"Be sure to drive the ball real, real hard." That was Arnold Palmer's advice at the July 1984 groundbreaking for what would become Teton Pines, a few sentences after describing his goal for the course: challenging enough for a low handicapper, forgiving enough to keep it fun for families. It reads like a golf quote. It isn't only that. The same paperwork from that groundbreaking listed the club's founding amenities as golf, tennis, cross-country skiing, and dining, all four, from day one. Teton Pines was never a golf course that happened to sit under snow for half the year. It was designed as two properties that share one lawn.
In late September, that lawn was still doing its summer job. Tee times were running, the fairways were green, and Teton Pines remained one of only two courses in the valley that let outside golfers book a round. But the club's season calendar meant that within about three weeks the mowers would stop, and within about ten the same 200 acres would reopen as something else entirely.
One Property, Two Operators
Here's the part that a lot of people who drive past the clubhouse every day don't actually know: the winter version of Teton Pines isn't run by the golf staff. It's a separate business.
Teton Pines Nordic Center is owned and operated by Cody and Colleen Downard, who bought it in the summer of 2016 from longtime Jackson Hole ski figure Jack Bellorado. Both Downards are PSIA-certified Nordic instructors, and the center they run grooms 16 kilometers of track daily for classic and skate skiing across the same rolling terrain the golf course uses all summer, the same water features, the same sightlines to the Grand Teton, Buck Mountain, and the Snake River Range.
The golf course typically runs from late May into mid-October. Once it closes, members shift to a Foresight Falcon golf simulator inside the clubhouse, which stays in near-constant use from November through April. Then, snow depending, the Nordic Center opens around December 1 and runs through roughly March 20. Three different uses of the property across the year, and only one of them belongs to a business other than the club itself.
That distinction matters if you live here. It means the person grooming your winter trail isn't a seasonal club hire. It's a small independent ski operation that leases the same ground your summer green fees paid for.
What Changes This Season
If you skied the Teton Pines track before the 2025-26 season with a dog trotting beside you, that's over. The Nordic Center has instituted a no-dogs policy for the 2025-26 season, a change from prior seasons. The center's own site is blunt about it now: skiing only, no snowshoeing, no walking, no fat bikes, no dogs.
It's a small rule change, but it's the kind of thing that only shows up if you're actually paying attention to this specific 16 kilometers of trail rather than Nordic skiing in Jackson Hole generally. Shooting Star's Nordic Track, by comparison, has a dedicated dog-friendly loop called Buddy's Trail. Teton Pines doesn't, at least not this season.
The Clubhouse Is Also Mid-Transformation
While the trail policy is a small shift, the physical club is in the middle of something bigger. Construction crews broke ground in the fall of 2024 on a new two-story Wellness Center, adjacent to the recreation pool, built around a 2,100-square-foot fitness facility and a 900-square-foot yoga studio. Club materials targeted completion for January of 2026, with some club communications describing a spring 2026 opening. Either way, as of this fall that project should be finished or nearly there, which means the building that's been under a tarp for two winters is about to become part of the daily backdrop instead of the construction noise.
It doesn't stop there. Once the Wellness Center wraps, the club has said it will begin a full renovation of the 24,000-square-foot main clubhouse, adding roughly 10,000 square feet and touching nearly everything inside it: an expanded kitchen built to support both casual and fine dining, a dedicated kids' center, a members' card room, a pro shop with two golf simulators instead of one, and an updated facade. That phase is targeted to start in late 2026 or early 2027 and finish by 2028. It will be the first complete renovation of the clubhouse since the club opened in 1987.
One detail in the renovation plan is worth sitting with. The new clubhouse is designed to include both alpine and Nordic ski storage, built into the structure for the first time. For more than forty years, the golf-to-ski changeover at Teton Pines has been operational, a seasonal handoff between staff, equipment, and a different business altogether. The 2026-2028 renovation is the first time the building itself will be designed around that changeover instead of just accommodating it.
Built for Both Seasons From the Start
The club's own history backs this up in a way that's easy to miss if you only know Teton Pines as a golf address. The original 1984 plan already listed cross-country skiing next to golf and tennis, not as a future amenity to add once the course matured, but as one of the four things the property was built to do. For its first three decades or so, Teton Pines operated as a semi-private club before beginning a shift toward a private, member-only model around 2017, a change in who can join, not in what the club offers each season.
The club has also built a track record of community ties that go beyond its own membership. Its scholarship program, running since 1994, has put more than $1.3 million toward local high school students who've worked at the club. Its annual Tee It Up for Oncology tournament, benefiting St. John's Health oncology department, has raised more than $900,000 since it started in 2012. The club has also partnered with the Grand Teton Music Festival, hosted events for the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and supported both the Jackson Hole High School cross-country team and its golf team.
None of that is unusual for a country club looking to stay connected to the valley around it. What's less common is a club whose founding document, forty-two years old this year, already assumed its membership would want to use the same ground for two completely different sports depending on the month.
What This Means for the Next Ten Weeks
If you live in Teton Pines, here's the practical version. The course will likely close sometime in the next few weeks, weather dependent, ending a season that typically runs into mid-October. After that, the simulator becomes the golf option through the winter. Around December 1, assuming enough snow, the Downards will reopen the Nordic Center on the same fairways, minus dogs this year, and the 16-kilometer track will be groomed daily through roughly March 20. Somewhere in that window, expect to see the Wellness Center finished and in regular use, and expect the next round of visible construction, the clubhouse expansion, to start showing up on site by early 2027.
The same 200 acres shift from golf to Nordic skiing, while the clubhouse simulator keeps golf going indoors through winter. The winter handoff involves people who aren't on the golf club's payroll, and the idea goes back to a groundbreaking in 1984 where Arnold Palmer was already talking about keeping things fun for the whole family, all four seasons of it.
If you're curious about what a property inside Teton Pines actually costs to buy into, or how club membership and homeownership work as two separate tracks here, JH Property Group can walk you through it from the ground up. Start Your Jackson Hole Search.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
