[Steve_Lovett]

It used to be, some years back, that there was a lack of quality golf in the central and eastern portions of Washington State...  Next week, I have the opportunity to play Suncadia, Bear Mountain, and Desert Canyon.  Of those - Desert Canyon is the only one which has been established for awhile...

Does anyone have information on any of these?  If so, have they contributed to the quality of golf in this region..?

[Scott_Burroughs]

I believe Suncadia's original course is a Palmer design.  The 2nd course at Suncadia, Tumble Creek, is a Doak design scheduled to open this summer.

Here's a low-quality aerial of Desert Canyon:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=5804

[danielfaleman]

Desert Canyon Resort, half-way between Wenatchee and Lake Chelan on the Columbia River; designer, Jack Frei. Shot-making course. Much nicer than an average desert courses in Arizona.

Suncadia Resort on I-90 just south of Roslyn; classic inland mountain course designed by the Palmer Group, two more courses are to be built. Want a condo? Actually, kind of nice and green for the area, amongst tall pines.

Bear Mountain Ranch in Chelan, just opened on April 1. Awaiting the sand for its bunkers. Probably will be the best course in the area when mature. Course is offering "trial" golf, $65 a round. Lots of home-sites available. I'll play there in mid-June.

[Craig Van Egmond]

Desert Canyon is easily in the top 5 public courses in the state of Washington, well worth the visit.  It has a very cool putting course also.  

I haven't seen the other two. The Doak course opening this summer is private.

[peter_p]

"Bear Mountain was routed by Robert Yount, a Bellevue landscape architect, with tee and green shaping completed by Don Barth, owner of Alta Lake and Rock Island golf courses.
A cart will be required to cover the hilly topography. "I'll head that way in August.

[Bill_McBride]

Indian Canyon, a solid course in Spokane, especially if you like conifer-lined fairways!  I played it in 1962 and I'll bet those alleys are claustrophic today.........

[Steve_Lovett]

Thanks for the information...  I'll be at Suncadia on Friday and Desert Canyon/Bear Mountain Saturday and Sunday of next week...

I will report back - hopefully with photographs...

-Steve

[peter_p]

If you like the Bear Mountain greens, drive 20 miles up US 97 and see Alta Lake. Interesting but varied reviews.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

If you have time when wandering through....The highlander (if thats still the name) in Wenatchee is worth a visit and when in Moses Lake...Moses point is also worth a stop.  Neither is goingto make a top hundred list but when in the wasteland .... you take what you can get.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

I do have a question about Robin Yount.  Could there be more than one or is this the hall of fame baseball player?

[Steve_Lovett]

Many in our group played Highlander previously - and suggested that we opt for Bear Mountain instead...

Hopefully we are finding some of the best of "the wasteland"...  

[cary lichtenstein]

I don't think Doak's course will open this summer.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I don't think Doak's course will open this summer.

I was going based on the club's web site and also this from Doak himself 4 weeks ago:

Tumble Creek in Washington [late summer] and Stone Eagle [November] will be our other 2005 openings; I suspect Sebonack's official opening will be in spring 2006, but I suspect I won't be the only one to play a few holes there in the fall of '05.  In fact, since we are grassing the lower end first, they may have to put a fence up beside the 9th tee to keep people from sneaking over from National!

[peter_p]

Cos,
Robin Yount was freudian. The landscape architect is Robert Yount. I will edit my earlier entry.

[Tom_Doak]

Last word from Tumble Creek is that the last five holes are way behind the rest as far as the grassing goes; they had a tough winter with no snow cover and a lot of elk damage!  

The current plan is to open the front nine holes around the first of July and the back nine in the fall, but it's possible the back nine will have to wait until next year, or that they might open 15 holes since the 15th comes back below the clubhouse before a final three-hole loop.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Tom ,
Looking forward to seeing some of your work here in WA State.  Too bad about the elk, as the winter was exceedingly mild in this area.  I had hoped that grassing would be ahead of schedule.

Spoke with some of the Suncadia people and they implied two things, 1) that your course might be delayed by the installation of a bridge and 2) that they were considering no markings (tee blocks etc).  Now that would be minimalist.  Any truth or were they blowing smoke rings up my rear?

[Tom_Doak]

Bill:

It is definitely hard to get into the property ... we used a four-mile, one-lane dirt road all through construction.  I hadn't heard anything about the new road, the word from Brian Slawnik is that they want to open the front nine July 1st and the back nine September 1st.

I haven't had any discussions with them about the "no markings" concept.  Whatever they want to do with that is fine with me.

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