BATTLE CREEK and KAYAK POINT
Location: Marysville/Stanwood
Distance between courses: 10.6 miles
Total trip time (including golf): 10.5 hours
Kayak Point is yet another one of the favorites of the CG staff, particularly those living on the north end, and probably one of most underpriced courses in the region (uh, don’t tell them we said that). Of course, its rates — barely $40 on a weekday, and almost half that at off-peak times — are what keep Puget Sound golfers flocking back to Kayak year after year.
When we want to make a day out of it, we usually pair a round at Kayak with one at nearby Battle Creek, an equally challenging and even more value-priced option about 15 minutes south, in Marysville. Both courses offer a similar challenge — tight, tree-lined fairways; fast, firm greens; and plenty of uneven lies.
They also each have their share of signature holes — the par-4 14th at Kayak (at left) gives golfers two distinct paths to the green, with a wide fairway on the left and a much tighter — but much shorter — one to the right, bisected by a thick pine forest. Battle Creek calls that split fairway and raises it with the region’s most obstructive boulder, a behemoth that protects the front of the par-3 12th like a sleeping giant.
Should you bust out on both holes, that’s OK. There are plenty of places at both courses to make up strokes with risk/reward par-5s and par-3s that dare you to take aim straight at the pin. After the round, give your day of golf gluttony the nightcap it deserves by stopping off in downtown Everett to hit Gorditos for the biggest — and best — burrito you’ll ever eat.