Kidd has been criticized in the past for crafting courses too difficult for the average golfer. They’re words he has taken to heart at Gamble Sands, where he set out to build a beautiful, inspiring course that challenges a golfer’s mental creativity more than their physical prowess. Indeed, despite not always playing our best, each of us scored well, yet even the course’s easiest holes offered a thrill or challenge in the form of a risk-reward decision, or bunkers to avoid. Debating our favorites, we ultimately decided there wasn’t a weak one in the bunch.
As we sat in the car at Wenatchee’s EZ’s Burger Deluxe, fueling up for the drive home, we reflected once more on the day we’d just had — 36 holes on quite possibly America’s best new course of 2014-15, and eight hours among friends, free from our cell phones, jobs and worries of a world that was 200 miles away.
“It will never be like this again,” I said nostalgically, noting the course’s like-new condition and the absence of other players.
“No,” Johnny agreed. “But it’s going to get even better.”