superfund cleanup site. What emerges is nothing short of spectacular: a course designed by Jack Nicklaus that has the feel and conditioning of a high-end course but is priced more affordably. The course threads through the industrial archaeology of its setting, with a smelter smoke stack at 585 feet—the largest free-standing masonic structure in the United States—towering in the distance, and most putts break toward it. What makes Old Works truly singular is the bunker design: Nicklaus used black slag—a byproduct of smeltering ore—instead of sand in the course's bunkers. The dramatic black mounds aren't just visual theatrics; they speak to a community's determination to transform scarred land into something beautiful. The course is situated along Warm Springs Creek and measures from 5,300 yards to 7,700 yards, offering genuine routing variety for players of all abilities. The course layout is challenging but fair, with generous fairways but elevations and Warm Springs Creek meandering along the way providing plenty of chances to get some doubles and triples if you get out of position.