Tumble Creek (Roslyn, WA) Doak, Fall Pictures

[Peter Ferlicca]

Ok, first off I just took the old thread and deleted the old pics and replaced them with the new fall pictures.  You can still see the spring thread which is MORE DETAILED than this one.   This thread is basically to show you the color contrast between the yellow fescue and green bent in the fall. 

Here is the link to the more detailed thread I posted earlier in the spring.
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,44229.0/





Tumble Creek Club is a Tom Doak design in Roslyn, WA that opened in 2005.  Tom Doak had 3 courses in the top ten new private in 2005: Ballyneal, Stone Eagle, and Tumble Creek.  Let’s just say he had a good year.  Tumble Creek is built in a forest that is in a glorious setting.  You see mountain peaks, Cle Elum River, big meadow, and much more.  It is a very nice and enjoyable walk, which seems to flow along effortlessly.   It is a residential private club; you won’t notice any homes in the photos because they are set back into the trees.  To be a member you must own property at either Tumble Creek or Suncadia (Prospector and Rope Rider course).   


Hole 1 Par 4 (400 yards) Awesome opening hole, pretty tight tee shot right of the bat.  The second shot requires a lot of touch to the uphill green.






Hole 2 Par 3 (183 yards)  A slightly downhill par 3 to a really undulating green.  If you miss right with that pin, you are going to put up a big score.




Hole 3 Par 4 (360 yards)  This can be driveable if the wind is up, but generally you want to get it up to the top shelf to see the green.  The approach is delicate to another wicked front pin.





View of #4 through the trees behind 3 green



Hole 4 Par 5 (575 yards)  Some say one of Doaks best par 5’s.  It is uphill the whole way, but has an exhilarating second shot, and the view for the third shot is forever. 





They are adding a top ladies tee because it is too hard for them, it will be around 235 yards, will be perfect for an alternate par 3.


Hole 5 Par 4 (420 yards)  A slight dogleg left that requires a perfect tee shot in between the bunkers. 







Hole 6 Par 4 (430 yards)  A good dogleg left that swing around the bunkers on the inside. 






Hole 7 Par 3 (225 yards)  A long par 3 to another pretty wild green.  Both of the par 3s are pretty tame looking on the front, but both have wicked greens. 






Hole 8 Par 5 (485 yards)  I love the simplicity of the this par 5, dead straight with bunkers pinching in on the drive, and then a green that falls away on the approach.






Hole 9 Par 4 (460 yards)  Hardest hole on the course, some of the coolest fairway movement I have seen.   If the wind is up this drive is tough just to get it on top of the hill.






Hole 10 Par 4 (430 yards)  This is a cool hole where the top of the flag is just barely visible way out the right around the cliff edge.  If you bomb your drive over the bunkers you have a better line in






Hole 11 Par 3 (178 yards)  When the wind in blowing dead into you this is quite a tough shot. 


Hole 12 Par 4 (410 yards)  A sharp dogleg right that goes straight downhill on the approach shot


You have a blind approach over the bunker if you don’t hit it that well off the tee





Hole 13 Par 3 (168 yards)  A slightly downhill par 3 that has a 3 shelf green, a lot of possible hole in one locations.






Hole 14 Par 5 (575 yards)  A downhill downwind par 5 that is easily reachable, the best line off the tee is just to the right of the fairway bunker.


Here is a spare tee to make a sweet 475 yard par 4






Hole 15 Par 5 (485 yards)  This hole is too short to be a par 5, it plays downwind and I haven’t had anything longer than an 8 iron into this par 5, IMO they should just play it as a par 4 from the 455 tee, and make it a par 70.





Hole 16 Par 4 (410 yards)  I LOVE the look of this tee shot, the way the fairways bends, and the bunkers are awesome looking on this hole.  The approach reminds me a lot of a winged foot approach with the raised green.





Hole 17 Par 3 (220 yards)  This hole is growing on me more and more.  The green has four different shelves with two bowls being front left and back right.  With bunkers all around, you better pull off a good shot.  Also a great view of cle elum river from the tee.




Hole 18 Par 4 (480 yards)  What a great finishing hole, swings to the left and then goes way uphill.  I just love how it bends uphill and finishes with a fun green.  When the pin is in the front bowl, you can hole out your second shot.  I have already seen a member hole out for an eagle. 








Here are some cool random pictures I took while roaming around the property.

[Mark McKeever]

Awesome pictures!  The course seems to fit the terrain very well.

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[Sean Leary]

Thanks Pete. I have not been out there in the fall. Looks like I need to.

[George Freeman]

I LOVE the low profile look to this golf course.  Nothing appears to be built up or pushed up; everything is at grade or below (or at least that how it looks to my untrained eye).  The course just really seems to hug the ground and is not trying to be something it's not.

Great pictures.  Thanks.  

[Carl Nichols]

Peter:
How far apart are Tumble Creek, Aldarra, and Chambers Bay?  I've played CB, but the others look terrific, and that would make for a nice long weekend of golf!

[Sean Leary]

Carl,

TC is about an hour from Aldarra which is about 1:15 from Tumble Creek.   

[Jim Franklin]

Why didn't I play there during my Seattle trip a few years ago? It looks terrific.

[Carl Nichols]

Carl,

TC is about an hour from Aldarra which is about 1:15 from Tumble Creek.   

Sean:
Did you mean CB, not TC, at the beginning of your sentence?

[Sean Leary]

Carl, sorry, yes I did mean that. Also you can add the time in total to get to TC from CB is on the way. Sahalee is 10 min from Aldarra btw.

[Andy Silis]

Played there this summer...Of all of Doak's courses I have played it is his best bunkering work.....Played firm and fast.....Views and setting are hard to beat.....VERY difficult course.....You can make birdies but also "others" just as quick and it doesn't take much of a miss......Solid Doak 7 that leans towards an 8.....Doesn't get the pub like some of his other courses but it is truly some of his best work!

[John Kirk]

Beautiful pictures.  Thanks for the tour.

[Allan Long]

Nice photos. Personally, I always favored #4 and #12 as the holes that stood out to me on each nine. I know that there are those who are not huge fans of the course in relationship to some of Doak's other work, but I really like what he did out there. The piece of land that golf course sits on is quite good, and the surrounding area and vistas are gorgeous.

Aside form the course itself, I always thought that the total experience at TC was really cool. It’s the type of place where you can just go play golf all day long, then sit back, look at the beautiful surrounds and watch the world go by.

[Ryan Farrow]

I like the big broad long slopes,  Nice change from some of the smaller scale contouring Tom's group has done on some other projects.  Simple & clean, there is something calming about it....

Are the greens void of small internal movement as well?

Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Tom_Doak]

I like the big broad long slopes,  Nice change from some of the smaller scale contouring Tom's group has done on some other projects.  Simple & clean, there is something calming about it....

Are the greens void of small internal movement as well?

Ryan:

There is plenty of contour and interest in the greens, some of which could be described as "small internal movement".  It is a really good set of greens, and tough to read because there are general broad slopes that disguise some of the tilt on the greens themselves.

[Ryan Farrow]

Who worked on that project?  And how's Mr. Iverson doing? I hope your keeping him busy!

[Tom_Doak]

Eric is busy shaping in Florida, I'll tell him you said hi.

Actually every single one of my associates was involved at Tumble Creek a little bit; it's the only place we ever had the entire crew on site at the same time (for three days in July). The guys who spent the most time there were Brian Slawnik and Chad Grave, but Eric and Brian Schneider also built a number of greens, and Chris Hunt and Bruce Hepner built a fair number of the bunkers.

Wish I had a reason to get back there more often.

[Adam Russell]

Tom,

I've never seen a picture of that first par-5, always heard about how much dirt you moved. Seeing it from behind really shows how far down you had to go to make it playable. No one's said much about the routing, but it looked to me to be a tough one to settle on a final path. Must have been nice to make the choice to cut the par-5 and have everything work out well. Whatever happened to Chad?

[Tom_Doak]

Adam:

Chad retired from the golf business after the last hole was planted at the Bay of Dreams.  He was planning to get into the nursery business but I have not heard how he's doing with that.

We did a lot of earthwork on that 4th hole (something like 100,000 cubic yards worth ... that first landing area is actually ten feet of fill).  But by taking on that one ridge on that hole, we wound up not having to move any more earth on the first 13 holes; that one hole really made everything else work.  But I will admit that I never had a clue it would wind up being everyone's favorite hole. 

The one hole I really had to fight for was the ninth, whose fairway contour Peter admired so much.  The land planner kept wanting to move the hole over 150 feet to the left so they could get a second set of houses in between #1 and #9, and I kept telling them that the contour right there was really special and I didn't want to move it.  Eventually, the client decided to let me win that one and I am forever grateful ... and I know that a couple of the homeowners up on that ridge really enjoy the extra privacy, too!

[Adam Russell]

Tom,

I had just always assumed it was a cut the way Eric talked about it... I instinctively look at all slopes like the ones around where I grew up in the Southeast, long and rounded. The West was a little different with the sharp ups and downs. I thought the routing looked tricky from the pictures to figure out. It was all wooded, wasn't it?

Land planners - meh. The only people that can ruin a row of homesites and a golf hole at the same time. I'm sure the homeowners like not having another set of houses right on top of them, too. Sounds like the client was committed to your vision for the golf course.

[David_Elvins]

Tom Doak,

With the housing estate, was the design process much different to other courses you designed in the same era?  I remember that you weren't allowed to build wild dunes at Pacific Dunes.  What sort of reqirements (if any) did you have on the design process at Tumble Creek?

Thanks.

[Tom_Doak]

Adam,

The fill for the first landing area came mostly from the ridge for the second, although a bit of dirt came up the hill from #16, too.


David,

Routing a golf course as part of a development always requires a fair amount of give and take with the land planners and the clients, who spend their whole time trying to figure out what they can sell the lots for, and how much they would be giving up if they let you put a golf hole on a prime view lot.  However, of all the clients I've had for a development project, these were the most respectful of what I was trying to do.

There was a primary environmental corridor along the river which we could not encroach upon, although I believe the golf course was allowed to come closer to it than housing, which is one reason the client was okay with putting so many golf holes up against the view.  Apart from that, my main planning consideration was to try to minimize road crossings to keep the golf experience from being broken too often.  You do cross roads after holes 2, 6, 8, and 12, but in all instances it is very low key and kind of easy to forget.

[Kalen Braley]

Tom,

I had the opportunity to play this yesterday.  Really liked the course overall and what you did with #4 and #11 was just genius, especially #11.  Putting a uphill par 3 on that ridgeline just struck me as very out-of-the-box and it worked out well.

I did have a question about the finishing 5 holes. Can you provide any details of what was there before and what you had to work with to come up with what is there now?  It looks to be a fairly unique mountain meadow with the higher terrain to the south and big drop off to the north.

Thanks,

Kalen

[Jeff_Mingay]

Tom,

There's much I admire about the look of this golf course. Of all your courses, Tumble Creek seems to be most fascinating to me. I gotta make a point to get over there next time I'm in Washington.

Nice work.

[Tony Dear]

The more I think about Tumble Creek, the better it gets. Every hole requires some thought, sound decision-making and quality ball-striking. And they all fit the land so perfectly.

[Daryl David]

Tumble seems to be one of Tom's most over looked courses and thus probably most underrated as a result. Could be the location keeps folks from seeing it.  Maybe now with It being between a drive from Chambers to Wine Valley, that will change. It is an awesome track.  Best "Mountain" course ( if there is such a category) that have played.