Let me add a few comments about Pacific Northwest golf courses, referring mostly to Western Washington and Oregon but also to British Columbia.
1. If you do a Wikipedia review of Chandler Egan and Vernon Macan, you will find a large number of projects in which they were involved.
2. Old photos of many of the courses indicate courses were constructed after clear cutting of old growth cedar, fir, and hemlock forests in the early 1900s or in some instances what appeared to be pasture land.
3. The area around Sahalee on the Sammamish Plateau in the early 1960s was a developing second growth forest. Natural reforestation is inevitable but some areas may have been replanted after being logged.
4. I played Inglewood and Fircrest in 1962 and both were tree lined. On some of the holes on Fircrest trees had been planted to create more separation and better hole definition. Inglewood at that time was densely reforested. About twenty years later, Inglewood did some logging to raise funds and resulting high winds in the next couple of years contributed to more blowdown and uprooting if trees. By that time the trees at Fircrest had grown much taller.
5. Inglewood and Fircrest have recently undertaken significant tree removal but holes are mostly tree lined.
6. Both inglewood and Fircrest hosted PGA events in the early 1960s. Seattle Golf Club hosted the Walker Cup in the early 60s in which Jack Nicklaus and Deane Beaman participated.
7. These courses and the others where Vernon Macan and Chandler Egan did work defined what was considered desirable at the time and probably influenced how Ted Robinson approached design.
8. Louis Schmidt who had built Indian Canyon in Spokane was involved in building Sahalee and was the first superintendent and greenskeeper until 1977.
9. In the mid-70s when Sahalee opened, it served as one of quite a few courses in the state that defined what many considered best quality.
10. Port Ludlow Golf Course near where I live was built around the same time as Sahalee. Robert Muir Graves designed the 18 holes that opened at that time. Dick Schmidt, son of Louis Schmidt, was involved in the construction of the course and was the first superintendent. It was among the top five in the state at that time, along with Seattle Golf Club, Royal Oaks, and Fircrest. They later added another nine holes which is now closed, on land that afforded spectacular views but was problematic from other perspectives.
People may think of Sahalee as truly unique, looking at it on TV and not having much experience playing golf in these parts. It was definitely an extension of what was deemed quality golf course in these parts at the time it opened and pushed the boundaries in a way that made it special. And it has origins in the work of Chandler Egan and Vernon Macan.
Golf Club Atlas doesn't cover this area much and I understand the affinity for courses like Gamble Sands and Wine Valley in the Eastern half of the state where the terrain, climate, and native vegetation is quite different.
The trees present many challenges requiring intelligent tree management - easier said than done.
Charles Lund