Travel

Shangri-La Resort Welcomes Ryan Snyder as Director of Golf

Career club professional brings his experience to Oklahoma’s premier golf destination

Shangri-La Resort, Oklahoma’s premier waterfront golf and outdoor recreation destination, has named golf industry veteran Ryan Snyder its new Director of Golf.

The West Virginia native has spent the past 13 years in various golf-professional roles in Florida, including Island Country Club in Marco Island, Eagle Creek Country Club in Naples, and The Boca Raton Resort & Club. Most recently, Snyder served as director of golf at Indian Spring Country Club in Boynton Beach. He started his golf career at Kanawha Country Club in his hometown of South Charleston, W. Va. – a club where his father was a member – before moving on to courses in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia.

“The Shangri-La team is extremely pleased and fortunate to have Ryan Snyder as our director of golf,” said General Manager Lance Funderburk. “Ryan’s experience in the golf industry, expertise in operations, personality and talent at managing a golf staff is an ideal fit for our world-class golf operation.”

Snyder is a Certified PGA Member in every advanced field offered, including Golf Operations, General Management, Player Development, and Teaching and Coaching and earned a Bachelors and Master’s Degree in Public Administration with minors in Economics, Sociology, and Biology from West Virginia University. Snyder says Shangri-La felt welcoming and home-like from his first visit to Oklahoma’s premier golf destination.

“Since I got here six weeks ago, everybody I’ve run into says this is a great place to live and raise your kids,” says Snyder. “As for the property, we have one of the best-conditioned facilities in the state. The conditions are so good all the time. This spring, summer and fall, golfers can expect peak playing conditions. I actually called the superintendent before I took the job and talked to him for several hours, to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere. There is no weed penetration on the entire property, which is absolutely amazing and led to me actually taking the job.”

Shangri-La’s visionary owner Eddy Gibbs has transformed the resort into the pride of Northeast Oklahoma and put the lakefront vacation oasis on the map nationally with an investment of more than $100 million into the property’s accommodations and upscale leisure amenities since taking it over in 2010.

In addition to the 119-room resort hotel, an indoor pool, 6,500 square-foot outdoor resort pool with splash pad and tanning ledge, luxury spa, full-service marina on gleaming, 46,500-acre Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees, and six distinct dining and cocktail venues culminate in an unforgettable getaway for golfers, families, groups, corporate and association retreats, and weddings.

Surrounded by the waters of Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees on three sides, the revered 27-hole championship Shangri-La golf course – including the Heritage, Legends, and Champions Nines – meanders through rolling parkland landscapes with elevated Bentgrass greens and clever bunkering along with more open, flowing fairways accented by ponds, streams, and the breathtaking lakefront. The extraordinary year-old par-3 golf course, The Battlefield, with elevation changes of more than 100 feet, has already been hailed “the most incredible par-3 course” that “sets new standards in short course experiences” by leading golf publications. Each of the 18 holes on The Battlefield is named in honor of a military serviceperson from Oklahoma who made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States during World War II.

Snyder believes Shangri-La is a fantastic place for a group getaway, with so many renovated and completely new amenities like the hotel, marina, food and beverage outlets, tennis courts, simulators, and boat rental.

“This place is at the top of the list in Oklahoma,” says Snyder. “People love to use this place as a retreat. They just want to come play golf and just enjoy the peacefulness. That’s what this place is about. We are a little more laid back and relaxed than some of the other upper echelon clubs, but Shangri-La is an incredible place with an interesting history. The executive team and staff here is amazing, so I don’t plan to leave anytime soon.”

Visit shangrilaok.com for more information.

Wild Times at Horseshoe Bay’s Bronco Off Roadeo Experience

Eyes on the road. It’s literally the first rule of driving, right? The only trouble is all I can see out of the windshield of the two-and-a-half-ton 4 X 4 behemoth I’ve agreed to drive through the rugged Texas Hill Country is rich blue sky contrasting with some lazy, pale stratus clouds. Behind the wheel. Staring straight up at the sky. Nothing resembling a road is anywhere in sight and my Ford Bronco Off Roadeo Experience instructor “Hollywood,” who was the one who told me drive up this impossibly steep granite wall, keeps assuring me that I’m doing great. Do I believe her? I’m pretty sure only three of our Bronco’s 35-inch tires are touching terra firma and I just heard audible gasps from the people in the Bronco behind us.

It turns out that, with some strategic turns of the wheel along with calculated and gentle intervals of gassing and braking, a Ford Bronco can climb absurdly steep and rocky terrain without breaking a sweat. The Ford Bronco Off Roadeo Experience at Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Grey Wolf Ranch was designed to help Bronco owners, dealers and salespeople to learn to dizzying array of technological features of their state of the art Ford Broncos, like Trail 1-Pedal Drive, 4×4 operation and G.O.A.T. Modes.

Now this luxury adventure experience is open to all Horseshoe Bay Resort guests. When you get to Grey Wolf Ranch, a magnificent and majestic hunk of class Hill Country land, Trail Guides orient guests on the safety features of the Ford Bronco and prep them to hit these purpose-built trails. Every group of drivers has a Trail Guides assigned to them who coach drivers at the front, middle, and back of the off-road caravan.

Bronco owners and adrenaline lovers from all over flock to Grey Wolf Ranch to test the Bronco’s all terrain capabilities while doubling down on a healthy adrenaline rush. Drivers navigate stone washes, rocky terrain, tight turns and climbs that would require AAA intervention in most of our personal daily drivers. The Horseshoe Bay Resort Off-Roadeo property is one of only four in the United States. The other facilities featuring Bronco adventures are in Gilford, NH, Las Vegas, NV, and Moab, UT.

More than 7,000 people per year take in this experience and it’s expected to grow now that the experience is open to resort guests. It’s the perfect way to add some adventure to a golf getaway or casual long weekend.

Bronco owners have access to a 10-hour Off Roadeo Experience. For Resort guests at Horseshoe Bay, the experience is shortened to four hours but covers a ton of exciting elements along the trails. Ford provides the full fleet of completely equipped Broncos that guests use for the off-roading fun. Bronco owners use their own vehicles for the purpose of getting used to driving them and maxing out their skills on the Bronco’s features.

Guests learn key basics like appropriate seating and hand-on-the-wheel placement, ideal mirror angles, and also the fun stuff, more advanced off-roading lessons. In the full class, you can learn skills like forging water, navigating ditches, surviving steep hills, left-foot breaking, crossing boulders, and how to select a route when you come to obstacles. Guests can take turns practicing these maneuvers and also learn important hand signals they can give to other driver to help them traverse the uneven terrain.

While resort guests only borrow a Bronco for this experience, Ford reps say eight percent of guests have ended up buying a new Ford not long after their Off Roadeo experience, and 63 percent of those purchases were Broncos. Whether your charmed into buying a Bronco or you’re just looking for a fun escape full of adrenaline-charging times, this is one experience you won’t soon forget.

To learn how you can add this one of a kind experience to your next visit to Horseshoe Bay Resort, visit hsbresort.com.