That 7-8-9 loop will be a memorable one for better players, as well. The three holes wrap all the way around Tipple Hill, teeing off from just below Swiftwater Cellars on the 425-yard, par-4 seventh, ducking behind the hill for the 156-yard, par-3 eighth, then coming back towards the winery on what will be the front side’s signature hole, the 359-yard par-4 ninth. With Tipple Hill (which will be in bounds on all holes) dominating the foreground along the right side of the fairway and Swiftwater Cellars rising proudly atop the ridge behind the green, the ninth – which sits directly above the No. 9 mine shaft – sums up in a single image the area’s past, present and future.
The back nine offers yet another signature No. 10 to pair with Prospector’s epic 10th hole – another relatively short par-4 from an elevated tee, though not quite as sweeping in grandeur as its older sibling – followed by the aforementioned 11th, where the first major water feature of the course comes into play to the right of the green.
After a varied and fun five-hole stretch including 187- and 128-yard par-3s, and par-4s ranging from 338-413 yards, the course turns for home at the par-5 17th, at 515 yards from the blues (580 from the back) the longest of Rope Rider’s holes and one that will play directly into the prevailing afternoon wind. Then comes the finishing hole, a dogleg-right, 340-yard par-4 (from the whites) that includes the only forced carry on the entire course, a 200-220-yard poke over a deep blue pond running the entire length of the right side.
“This is going to be a fun finishing hole,” Jeffries says. “If you’re playing in a tournament, and you’re a stroke or two down, you’ll have the option of playing straight over the lake towards the green to try and make up a shot or two at the end. But you’d better have something left in the tank.”
Throughout our drive around the golf course, Jeffries points out lots where homes are being built, or where construction is about to begin.
“Three years ago, new home construction slowed around the unfinished holes,” he says. “Now that we have completed construction of the course, things are starting to come back. We have many new homes that have broken ground this year, and we sold more properties, in terms of volume, in 2010 than in any previous year at Suncadia. And a lot of the people who bought lots previously are deciding that now is the time to build.
“Opening this golf course, and the winery, is a sign to everyone in the community that Suncadia is in a good position going forward.”
The golf course will have a soft opening later this summer (in fact, the Puetz Golf Shootout on July 23, part of the seven-event Cascade Golfer Cup, will be the first public tournament ever held on the course) before an official grand opening in conjunction with Suncadia’s annual Wine in the Pines event the last weekend of August. Peter Jacobsen will conduct a clinic on Aug. 26, followed by a crab feed at the Suncadia Ampitheater. The following day, captains from the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” will participate in a fun tournament, while Swiftwater Cellars will feature celebrity seminars and a Grand Gala with a chance to meet select winemakers from around the region, and sample pours from 50 of the region’s top wineries – in addition to Swiftwater’s own, of course. All of the events are open to the public, with tickets available online at ticketswest.com.
As he talks about the grand opening, Jeffries looks down the long slope from the first tee to Tipple Hill and the No. 1 and No. 9 fairways below. The sun has shifted over the course of the day and the ridgetop winery now casts a long shadow over the 9th green, the two together as fitting a marker to the memory of the No. 9 mine as any found at Roslyn Cemetery for the thousands of miners who sought the American dream inside its walls.
“I think everyone in the area is pretty excited about the course,” Jeffries says. “Don is bringing in jobs, building homes is bringing in jobs, the course is bringing in jobs. Hopefully the whole region is getting back on its feet.”
The symbolism of Suncadia’s resurgence in the context of the area’s boom-to-bust past isn’t lost on Donnie Watts either.
“The wine and food and golf in this area are certainly remarkable, but for a lot of people, what is most important is that connection to the local history,” he says. “This area exists because of those families who came here to make a living in the mines. Without those people, none of this would be here. That’s why it’s so important to us to help preserve that history and tell those stories, and give those families the chance to give that history — that is so personal to them and such a rich part of this region — a new life.”