How a Golf Course Sinkhole Led to a Geologic Discovery

An unexpected sinkhole at Big Cedar Lodge gave the founders a dilemma. They chose to dig, and what they found is truly amazing.

This is the story of how a sinkhole led to one of the craziest discoveries in golf course history. 

Johnny Morris the self-made billionaire and founder of Bass Pro Shops, built Big Cedar Lodge, a 4600-acre nature resort, in the Missouri Ozarks, which features golf courses from some of the most renowned course designers in the world.

In 2014 he opened Top of The Rock, a Jack Nicklaus-designed 9-hole par 3 course, but a year after its opening a massive sinkhole swallowed one of the greens and all of the grass around it.

The sinkhole also drained all the water out of the irrigation pond next to it. The water was later rediscovered in an underground cave system nearly 2,000 feet bellow the golf course.

They had 2 options: 

1) Reinforce the hole, fill it back in, and replace the green, or

2) Start digging and see what’s down there.

They chose option No 2.

Over the next 6 years, A team of excavators began hauling out nearly 50,000 truckloads of dirt to ultimately unearth what is now known as the Cathedral of Nature, a 200-foot-deep rock formation that geologists estimate was shaped around 300 million years ago.

Johnny Morris now has plans to build a massive resort overlooking this once-hidden natural wonder. We can't wait to see it.