5
Palouse Ridge • Pullman
The second John Harbottle design to crack this year’s top-10 (but not the last), Palouse Ridge has all of the late genius’ signature elements — natural contours that create multiple paths to the hole, plus fairway bunkers and other hazards placed in ways to challenge scratch golfers playing the 7,335-yard tips, while remaining largely out of play for mid-to-high handicappers playing the 6,216-yard gray (white) tees. A 4 handicap and a 14 could play together from their respective tees and each shoot the same score, a sure sign of a well-made course.
Play it late in the day to see the colors come alive as the sun disappears on its western trek, turning the long green grasses purple, and the golden Palouse hills a fiery orange and red — or, as the locals call it, “crimson.”