My memory may be fading, but I think that Bill Overdorf, Classic's designer, used to post here in the early days of GCAtlas.com...
I believe that the original money for the project, which opened in 1991, was supposed to be Japanese, and was going to be one of a series of "Classic"-named clubs around the country. That angle didn't last too long, however, and perhaps it never got off the ground in that fashion.
In any event, the biggest reason to care about the Classic Country Club is that it was the home of one Ryan Moore, native of Puyallup, WA, whose family ran and maybe still does run the course. I remember the scrawny teenager in the shop in the mid-late 90's before he headed off to UNLV.
The course is nice, but is not necessarily worth the special trip, as it is very similar to numerous other too tree-lined, stump-encircled, overly wet, claustrophobic Pacific Northwest courses built in the same general time-frame. It does have some of Bill Overdorf's most creative green complexes, though, and that part is intriguing.
It is damn-hard to get to in normal working hours if you're coming from anywhere more than a few miles from Tacoma or Puyallup--traffic can be terrible. As Eric described, it is perhaps best tackled as part of a multi-round day in mid-summer, without anywhere else to go or have to get back to...As have many places up here, prices (once way out of line with the lack of conditioning years ago) have come back down to appropriate levels.
Always amazing to find such courses pop up on GCA! Perhaps we can now discuss Whitney Farms in Monroe, CT!