Our first visit to the recently renovated Highlander Golf Club in Wenatchee made a strong impression.
In our August issue, we wrote about the recent overhaul of East Wenatchee’s Highlander Golf Club, which completely revamped its final five holes as part of an ongoing series of renovations designed to turn the Central Washington destination track from a dry, hard links-style course, to a lush, verdant parkland-style. Last week, we finally had our first chance to cross the mountains and check it out for ourselves … and we’re already looking forward to going back.
Highlander opened in 2002 as an homage to the Scottish Highlands courses of yore, with few trees, deep pot bunkers and hard, windswept fairways bordered by long grasses — in otherwords, Chambers Bay before Chambers Bay, with the latter’s Puget Sound setting replaced by a prime location on the edge of Raven Ridge overlooking the Columbia River valley and the city of Wenatchee.
In 2010, the decision was made to rip out the fescue and replace it with a softer, more player-friendly turf. Bunkers were reshaped and filled in with lighter-colored sand and more than 500 leafy deciduous trees (mostly willows and yellow locusts) were planted on the front nine alone, which also saw the construction of a beautiful new waterfall on the second hole, fed by a lake fronting the green at the par-3 third. Last year, work began on a similar overhaul of the course’s back nine.
For golfers who have played Highlander at any point since the front nine changes were revealed in 2011, the latest changes aren’t particularly noticeable until the par-4 10th hole. Formerly a 554-yard par-5, the 10th is now a 344-yard par-4 (all distances from the 5,960-yard black tees), with the 10th tee moved up to accomomdate the brand-new par-3 18th, which gives golfers one last look back across the canyon to a green 165 yards away.
Made to accommodate a brand-new housing development being constructed around many of the inward holes, and to bring the canyon (Highlander’s most significant and defining feature) into play on two more holes — the recent revisions to Highlander’s back nine have also cut about 600 yards from the course’s maximum length, from 6,555 yards in 2011 to 5,960 yards in 2013. Head pro and Director of Golf Joe Gordon says that further changes are planned to push the course’s yardage back above 6,000, including moving back handful of tee boxes, while additional work will be done to separate the third and fifth greens, add a small lake shy of the green at the par-5 fifth hole (making a short par-5 into a true risk-reward play), reroute the par-5 13th hole, and extend the lake at No. 3 out towards the No. 4 tee box.
Make no mistake about it, though — what Highlander has sacrificed in length, it has added in quality. The course’s 14th through 16th holes used to be one of the more straightforward parts of the round, offering plenty of scenic views of the Wenatchee valley below, but little in the way of diversity — three consecutive par-4s, almost equal in length, played first down the hill, then back up the hill, and finally back down the hill again. That trio was then followed by an awkward, 110-yard par-3 (which played to just 90 yards from the whites), before getting back on track with a challenging, 422-yard, par-4.
Today, that same stretch is almost certainly the highlight of the round. The 14th has been transformed from a short, downhill par-4 to a more challenging long par-3, playing to 198 yards from the black tees. The 15th remains largely unchanged in design, with the exception of new tee boxes, but the 16th has become a fun, risk-reward par-4 — a 309-yard, steeply downhill hole fronted by a large pond crossed by a beautiful new stone bridge, a slight tip of the cap to Highlander’s Scottish-style origins. Big hitters will be tempted to blast towards the green (which is tucked into a small bowl to help catch drives that hit the green on the fly), while mid- and high-handicappers will be able to piece together a solid drive and a good approach into a strong birdie opportunity.
It’s on the tee box at the 17th hole, though, where Highlander’s finest work is on display. That 110-yard par-3 is completely gone, replaced instead by one of the most breathtaking tee shots in Washington state — a 200-yard carry across a gaping canyon to a strip of fairway that, from the tee box high on the opposite ridge, looks about as wide as the two-lane road winding up the hill from the valley below. With the lay-up no easy task, and the green just 247 yards away, the play for most golfers is to pull driver (or, for bigger hitters, 3-wood) and play it towards the hillside that slopes steeply down towards the fairway’s left side, letting the landscape’s natural contours funnel the ball back down towards the playing surface. Even the drive down from the road above to the fairway is a hair-raising, particularly if you’re scouring the canyon for your wayward tee shot below.
The course then finishes with yet another canyon shot, the aforementioned par-3 18th, giving you a third chance — including the iconic par-3 ninth, one of the most photographed holes in the state — to test your mettle against the danger lurking just below your field of vision.
Gordon says that the recent changes have already brought out an increase in locals and destination golfers eager to try the new holes, and that the response has been largely positive. While some players preferred the additional length of the former layout, they’re unanimous in their praise for the conditioning and quality of the newly redesigned Highlander, which remains open to the public year-round, save for the coldest and snowiest portions of the winter.
Gordon notes that many of the players who come from the West side of the mountains do so in search of the sun, with families in tow to check out the dozens of local wineries, float down the Columbia River, or check out the all-new Pybus Market, a Pike Place-style public market tucked alongside Wenatchee’s popular Riverfront Park.
Rates start as low as $35 after 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and peak at $59 on a summer weekend. Check it out for yourself at highlandergc.com.