For your viewing pleasure, what follows is a brief photo-essay of the newly opened "The Home Course" in Dupont, WA, just south of Tacoma. Cos has posted on this course before (early-mid June), but as a brief recap, the course was built on the site of the old Dupont Dynamite Works, and an even older fort at the south end of Puget Sound. Cos will perhaps chime in, but I believe the course sat in usable, but unopened, condition for a while, until finally bought by the Washington State Golf Association this past Spring. From the day of the announced sale to the course opening was only a few weeks. To date, many of the accoutrements (ball washers, yardage plates, yardage markers, different colored flags, etc.) that one might expect to find on a public course that expects to get heavy traffic have not yet arrived from the suppliers....Therefore, these early rounds afford the intrepid golfer an opportunity to play "old style" golf, iwth only one's eyes to guide you along...
The way back tee markers---Hmmm, where did this idea come from?
Remnants of the narrow gauge rail from the old "works", the way-back 10th tee box is situated on top of these "ruins"
There's no messing around with puny distances on this course. The Dynamite Tees on this par-72 log in at 7437 yds, amongst the longest in this area, with rating/slope of 76.5/132. The "Black" tees are 7135 yds (74.5/127), the "Blue" tees 6671 yds (72.0/125), "White"s 6139 yds 69.3/123 and the "Gold"s are 5506 yds (66.4/116).
3rd green, with a representative presentation of the sparse bunkering (yet with occasional revetted faces), and the multi-tiered nature of many greens...
You like blind tee shots? This course has 'em all over, and not just on doglegs...I counted as many as 9 tee shots (out of 14 on the non par-3's) that were either blind to the landing areas, or in which the greensites could not be visualized. For example, here is the tee shot on #15, a 433 yds par 4 (aiming barber-pole barely visible on mound)...
and the subsequent landing area and green...
In fact, the final 4 tee shots are essentially blind...Here's #16
...also highlighting another prominent feature of The Home Course, lots of heaving mounds scattered about, perhaps mimicking the outlines of the Olympic Mtns to the West. The green is actually tucked hard left about 40 yds behind the big left mound...
#17 is a highly elastic par-4 which ranges from 400 yds down to 310, and faces due West...
This is the wildest green on the course, with a barely-there (false) front--this hole location was near-criminal--and the back 75% of the green which races away from the fairway...
The course is in very nice shape right now, although a bit moist through the playing area, as might have been expected. Its biggest assets now are its affordability ($35 for WSGA/PNGA members) and its lack of "pretention"--its' not trying to be a CCFAD, and never will be. It's very wide, particularly for a Pacific NW course, and manageable by all types of golfers.
It will be interesting to follow the pace of play, conditioning, etc as time goes along. At this point, IMHO, it is not a "trip-worthy" destination, and not in the same ballpark as Chambers Bay, which is only a few miles to the north. Nevertheless, it is an intriguing addition to the NW golf scene, that will likely serve its main purpose as a host to the WSGA quite well... I have other thoughts which I can add, if others chime in with interest...