Palouse Ridge - Harbottle's Best?

[W.H. Cosgrove]

I was able to play Harbottle's Palouse Ridge in Pullman Washington last Sunday.  The Washington State University course replaces the previous 9 holer that was plowed under to make room for the new 18. 

Placed on a rolling piece of land featuring vast eastern Washington vistas and some rolling and side hill lies, Palouse is a truly fine addition to the golf world.  Harbottle moved about 800,000 yds of earth to make the property work.  The blue grass fairways are generous but should you miss, the reward is some very difficult side hill shots. The bent grass greens are relativley flat and average around 6500 sq ft.  Roughs are of fescue and the contrasts with the surrounding country side are remarkable.

While some of Harbottles early work seemed forced and sometimes overdone, Palouse is a spare design with few extra bunkers and some truly diabolical uses of visual intimidation and misdirection. 

With Circling Raven on Golf magazine's best you can play list at #93, Palouse could well be placed on that list much higher than Circling Raven.  The two courses are only 80 miles apart which is just around the block in that neighborhood. 

Unless someone can explain how to post photos direct to GCA, I will post some shots when I get back to Tacoma on Sunday. 

Tetherow on Friday.

www.palouseridge.com

[Cory Brown]

As a WSU alum who has had the misfortune of playing the old 9-holer, I am really looking forward to getting over to play the new course.  It looks like it is going to be really good.

[Tom_Doak]

800,000 yards to "make the property work"??

Was it dead flat and ugly at the sides, or too hilly?

[Bill_McBride]

Jordan Wall will love it! 

Jordan, please keep us up to date on your college experiences when you have time.  Good luck with the golf team at WSU.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

800,000 yards to "make the property work"??

Was it dead flat and ugly at the sides, or too hilly?

TD, Hilly.  Most of the work was cut and fill to get wide flat landing areas that allowed for the prairie wind and a flattish lie.  While it seemed like a lot of earth moving it doesn't seem excessive at any hole except the 2nd which is probably the weak sister on the golf course. 

For a guy from Tacoma, 800k seems like a teacup compared to the 1.4mil at Chambers Bay.   

[Garland Bayley]

Bill,

The best way to see how to post pictures is to go to a thread with pictures and click the quote button on a message with pictures.

This of course assumes you have someplace on the internet such as flickr to upload them and get their url from.

[Jordan Wall]

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words!

Palouse Ridge is a really cool golf course.  The elevation changes are dramatic, as are the views, and best of all, so is the course.

Some of the holes are rather nuts - a 256 par-3 that plays a good ways uphill, for instance.  Yet, mixed in with the shorter one shot holes, it seems to be a perfect blend.

There are some really cool par 4's out there, and the course ends with two par-5's, which should make matches exciting down the stretch.

This is a course which Washington State will be proud to call our own.  It's a wonderful addition to an already great place.

Cheers,
Jordan

[Matt_Ward]

I intend to be at Palouse Ridge sometime in very early September and look forward to seeing the course and what John Harbottle has designed.

Just a quick aside -- but I really enjoyed his work w Fuzzy Zoeller with The Challenge layout at Arrow Creek in the Reno, NV area. If Palouse Ridge is better than that it is saying something indeed.

Will report back when I have played it.

[Garland Bayley]

Jordan,

Make sure to hook up with Matt in September and show him what length is all about. 

[Tim Leahy]

Is it public or like Stanford, just open to guests of students and alumni?

[Jed Peters]

Is it public or like Stanford, just open to guests of students and alumni?

I'm guessing if it's in pullman, washington, it'll be open to just about anyone who wants to pay to play it!

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Its public with multiple levels of fees depending on who, what when and why......

Jordan, just because there is tee box at 256 yards, doesn't mean that you have to play it!!

[igrowgrass]

Jordan,

Make sure to hook up with Matt in September and show him what length is all about. 

Jordan can't hit it out of his own shadow.

[Bill_McBride]

Jordan,

Make sure to hook up with Matt in September and show him what length is all about. 

Jordan can't hit it out of his own shadow.

But he did birdie 18 at Pasatiempo, and I think stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!

[BVince]

I talked to John on Wednesday and he is really excited about his new course in Tahoe that he did with Johnny Miller.  It is called Timilick and it is going to be a private club that is in the moderate price range for the area.  I am not sure if it is open yet or any other specifics but his enthuasiam was evident.

[Matt_Ward]

I'll say this again in the event some missed it -- I wonder how Palouse Ridge fares against the likes of The Challenge at Arrowcreek -- the layout Harbottle teamed w Fuzzy Z in the Reno area. I really liked the course there and if Palouse is indeed that much better than it speaks volumes for the Pullman layout.

I'll be there in early September and can opine after my time there.

The photos I have seen look quite impressive.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Finally reached an internet connection that I could upload from.

Photos removed

[Garland Bayley]

Hi Bill,

The images you are trying to post don't have a .jpg, or .gif filename extension. You might want to check how you are getting the url for them.

[Kalen Braley]

Garland,

I've found with photos posted from snapfish, they do odd things in your browser.  If you go to thier properties and paste the link in your browser, they will come up.....at least they did for me.

And then when you refresh this thread, they will appear.  I also tried adding a .jpg file extension when posting it, and they still show up as red boxes as well.

[Garland Bayley]

Kalen,

That works, but how does Bill get them to appear here automatically?

[Kalen Braley]

Kalen,

That works, but how does Bill get them to appear here automatically?

Thats the part I don't know!! 

I should look it up on one of my geeky sites.  What a stupid I am!   

[Tim Leahy]

I talked to John on Wednesday and he is really excited about his new course in Tahoe that he did with Johnny Miller.  It is called Timilick and it is going to be a private club that is in the moderate price range for the area.  I am not sure if it is open yet or any other specifics but his enthuasiam was evident.

I played Timilick a couple of weeks ago and it is a very good course. Still only open 6 weeks and not playing like it was designed because of heavy watering to keep it green and sell lots around the course. I also played Greys Crossing and enjoyed it more but it is a full year older and very similar in design.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Hi Bill,

The images you are trying to post don't have a .jpg, or .gif filename extension. You might want to check how you are getting the url for them.

Garland, are you saying the photos are not working for you?  I can see them. 

[BVince]

WH, I can't see them either

[Garland Bayley]

Hi Bill,

The images you are trying to post don't have a .jpg, or .gif filename extension. You might want to check how you are getting the url for them.

Garland, are you saying the photos are not working for you?  I can see them. 

I can't see them unless I go through the complicated procedure Kalen outlined above. I copy the url to my browser, and then refresh the result, the photo appears in browser, and when I go back to the thread the photo shows there too.

However, I did this on my work computer, but now at home they don't show on the computer here.

As Kalen mentioned, all I see are red rectangles in the place where the picture should appear.