By Land
Trophy Lake Golf & Casting
McCormick Woods Golf Club
Afraid of flying or too impatient to sit in a ferry line? That leaves just one alternative for golfing across the Sound — it’s time to put the clubs in the trunk, hop in the car and drive around.
The $4-plus prices at the pump might make this seem like a luxuriant form of travel, but the opening of the new Narrows Bridge span has cleared a speedy path to courses such as McCormick Woods Golf Club and Trophy Lake Golf and Casting, both in Port Orchard.
From downtown Seattle, it’s a 60-mile ride to reach these Kitsap golf neighbors. Head down Interstate 5, veer off at Highway 16 in Tacoma and follow this once-overcrowded thoroughfare to these well-manicured courses. Take the Old Clifton Road exit to reach McCormick Woods, the Sedgwick Road exit to find Trophy Lake.
With the new bridge on-line, what was once a 90-minute commute to these courses dropped nearly overnight to an hour or less. The change was dramatic for all concerned. Where once the solitary Narrows Bridge backed everything up for miles in both directions, the second span has been effective in removing all obstacles.
“I was shocked,” said Shawn Cucciardi, McCormick Woods general manager. “There’s no traffic. It’s gone.”
Less bridge traffic should translate into more fairway traffic for these established golf jewels.
McCormick Woods has been around for two decades as an 18-hole course, going from a totally wooded course to one surrounded by homes. While golf seclusion is now out of the question, the 7,012-yard layout remains fun and challenging. Steady improvements since 2003 have kept the course in high regard. Greens used to be an issue at this place, but no longer.
“We’ve made significant improvements to course conditions,” Cucciardi said. “We’re more familiar with maintenance than those who ran the course before us. The greens come first, fairways second and tees third. Our greens are just familiar.”
The fourth and fifth holes, a par-3 and -4 dealing with water hazards, remain golfer favorites, as does the 12th hole, a par-4 with an elevated tee box.
The course also has one of the more spacious golf restaurants around in the 20,000 square-foot Clubhouse at McCormick Woods.
Green fees remain economically priced at $45 weekday, $59 weekend.
Cucciardi says more than 50 percent of the golfers playing his course travel from King and Pierce counties. He’s even noticed a spike in players journeying south from Vancouver, B.C., to sample McCormick Woods, drawn by the amazing stay-and-play packages at the nearby Silverdale Beach Hotel, which provides an overnight stay, breakfast and round at McCormick Woods, Trophy Lake or Gold Mountain for as little as $99 single occupancy, $159 double occupancy. With views of Puget Sound from nearly every room, and a welcoming and helpful staff at your service, no Peninsula hotel better captures the easy-going, relaxed pace of life across the water.
Trophy Lake, four miles from the highway, is part of the Oki Golf multiple-course empire, which includes the upscale Newcastle and Washington National.
Rau, hired this spring, comes to the Northwest after 15 years at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii. He left behind sunshine and a PGA Tour stop for a region more conducive to raising and educating his young kids.
“The course itself is absolutely beautiful,” he said. “It was one of the big draws for me.”
Designed by former Tour player John Fought, Trophy Lake can play 7,206 yards and challenge the best player. The seventh hole — a par-5 that doglegs left with a huge bunker in the middle of the fairway — is the most memorable. Unlike McCormick Woods, trees and thick vegetation — not housing — provide the backdrop.
The course costs $64 per weekday round and $84 on the weekends, but an Oki card will shave $10 off each green fee, and provide the frequent player with a complimentary round. The Silverdale Beach Hotel’s stay-and-play package also proves an unbeatable value here.
A road trip for same-day rounds at McCormick Woods and Trophy Lake is not out of the question. Travel time between Seattle and Port Orchard used to kill that idea, but with wide-open highway running the full distance, it’s now an easily doable proposition, particularly for golfers based on the South end.
McCormick Woods, Trophy Lake and Gold Mountain each sit in a five-mile radius, and even package themselves together at times — anything to bring paying golf customers to Kitsap County.