Cascade Golfer celebrates a landmark year for Northwest golf

With more and more Americans reporting increased stress levels in the wake of this fall’s economic meltdown, it can be easy to go into survival mode, dedicating all available resources to simply getting through each day. While locking in on present concerns is certainly understandable, there’s something to be said for sticking your head out of the sand every now and then and letting yourself appreciate a few happy moments. In the words of noted American philosopher Ferris Bueller, “Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” If we did stop and look around, we’d realize that 2008 was a pretty incredible year for Northwest golf. First came the announcement by the USGA in February that Chambers Bay would host the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open. Now, we already knew what a gem we had down in University Place. The USGA’s announcement, though, stunned the golf world and put Chambers Bay on the cover of just about every major golf magazine across the globe this spring. Tourists began pouring in just to see a course that, as Northwest residents, we can play anytime we want. Indeed, I took my father — who has played St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, Kapalua and dozens more of the world’s top tracks — to Chambers in August, and he called it, “the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.” Just over a year from now, we get to show off our linksland masterpiece to the world at the U.S. Amateur, and five years after that, it’ll be Tiger and Phil’s turn. I can’t wait. But that was just one of the many stories that put the Northwest in the spotlight this year. Less than a month after the Chambers announcement, the PGA Tour named another Northwest icon — Seattle’s own Fred Couples — as the captain of the U.S. team at the 2009 President’s Cup in San Francisco, a role that until this year had been filled by the Golden Bear himself, Jack Nicklaus. University of Washington golfer Zach Bixler became just the fifth golfer in NCAA history to shoot a 60, while a former UW star, Louise Friberg, took the LPGA by storm with a win in just her fourth-career Tour start. Friberg, Edmonds’ Jimin Kang and Yakima’s Paige Mackenzie combined to rake in nearly $800,000 on the LPGA Tour, while hometown favorite Ryan Moore came within a whisker (a 48-foot “whisker” for birdie by Adam Scott on the third playoff hole) of his first PGA Tour win. Moore’s BMW Northwest Skins Game, however, was a big winner as Moore and fellow pros Aaron Baddeley, Bubba Watson and Ben Crane helped rake in six figures for Northwest charities. And as always, August’s Boeing Classic proved to be another thriller. There was no seven-man playoff this time, but a three-shot Sunday comeback — including five birdies on the back nine — gave World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite his second win in three years at the Classic, whose field studded with past major winners further established it as one of the premier events on the Champions’ Tour. It wasn’t all about the pros, either — our region was also home to two of the year’s most anticipated new courses, John Harbottle’s Palouse Ridge in Pullman, Wash., and David McLay Kidd’s Tetherow in Bend. On the heels of Robert Trent Jones’ Chambers Bay in 2007, it’s apparent that the world’s top course designers see our region the same way we do — full of beauty and potential. What’s next for 2009? Plenty. So keep those clubs warm, those spikes clean and clear off a few spring weekends from your calendar — there’s never been a better time to be a Northwest golfer.