THE SWEET SPOT
Ooh, baby … now we’re starting to get into some good ones. Nothing against the $30 tracks, but those in the $60 range represent some of our state’s sweetest values — good enough to start showing up on some top-10 lists, but still affordable.
Take Apple Tree, an impossibly green gem in the midst of a vast, brown landscape. If Eskimos have 100 words for snow (and, in fact, it’s been established that they don’t), then Yakima residents must have at least that many for shades of brown and yellow. But just when you think there can’t possibly be a golf course out here, it appears — a grass-covered oasis, just in time to slake your thirst. While the apple-shaped island green makes the par-3 No. 17 as photo-worthy a hole as any you’ll play in your lifetime, the fact is that almost every hole at Apple Tree is unique and memorable, from the front nine that winds through an active apple orchard, to a back nine featuring possibly the best four-hole closing sequence in the state.
Do it as a day trip (it’s about 150 minutes from downtown Seattle), or spend the night and hit some wineries. Either way, it’s a trip we make every single year, without question.
We know what you’re thinking — there’s a place in Washington called Stevenson? There is, and about 45 miles east of Vancouver, you’ll find one of the best-kept resort secrets in the state, a spot every bit as dramatic as Semiahmoo, and every bit as scenic as Suncadia — but at less than half the price.
The Bunny Mason-designed golf course and lodge were both carved from thick woods overlooking the Columbia River — so, as you’d imagine, fairways are tight, and views are tighter (for those of us born before 1980, “tight” means good). The shorter overall length (just 5,900 yards from the tips) makes up for it, but it’s still a challenge for any golfer who can’t keep it between the pines, as evidenced by a ridiculous 132 slope (by comparison, that’s almost identical to the nearly 6,800-yard tees at notoriously challenging Salish Cliffs). Keep your driver in play (or, if you’re smart, in your bag), though, and scoring opportunities abound.
You can drive down and play it, if you want, for as little as $59, then turn around and come home. And if you do, you’re an idiot. Because for just $40 more — $99 per person — you can spend the night in a luxurious Skamania Lodge room, and play unlimited golf, with cart, and range balls.
So, $59 to walk it once and spend seven hours driving, or $99 to take a cart for as many rounds as you want, and sleep in a cozy bed that someone else has to make in the morning. When we said this was a best-kept secret, we weren’t kidding.
You may notice that Eaglemont’s rates look like they’re all over the place — that’s because the hilltop course overlooking the Skagit Valley is one of the most aggressive in the state with regard to tee times, with special rates for seniors, early birds (before 9 a.m.), twilight (after 1 p.m.) and even super twilight (after 3 p.m.). Heck, its cheapest rate of just $28 on a weekday afternoon means we could’ve stuck Eaglemont with the $30 courses if we wanted to — but we didn’t, because frankly, none of those rates are what make Eaglemont one of our favorite summertime destinations.
Instead, that honor goes to that all-day rate — just $67 on a weekday, and a still-fantastic $77 on weekends. Arrive early in the morning and drive up through the fog to the clifftop clubhouse, and you could potentially squeeze in as many as 54 holes before making the 90-minute drive back to the Seattle area — provided, that is, you packed enough balls. Tight, hilly, and with hazards galore, Eaglemont is a rewarding challenge for golfers willing to take the plunge.
Tee it forward, take advantage of the beverage cart, and play at least twice — you’ll come home with some great golf under your belt, and less than $100 out of your wallet.
THE MEMORY MAKERS
OK, now we’re getting serious. Push your budget up around $90 per round, and we can put you onto some of the sweetest tracks this side of the 45th Parallel. And let’s just start with this — if you can finish a round in four hours or less, there isn’t a better peak-season rate we’re aware of anywhere in the world than Wine Valley’s $50 super-twilight rate, which kicks in after 5 p.m. Most of us, though, will probably pay the $95 weekday rate, $110 weekend rate, or $75 standard twilight (after 2 p.m.) rate — which we’ll happily do, over and over again.
There’s only one course like Wine Valley in Washington state — and it just hosted a U.S. Open, and costs almost twice as much to play. Take the links style of Chambers Bay, and combine it with the pristine conditioning of a private track like Tumble Creek or TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, and you’ll have a sense of what it’s like to stand on the first tee at Wine Valley, look out across the endless rolls of green turf and tall fescue, and giggle like a little kid.
There are so many different ways to play each hole, so many unique angles of attack — so many ways to make birdie, frankly — that it’s a course you can’t just play once. Regardless of what you shoot, you’ll walk off wondering what would have happened if you had bumped up instead of pulling sand wedge, or tried putting off the slope rather than going at the pin. Then you’ll play it a second time, and unlock new tricks that necessitate a third round. If it’s not your favorite course already, it will be soon — so skip the single-round rates and take advantage of local stay-and-plays starting at just $249. You’ll thank us later.
Everything we just wrote about Wine Valley? Just cut-and-paste it for Palouse Ridge.
The two courses play to a similar style, though Wine Valley mimics Chambers Bay a little more with its wide-open fairways and large, fast greens. Palouse is a bit tighter and a bit trickier — and definitely much hillier — than its fellow Eastern Washington gem, but it’s every bit as fun to play.
We should start with those hills, because they define much of what makes Palouse Ridge great. For starters, there are the views — Western Washington golfers might scoff at the notion of “views” in a part of the state without water, thick forests or dueling mountain ranges, but we defy you to stand on just about any tee at Palouse Ridge without soaking in the scenery. The deep, green turf surrounded by wavy grasses — golden by day, and purple in the evening light — provide the foreground, while silhouettes of Idaho’s Palouse Range loom in the distance. In addition to the elevated views of the surrounding landscape, the hills provide the contours for Palouse’s thrilling 18 holes, which fall off the hillside only to climb back up again, mixing epic challenges with risk-reward delights.
If you’ve been lucky enough to play it, you know what we’re talking about. If not, this is the year to find out.
Of course, we know there are high rollers out there who want the destination resort experience — but without the destination. Might we submit Salish Cliffs?
About a 90-minute drive from Seattle (and 45 minutes from Tacoma), on the southern end of the Olympic Peninsula, it’s just far enough away to feel like you’ve left your troubles behind, without being so far that you spend half a day just getting there. Of course, once you get out on the course, you won’t care where you are — it’s that kind of a track, an all-immersive experience where all that matters is you, your playing companions, and the hole you’re about to birdie. Risk/reward par-4s and par-5s — including back-to-back eagle chances to start the round, and another to finish — plus elevated par-3s, with hardly a blade of grass out of place … Salish Cliffs has everything we love in a golf course, and we’re not alone. Voters have never failed to rank Salish outside the top-five in our bi-annual “Best Public” rankings — and that’s not even considering the lodge, with its 35,000-square foot casino, eight on-site restaurants, full-service spa, and other amenities.
As with all of our favorite destination tracks, with stay-and-play rates as low as $229 in the summer, it makes more sense to spend the night at Salish Cliffs’ Little Creek Casino Resort than it does to pay the full-price greens fee and head back home. Heck, play your cards right at the tables, and you might even come out from your road trip ahead — and no matter what your budget, that’s the best kind of road trip of all.