90. Pacific Northwest (OR and WA) August 5-15, 2017 (Part II)

Pacific Northwest (OR and WA) August 5-15, 2017 (Part II)

One addition to my last post…the hotel room in Seattle also had a yoga mat!

Thursday 8/10 was a travel day.  We left Seattle around 10am and headed east over the Cascade Mountains, then north to an area about 50 miles south of the Canadian border.  This is “Apple Country”…where the land is filled with huge apple orchards (I keep saying “orchids” and Pat keeps correcting my pronunciation). 

Gamble Sands Golf Club, August 11, 2017:  Here in the high Washington desert, David McLay Kidd designed and oversaw the construction of a marvelous new course that opened to huge acclaim in 2014…Gamble Sands.  The $$ and land behind GS came from the Gebbers Family, who made the word “Apple” famous long before Steve Jobs.  Kidd, born and raised in Scotland, had previously became famous in the golfing world with his first design, a course on the coast of Oregon known as Bandon Dunes.  He also designed Nanea, a brilliant course on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Almost immediately after opening GS was included on Golf Week’s 2015 Top 100 USA Modern list at #73…which put it at #154 on my “Merged” list of Classic/Modern, and by 2017, it had moved up to #45 on the Modern list which brought it up to #66 on my Merged list.  It has not cracked the GD Top 100 as yet, and Golf Magazine’s 2017 list has not been released yet.

I unabashedly loved just about everything about it (as did my bride).  It is wide open (none of those funny tall plants commonly known as trees), very very strategic in design (lots of optional ways to play a hole), firm fast 100% fescue grass in wonderful condition…and in a beautiful setting…even with the smoke from the forest fires up north (have to stop blaming the Canadians).  But the best part of GS is the staff…from top to bottom, fun, happy, helpful, and charming.  There is a positive feel to the place that one sees all too rarely. 

There are simply too many superb holes for my two typing fingers to describe…but allow me to try to describe the practice greens.  The one near the clubhouse is a large appendage to the 18^th green, and is perfectly located.  

GS practice green in foreground with 18th green connected and just beyond bunker

The larger practice green (known as the Cascades Course) sits behind the “Inn” (which is a great place to stay…about 200 yards from the first tee), and is literally 166 yards long (I measured it with a laser gun…no “approximates” from moi).  It is loaded with moguls etc etc.  (see picture below).  

Cascades Course---166 yards long green behind The Inn...incredible!

I am told by the staff that it also is 2.5 acres in size but I cannot vouch for the precision of that estimate (the website says 100,000 sq ft…or 2.30 acres).  By comparison, Bandon Dunes’ Punchbowl Green is 100,000 sq.ft. (2.30 acres), the practice green at Bandon’s practice facility is 1 acre (43,560 sq. ft.) in size, and the Himalayas green at St. Andrews is 2 acres in size (just over 87,000 sq ft)

The great news is that the Gebbers’ family apparently understands that it takes two courses to make a destination…I have zero inside knowledge, but hopefully a second course will be announced soon.

There are two negatives to Gamble Sands.  First, it makes Bandon Dunes feel convenient and easily accessible (3:40 from Seattle and 2:30 from Spokane...both assuming no traffic).  That will not change…but a second course will make the journey feel more worthwhile (IMHO it is already absolutely worthwhile).  The second issue is the lack of wind.  It was almost dead still in the morning and maybe 5-10 mph in the afternoon.  I asked 2 locals and got the sense that the wind only really blows in the afternoons during shoulder seasons (May-June and September-October).  If that is the case (I have not really researched this except for asking a couple of residents), that is not the ideal climate conditions for true links golf…so, does anyone out there know more about this?

I played great…had a 38-39 = 77 (with a 7 on the par 5 3^rd ).  Played from 6207 yards, long for an old fart like me, but the ball runs forever here.  From the back GS plays to a seemingly hefty 7305 yards (par 72)…but plays much shorter (although windy conditions would lengthen the course considerably).  But the name of the game here is to have fun…and that is easy to do here.  Great great course at an even a greater place…worth the trip to the boonies!!

GS #7 hole, 514 yard par 5--Dogleg R, slightly down off the tee, then flat, then uphill to green--I put my second in green side bunker but couldn't get U&D for birdie

GS #17--uphill DL R---428 yards--flag can be seen just over horizon above sand 

After the round, a good lunch, and a trip to the Cascades Course/green to get a good measurement of its length, we were off to our next stop, Walla Walla, in the southeastern corner of WA.

Wine Valley Golf Club, August 12, 2017:  The drive from Gamble Sands to Walla Walla took a good 4 hours.  We were both exhausted upon arrival and the nap most welcomed.  Then the next morning we were playing Wine Valley at 9am.  The area around Walla Walla has a huge agricultural industry (before this trip I had no idea of the size and scope of the agricultural industry here) and a large and growing wine region.  The city center in Walla Walla is in the midst of a successful renovation/restoration effort…our hotel (The Marcus Whitman) and the two restaurants we sampled (Passatempo Taverna and Whitehouse Crawford) were excellent examples (especially Whitehouse Crawford…such a neat place).  But time to get back to important matters like golf courses.

Wine Valley was designed by Dan Hixson and opened in 2009.  Today it stretches to a very hefty 7600 yards (par 72), but being very firm and fast, plays much shorter (but still plenty long).  It is very much in the style of Gamble Sands…wide wide fairways, huge greens, lots of angles and options that vary with pin position and wind.  We very much liked the minimalist “feel” of the club.

WVGC has not been on a USA Top 100, but it was on GW’s Top 100 Modern list from 2011-16 (falling off in 2017) with a high rating of #75 (on the Modern list) in 2015.  It is a very enjoyable fun course, but its bunkering is not as good as Gamble Sands’ and it needs some additional fairway bunkers to present more decisions off the tee.

Next stop, Spokane and Manito G&CC.

Manito Golf & Country Club, August 13, 2017: Manito G&CC was founded in 1917 and then five years later moved to its present location about 4 miles SW of downtown Spokane to a course designed by Arthur Macan.  In 1944, it hosted the PGA Championship won by Bob Hamilton (over heavily favored Byron Nelson in the match play final).  The other three majors were not played in 1944 and the PGA was not played in 1943.

Manito has never been on a Top 100 and frankly shows no signs of deserving such a position.  A nice parkland golf course, but not one I would want to play regularly…does nothing for your “senses” (the “Peanut Gallery” is now saying to themselves that I have no senses….not true…I married Pat!).

I shot a lackluster 40-42 = 82 on an easy course…showing definite lack of concentration…not surprising when one finds an uninteresting course late on a trip.

After the round we headed to our hotel in Spokane and watched the end of the PGA at a bar (room not ready yet).  Critically important comments continue below.

CBS Coverage of PGA:  All I can say is that Frank Chirkinian must be turning in his grave and so are Ken Venturi and Pat Summerall.  Chirkinian was the man who basically wrote the book on great TV coverage of golf for CBS Sports, and Venturi/Summerall were the incomparable pair in the booth overlooking the 18^th hole. 

You know the commercials you don’t see while watching the US Open and the Masters?  You can see them all by watching the PGA which shows more commercials per hour than the Super Bowl (good thing there is an outside limit of 60 minutes of commercials per hour)…this is called “Fake TV Golf  Coverage” and no surprise that it is brought to you on a main stream media network.

Additionally Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo had their “green mile” talking points down pat…no need to rehearse something you say about 15 times per hour.

But the final and last straw was the coverage at the end of play.  Justin Thomas had just finished the 72^nd hole and had a 2-stroke lead on Kevin Kisner.  Kisner was on the 17^th green with a 44’ birdie putt.  If he makes it (admittedly an unlikely event) and then birdies 18, folks, we have a playoff.  Instead of switching to 17, CBS keeps the broadcast on 18 where Thomas (appropriately) is being congratulated and hugged by his 85 handlers and “best friends”…then about 3 minutes later, shows Kisner missing the putt on 17 on replay.  Nice coverage if you are covering a hugging contest, not so great for a golf championship!!  End of Speech!!

Status of Bucket Lists:  While I am sure most of you are keeping score on your own, here is a recap so you can check you numbers:

States played—unchanged at 48 with just Utah and Alaska to go.

Majors Ever—knocked off 2 so only 5 former PGA sites to go (Birmingham CC-MI, Columbine-CO, Keller-MN, Blue Mound-WI, and Norwood Hills-MO)

Top 100 EVER—knocked off 3 and have 8 left.

Cups EVER—knocked off 1 and have 3 left (Greenbrier-WV, Broadmoor East-CO, Denver CC-CO) .

US Senior Open EVER—1 played and 4 left.

US Amateur Ever—1 played and 1 left (Broadmoor-East)

US Mid Amateur—none played so still 3 left

2016/2017 Golf Week 200—I want to finish the full complement of Golf Week Modern and Classic courses from the two most recent years…2 played so 5 courses left.

Total to complete these bucket lists (excluding duplicates)…29

Lifetime course count:  969!!  2017 course count…93…75 new and 18 repeats!!

Next stops…first of all, fly with Pat back to Boston on 8/15.  Then leave evening of 8/19 for a 6 day journey that, if all works as planned, will make important dents on above.  As a hint, planned stops are in MN, AK, UT, CA, NV, and WI…busy 6 days.