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Starting Fresh
As spring is ready to bloom again, there's a bouquet of new courses set to burst out on the Northwest landscape.
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Bandon Trails
photo by Wood Sabold |
From the Oregon coast to the Idaho mountains, there will be even more golf holes to choose from as several new courses are coming on line this
year.
And this follows 2004 when Suncadia in the Washington Cascades, Phantom Hills outside Missoula, Mont., and Pronghorn in Bend, Ore., were added
to the territory.
This year, national acclaim will fittingly be bestowed upon Bandon Trails on the southern Oregon Coast. The design by Bill Coore and Ben
Crenshaw will join Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes when it opens June 1 to make this out-of-the-way golf getaway among the best 54 holes
together in one spot in the entire world.
At Suncadia, in Roslyn, Wash., golfers wait with high anticipation for Tumble Creek. This follows The Prospector Course, by Arnold Palmer
Design, that opened in 2004.
Bear Mountain Ranch near Chelan, Wash., and the new Juniper Golf Club in Redmond, Ore., will be unveiled, while White Horse near Kingston,
Wash., will wait until 2006 to be entirely open to the public.
Idaho's biggest contribution to the collection of new courses will be Tamarack. The course in Central Idaho is taking advantage of a perfect
setting between Tamarack Mountain and Lake Cascade.
Robert Trent Jones II did the design, and his name will be prevalent in the Northwest for the next couple of years as Chambers Bay near
Tacoma, Wash., is expected to make a grand entrance in 2007.
Tamarack will include more than 100 bunkers, tree-lined fairways and large greens in the sweeping meadow in Donnelly, Idaho. There will be four
sets of tees, ranging from 5,400 to 7,340 yards when the course opens this summer.
Golf at Tamarack will take some lessons from its ski partners at the year-round Idaho resort and rate the tee boxes by ability in the same
fashion as is done with ski slopes. There will be double black diamond, black diamond, blue and green tee boxes.
Bandon Trails already is making plenty of waves, and landing on the cover of national magazines. Trails will not cling to the cliffs
overlooking the Pacific Ocean as its two brethren courses, Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes.
Trails instead will wind its way inland, over the dunes, through the meadows and into the forest, but always with the scent of the ocean in the
air and the sounds and scenes of the waves nearby.
While Bandon Dunes is reminiscent of Scottish links golf and Pacific Dunes reminds most of rugged Irish seaside golf, Bandon Trails will bring
everyone back home to the best that Pacific Northwest golf has to offer.
Coore, for one, has said he's thrilled with the layout. "The site is extremely unique. It's characterized by inland, rolling dune land as well
as exposed sand with beach grasses and ocean vistas."
Crenshaw also has been impressed. "You hear about it, but until you see it, you just don't realize that it is such a special place."
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Suncadia
photo by Rob Perry |
A special place also is in the works between Roslyn and Cle Elum. When it is all said and done, Suncadia also will boost 54 remarkable holes.
There is much eagerness for Tumble Creek, designed by Tom Doak, who lately has become possibly the hottest course architect in the world. After
Pacific Dunes netted rave reviews for Doak, he opened Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand to even more acclaim.
Tumble Creek is on a plateau alongside the Cle Elum River, a bit upstream from The Prospector Course that opened last summer at 7,111 yards.
Chelan's Bear Mountain Ranch is set to open in April if the weather cooperates.
Every hole on the course has views of Lake Chelan and there will be five sets of tees, ranging from 7,231 yards to 5,063 yards on the par-72.
Greens fees are expected to range between $50 and $70 with carts included.
Even farther east, into the northwest corner of Montana, is Phantom Hills, which has been open for a year on ranch land outside of Missoula.
There are four sets of tees and plenty of open area on the layout that covers 202 acres. The back tees on the par-72 stretch out to 7,020 yards
and the front tees are at 5,090.
The toughest hole is the 468-yard, par-4 fifth hole, with fescue grass adding to the beauty of the Les Furber-layout.
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| Pronghorn |
Bend's Pronghorn boosts the only Jack Nicklaus course in Oregon, and a Tom Fazio layout is on tap for 2006. The Nicklaus course is 7,381 yards
from the back tees and meanders through desert terrain with lava rock ridges and outcroppings.
Golf Digest recently ranked the course No. 2 on its 2004 list of best new private courses in the U.S.
In Redmond, Ore., the new Juniper Golf Club will replace the old Juniper course, which is on property that will be needed for airport
expansion.
John Harbottle III designed the new City of Redmond layout on gently rolling desert terrain.
In Canada, Bell Mountain Golf Course will come online this year in Kelowna, B.C. The Graham Cooke-design will be 6,655 yards from the back tees
and 5,250 yards from the front tees.
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