Lean and silver-haired, Barth looks to be in his fifties, but laughingly declines to reveal his age. He has three children; daughters Heather Neff — who, with her husband Dean, owns Nefarious Cellars, a winery just outside Chelan (see sidebar on page 43) — and Elizabeth, an assistant volleyball coach at Central Washington University (and an experienced heavy equipment operator); and son Parker, the PGA Professional at Alta Lake.
Originally built with nine holes and double greens in 1974, Barth bought Alta Lake 10 years later, just two years after emigrating to Pateros from Olympia with his wife, Susan, and three young children.
Barth fairly glows speaking about his family.
“Elizabeth was born here,” he says with a nod toward the living quarters above the Alta Lake clubhouse. “All the kids were involved in the course and they worked. They changed [irrigation] pipes, mowed, cut cups, worked in the clubhouse as well as the motel.”
So what does a guy do when he has all that help at home? Designer-constructor Barth sought to widen his geographic horizons. In 1988, he leased the nine-hole Rock Island course, eight miles south of Wenatchee, designing and building a second nine in 2011.
“It took 18 years to get the town to want it [and] two years to build,” he says of the rebuilt Rock Island. “Elizabeth was doing all kinds of work on that project, from driving the dump truck to operating an excavator.
“I guess I’m a little bit nuts,” he laughs, “I like creating things.”
By instituting the two new nines on Rock Island and Alta Lake, golfers’ preference for 18 holes was underscored. At Alta Lake, rounds played jumped 500 percent in the first year — not counting those played as stay-and-play packages with the motel, or additional rounds played by golfers who take advantage of dawn-to-dark deals. At Rock Island, a total of 24,000 rounds were recorded in 2010, when the course had only nine holes. There is little doubt the number will jump dramatically when the count is in for the first full season of 18 holes this year.
“It’s something the Wenatchee Valley really needed,” he says.
With ownership of two of North Central Washington’s five 18-hole courses — and a design credit on Bear Mountain Ranch — Barth already had left a large footprint on the region. So it was that when Puyallup couple Randy and Lyn Anderson considered investing in Desert Canyon in 2011, they knew precisely where to turn.
The Andersons had visited Alta Lake for years, staying in the motel adjacent to the golf course and spending long days getting to know the Barths, as the two families’ children played together on the course and surrounding property. Once “horse people,” they became more interested in golf and golf courses.
During one recent visit, the Andersons offered to partner with Barth in the Desert Canyon sale. Not long after — June 15, 2011, to be exact — Don Barth had added a third 18-hole course to the collection.
“I wasn’t expecting to buy Desert Canyon … it took 18 years just to get another nine holes at Rock Island,” he says. “But having worked with Jack Frei [on the original Desert Canyon opening], when it became available, I saw a great opportunity.”
Barth has plans to make the course more user-friendly, and to speed up play. A tough track, especially on the Desert nine, he wants to make the experience more enjoyable to short hitters and what he terms “average” golfers. There are a lot of places on the course that are played as waste areas, which frustrate many mid- and high-handicappers — the majority of golfers. When the winds blow, as they do often quite vigorously, the sand from the desert can further bollix golfers. Barth says there will be more grass and less rocks and sand in the coming year, or perhaps sooner.
“Many people remember what the course was like when it opened in the nineties, and we want to bring it back to that condition,” Barth says. “We’re widening the fairways back to their original widths and filling in a lot of the sand, dirt and rocks with turf to make it a more fun and pleasant experience.”