The Tri-Cities may not be Washington’s most written-about golf destination … which is exactly what makes it such a good deal.
The U.S. Open is likely never going to be played in the Tri-Cities. Indeed, just three times in its 89-year history has a Tri-Cities course even hosted the Washington Open — and that was at a private club most Washington golfers don’t have access to.
No, the Tri-Cities aren’t flush with “Top 100” courses. In fact, the Tri-Cities aren’t flush with golf courses, period.
But then, you don’t want them to be.
You don’t want Tri-Cities courses to be ultra-exclusive, with three-mile drives, austere clubhouses, dining room dress codes, or access gates operated by uniformed staff. You don’t want them to have slope ratings in the 140s or higher. And you certainly don’t want them charging you $100, $150, $200 or more a round.
What you do want is a handful of accessible, enjoyable and affordable facilities that won’t give your game or your wallet a hard time. You want somewhere you can drive to in three hours or less on a scenic interstate for a leisurely game of golf or two. You want 300 days of sunshine, and 17 hours of sun a day in the summer. You want a place where the most you’ll pay for a round of golf on the weekend, in the middle of the summer peak season, is just $56. And if this place can give you quick and easy access to more than two-dozen world-class wineries? Then so much the better.
[infobox title=”WANT TO GO?”]“Great Golf In the Heart of Washington Wine Country” packages start at just $169, and include a twosome of golf, lodging, breakfast and cart rental. Learn more today by clicking the “Golf Getaway Packages” link at at www.visittri-cities.com/visitors/golf.[/infobox]
The first choice of many a Seattle golfer heading to the Tri-Cities for a weekend golf break is Canyon Lakes in Kennewick, which seems to get most people’s vote for pick of the area’s six full-length public courses. Now 32 years old, Canyon Lakes has evolved beautifully since a 30-year-old John Steidel began his solo design career (he had worked for Robert Muir Graves and Ron Fream in the 1970s) by building some of state’s largest greens – you’ll have no trouble hitting the gigantic 12,000 square-foot surface at the par-4 12th hole … but two-putting could be a challenge.
Canyon Lakes was the Tri-Cities’ first golf course community and was conceived by Kennewick real estate agent Harold Thompson.
“In late 1977, Harold thought the Tri-Cities was ready for a California-style development, but with smaller lots and architecturally designed homes,” says Steidel, who also brought you Eaglemont, Apple Tree and Highlander. “Until that time, upper-end developments in the Tri-Cities tended to offer half-acre lots (no sewer) on which people built their dream homes. You’d have an English Tudor next to Mediterranean stucco with tile roof next to a Southern-style mansion with huge white columns.”
Thomson contacted development professionals in Northern California, Steidel adds, to create a residential golf course community unlike anything else in Eastern Washington. The project was a square mile (640 acres) in size – room for 1,920 homes.
“The course routing was developed by utilizing 100-foot deep Zintel Canyon (the original name of the project), and land on each side of an existing irrigation canal, and then connecting the two areas,” says Steidel. “Harold wanted to create the best golf course in the area and provided sufficient funds to do that, at least initially. When I first saw the site, I thought it had a lot going for it and few limitations.”
Steidel wanted to build a big golf course with 18 signature holes.
“It’s fairly long with a lot of contour and elevation change, but the main difficulty comes on the greens,” he says. “They’re not unlike Augusta National’s. I wanted the course to have lots of variety so that golfers would enjoy playing it again and again.”
Despite interest rates rising to over 20 percent in 1980 (inconceivable today) and curtailing real estate sales, Steidel had the resources to landscape the site with trees, complete the cart paths, and fill the bunkers with white silica sand from Idaho. The course opened in January 1981 and has since won numerous accolades.
Almost as popular is Pasco’s Sun Willows Course, which began life in 1963 as the Pasco Municipal, but was renamed in 1980 when prolific west coast architect Robert Muir Graves was hired to rebuild the back nine closer to the Tri-Cities Airport to make way for commercial space. ?
Sun Willows is still owned by the City of Pasco, and is managed by Petaluma, Calif.-based CourseCo, Inc., which also operates Columbia Point in Richland (and Palouse Ridge in Pullman). Jackie Stevens has been general manager at Sun Willows since October 2008 and says the course recorded 55,036 rounds last year. The course is open year-round except for when there’s snow on the ground, which accounted for nine lost days in January.
“The golf course always seems to come out of the winter in good condition,” says Stevens, who adds that Sun Willows’ main focus for 2012 will be getting the poa greens in tip-top shape. “We are working on the root-structure of the turf, hoping to improve roll and increase speed,” she says. “We want them to be smooth and fast. They are better now than they have been in the past, but we want to keep improving the health of the turf.”
Columbia Point is a Jim Engh design, built on the site of the old Sha-Na-Pum course and owned by the City of Richland. It opened in 1997 after Engh, one of only four designers in the world with three courses in Golf Digest’s U.S. Top 100, rerouted the old layout to accommodate a new clubhouse, and built water hazards, bunkers and mounds that hadn’t been there previously.
“We basically started from scratch,” he says. “So Columbia Point doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the old course. We had a few issues with the very high water table, but ultimately I think we built a course that fits the bill perfectly. It doesn’t beat anyone up, and hopefully provides players with a fun, interesting round of golf.”
Horn Rapids, in the northwest corner of Richland, was designed by Keith Foster, who also created Druids Glen in Covington. It’s the best example of a high-desert course in the Tri-Cities and averages about 35,000 rounds a year, according to general manager Nick Rodrigues, who adds he gets a steady stream of players from Ellensburg, Spokane and Yakima. As you’d expect of a course built on quick-draining volcanic soil, it’s rarely out of play and never, Rodrigues stresses, resorts to temporary greens or tees.
This quartet of courses will fill a long weekend with some entertaining golf, but some might want to limit their golf time in order to maximize wine time. Sampling some award-winning Tri-Cities reds (not forgetting some top-drawer whites) is an important part of this trip and can be accomplished in any of the area’s tasting rooms.
A visit to J Bookwalter in Richland to try the lush Foreshadow Cabernet Sauvignon, Goose Ridge for a glass of g3 or Sol Duc, or Preston Premium Wines in Pasco for some 2008 Long Tail Lizard Merlot, are very highly recommended.
The Tri-Cities golf/wine long-weekend is one of the most enjoyable trips of the year. And with the “Spring Barrel Tasting” event in April, and “Catch the Crush” in September, it’s perfectly possible you’ll end up making it twice.
Tony Dear is an award-winning author and freelance writer, and a frequent contributor to Cascade Golfer. Read more of his work online at his website, thebellinghamgolfer.com.