Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture => Topic started by: Ben Baldwin on August 02, 2014, 12:16:36 AM
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Course is breathtaking, views are extraordinary, routing is spectacular. Took a few photo's (below).
I played with 2 gentleman (one a member) and they played the "back" tee (their tips are called medal) so I joined them there in an effort to enjoy their company more, it plays at about 6700 from the "back". Shot 73 and got home on 3 of the 4 par 5's and then three putted all 3 for par. That was what I had the most issue (difficulty) with was the greens. The wall to wall fescue is beautiful but just had a hard time with speed on the greens. The course is straight up FUN. It's challenging, not hard, but also not easy, it can bite you in a few places. However the HUGE number(s) on your scorecard at this course will be few and far between.
I HIGHLY recommend the place if you have a chance.
View from the clubhouse looking west towards the putting green, first tee is connected to the green and can be seen where the two dark dots are behind the last little flag in the distance, the river and the small town of Brewster, WA are in the background.
(https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10574472_10203394964249494_869303733935637298_n.jpg?oh=29854f37f364dc2f49b8a2e7cfa8a2b4&oe=5457AF47)
DMK hitting the ceremonial first shot on hole #1 prior to play commencing.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10325377_10203394965769532_3865632243019145896_n.jpg)
Hole #2. Drivable par 4 I felt this to be the most picturesque hole on a course with 18 picturesque holes. Plays 275 on the card from the tees I played. But is downhill to a very firm landing area past the bunker you see guarding right and short of the green. I hit a Hybrid 2 iron as the member I was with had played a few weeks back and suggested it'd play about 240ish. Was pin high right and got up and down for birdie, one of the few putts outside 5 feet that I made.
(https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10376741_10203395802390447_5068961377071312466_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10550982_10203395802030438_450151777908969447_n.jpg)
More photos available on their website
http://www.gamblesands.com/-photo-gallery (http://www.gamblesands.com/-photo-gallery)
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thanks Ben! looks fantastic
the course sounds great for an opening 8)
FUN!
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Ben - I'd be interesting in hearing about the course, not about your game.
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Ben - I'd be interesting in hearing about the course, not about your game.
Ouch, welcome to GCA Ben. No one cares bout your game! ;D
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I would like to hear about the conditions of the course ? Was it firm and fast ?
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From GOLF DIGEST in 2011:
“The U.S. is quiet,” Kidd says, “but I’ve got a project in central Washington that might be the next Sand Hills.”
Gamble Ranch will be built on 1,000 acres of sand dunes near Brewster, overlooking the Columbia River. Kidd was working on the property a few years ago, marking bunkers and starting to clear land, when the owners, a local farming family, shut the project down because of the collapse in the economy. “They’re hoping to pull the trigger when the snow clears,” Kidd says. “There are ribbons all over that place. I’d spent a month marking out the course, and then it just stopped. There’s no real estate, no big clubhouse and amazing views. It’s pure golf. And working with sand dunes is butter.”
Kidd, 44, says he has had three perfect sites in his career: Bandon Dunes, Machrihanish and Gamble Ranch. “When I was at the Merchandise Show a few weeks ago, everyone was buzzing about Streamsong,” he says. (Streamsong is going to be 18 holes by Doak and 18 holes by Coore and Ben Crenshaw in central Florida.) “I kept thinking, Wait until they get a load of this site.”
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Looks beautiful. Thanks for the pics and info.
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From GOLF DIGEST in 2011:
“The U.S. is quiet,” Kidd says, “but I’ve got a project in central Washington that might be the next Sand Hills.”
Gamble Ranch will be built on 1,000 acres of sand dunes near Brewster, overlooking the Columbia River. Kidd was working on the property a few years ago, marking bunkers and starting to clear land, when the owners, a local farming family, shut the project down because of the collapse in the economy. “They’re hoping to pull the trigger when the snow clears,” Kidd says. “There are ribbons all over that place. I’d spent a month marking out the course, and then it just stopped. There’s no real estate, no big clubhouse and amazing views. It’s pure golf. And working with sand dunes is butter.”
Kidd, 44, says he has had three perfect sites in his career: Bandon Dunes, Machrihanish and Gamble Ranch. “When I was at the Merchandise Show a few weeks ago, everyone was buzzing about Streamsong,” he says. (Streamsong is going to be 18 holes by Doak and 18 holes by Coore and Ben Crenshaw in central Florida.) “I kept thinking, Wait until they get a load of this site.”
Wow. That is some serious marketing. The next Sand Hills? Shoot, I am only hoping for something at least as good as Wine Valley. I will form my own impression this week with a visit.
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I stayed away from the opening weekend as I was not sure how much the wildfires would wreak havoc with travels. I will try to get out there within next couple of weeks and do a photo tour. Hope it goes better than Salish Cliffs!!!
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Ben - I'd be interesting in hearing about the course, not about your game.
Sorry Jaeger....didn't mean to bore you with to much info about my game. Just wanted to add a little about my playing experience.
I really feel the course has the potential to be extraordinary. It's FIRM!, FAST! and challenging, but not overly penal. Every hole has great subtle character and is unique. The views are spectacular and make each hole 10X's what it would be if you dropped the same everything in an area without the vista's.
I've not played at a ton of highly ranked facilities, I've never been to Bandon, Pine Valley, Pinehurst or any of the Nebraska Sandhills region courses. But I have been on property or played at Streamsong, Pebble, Augusta, National Golf Links, Winged Foot and Shinnecock.
I enjoyed my experience at Gamble over all of the above places. The biggest drawback is it's location, it's tough to get to. Some may find that as an advantage, kind of like with Bandon with the "escape" from reality feel. Once I was onsite the simplicity and remoteness was awesome. However the 3+ hour drive from Seattle after a 3 hour flight wasn't ideal.
Take that for what it's worth.
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How good of a player is DMK? Pretty nice position at the top at least.
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How good of a player is DMK? Pretty nice position at the top at least.
He claims to not be very good. That's his justification for building Tetherow so wide he wouldn't be losing balls while playing there. That doesn't keep me and my hack friends from loosing ball there though, so he seems to be better than he claims, or he lies about losing balls. Perhaps he has one or two up the pant leg for that purpose. ;D
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You should check out Jaeger's blog for some tips on how to review golf courses. Like this gem on Black Forest:
http://theothersideofgolf.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-forest-tom-doaks-second-golf.html
Lot's of thought provoking observations that will surely inspire thought and dialog from readers.
I've been an infrequent poster on this site since 1999, Ben. Over time, it gets easier to ignore the shoulder-chips.
It's great to hear that we have a new course... And it's always nice to play well.
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From GOLF DIGEST in 2011:
“The U.S. is quiet,” Kidd says, “but I’ve got a project in central Washington that might be the next Sand Hills.”
Gamble Ranch will be built on 1,000 acres of sand dunes near Brewster, overlooking the Columbia River. Kidd was working on the property a few years ago, marking bunkers and starting to clear land, when the owners, a local farming family, shut the project down because of the collapse in the economy. “They’re hoping to pull the trigger when the snow clears,” Kidd says. “There are ribbons all over that place. I’d spent a month marking out the course, and then it just stopped. There’s no real estate, no big clubhouse and amazing views. It’s pure golf. And working with sand dunes is butter.”
Kidd, 44, says he has had three perfect sites in his career: Bandon Dunes, Machrihanish and Gamble Ranch. “When I was at the Merchandise Show a few weeks ago, everyone was buzzing about Streamsong,” he says. (Streamsong is going to be 18 holes by Doak and 18 holes by Coore and Ben Crenshaw in central Florida.) “I kept thinking, Wait until they get a load of this site.”
Tom,
Have you been on the Gamble Sands site yet? I've not, but I did own a home decades ago, further west down the Columbia River. It's a visually dramatic area in the sandy high-desert. I'd imagine it would offer very wide big-river vistas.
During a match we had at Castle Stuart in 2012, David was very excited about the site. His passion for the property was genuine and not given to unecessary hyperbole. I'm sure you felt that sort of passion at some point or another early on for one of your projects?
If your reference to the GD 2011 story was intended to highlight his personally effusive marketing, I hardly think it's deserving of any insinuation. After all, it's remote location and lack of Kaiser or Mosaic sponsorship renders it tough to otherwise draw attention to a appearingly worthy course.
I give David great kudos for willing to challenge his own past and re-create what appears to be a highly playable addition to public golf.
Greg & Garland,
DMK hits it a long way....up & out.....and he took plenty of good-natured ribbing for his higher-than-normal ball flight. Years back, he was playing somewhere btw 6-8.
Cheers!
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Greg & Garland,
DMK hits it a long way....up & out.....and he took plenty of good-natured ribbing for his higher-than-normal ball flight. Years back, he was playing somewhere btw 6-8.
Cheers!
What's playable for a 6-8 is not necessarily playable for the 18-24, which is what my point was.
I.e., he did not create the playability at Tetherow that I find at Chambers Bay, for example.
However, it may be that the USGA will screw up Chambers Bay beyond what you find at Tetherow.
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Greg & Garland,
DMK hits it a long way....up & out.....and he took plenty of good-natured ribbing for his higher-than-normal ball flight. Years back, he was playing somewhere btw 6-8.
Cheers!
What's playable for a 6-8 is not necessarily playable for the 18-24, which is what my point was.
I.e., he did not create the playability at Tetherow that I find at Chambers Bay, for example.
However, it may be that the USGA will screw up Chambers Bay beyond what you find at Tetherow.
What he created at Gamble Sands is much different than at Tetherow or the Castle Course or even Huntsman Springs as those courses are much harder. Golfweek ran a great article about what he tried to do here in making it less difficult for the average to lower than average golfer. But yet not sacrificing character, and also keeping integrity with the shot values for the good player. After experiencing it... I would say he succeeded.
http://golfweek.com/news/2014/aug/01/gamble-sands-david-mclay-kidd-playability-washingt/ (http://golfweek.com/news/2014/aug/01/gamble-sands-david-mclay-kidd-playability-washingt/)
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Ben,
I assume that pot bunker at Chambers Bay that the Golfweek article mentions is "Chambers Basement" an abortion that the USGA created in their effort to degrade Chambers Bay for the US Open.
Mike Davis should try to do good things for golf like controlling the length of the golf ball instead of destroying the enjoyment of golf that can be achieved by the average golfer.
Thanks for the link to the article.
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Ben - I'd be interesting in hearing about the course, not about your game.
Sorry Jaeger....didn't mean to bore you with to much info about my game. Just wanted to add a little about my playing experience.
I really feel the course has the potential to be extraordinary. It's FIRM!, FAST! and challenging, but not overly penal. Every hole has great subtle character and is unique. The views are spectacular and make each hole 10X's what it would be if you dropped the same everything in an area without the vista's.
I've not played at a ton of highly ranked facilities, I've never been to Bandon, Pine Valley, Pinehurst or any of the Nebraska Sandhills region courses. But I have been on property or played at Streamsong, Pebble, Augusta, National Golf Links, Winged Foot and Shinnecock.
I enjoyed my experience at Gamble over all of the above places. The biggest drawback is it's location, it's tough to get to. Some may find that as an advantage, kind of like with Bandon with the "escape" from reality feel. Once I was onsite the simplicity and remoteness was awesome. However the 3+ hour drive from Seattle after a 3 hour flight wasn't ideal.
Take that for what it's worth.
No worries, I normally make the putt the second time too! ;) I have only heard positive things about the place... In pictures it reminds me of Sutton Bay in South Dakota because of the elevation and horizon lines. I would really like to see the pacific northwest beyond Bandon, but haven't yet. I have had a lot of fun experiences at DMK's courses, they are normally in some very unique locations.
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Here's another review:
http://azgolfernews.com/article.php?arid=1527
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Found another good review, has some good pics as well
http://digital.golftodaynw.com/i/356222/30 (http://digital.golftodaynw.com/i/356222/30)
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playing here Sunday
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Pete,
You lucky dog! let us know how it compares to the likes of Bandon, Sand Hills , Dismal and Ballyneal.
Post some pictures if you can and hit them straight down the middle as always.
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I played 36 holes at Gamble Sands on Friday and loved everything about it despite not playing all that well. For comparison, I have played Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old MacDonald, Wine Valley, and Chambers Bay (where I belong to the club) many times, as well as Gozzer Ranch, Dismal (Doak), Ballyneal, and other notables. I can say with confidence that Gamble Sands belongs in the same conversation as these courses.
Points of Interest:
I walked all 36 without any difficulty (and this after walking 18 at Wine Valley the day before). While the club permits carts, the course itself is not marred by cart paths criss-crossing fairways.
There’s not nearly as much break on the greens as there is at, say, Chambers Bay, but I well suspect that there will be plenty of subtlety when greens mature and speeds increase.
The greens are large, have many different tiers, and provide a host of different pin locations. In other words, the greens will offer a lot of variety for repeat play. Approach shots hit to the wrong part of a green present significant challenges.
The maintenance for such a young course is very impressive. The fairways and greens are already in better shape than those at Chambers Bay.
The maintenance crew mows well beyond the perimeter of the irrigated portion of the fairways, meaning that — quite unlike my experience at Dismal last year — balls that run through the huge fairway won’t be lost in a thicket of deep grass and weeds. (And I say kudos for recognizing that there is a direct correlation between being able to find one’s golf ball and fun.)
The course features three drivable par 4 holes — #2, #8, and #12. Hole #2 is the easiest of the set, and is just as easily the most photogenic hole on the course.
Holes #7 and #18 are both reachable par 5’s. A poor drive on #7 can lead to a big number (because the waste area running the length of the hole is deep) but it is otherwise relatively short with a slope behind the hole that will help an overly aggressive approach shot. A drive on #18 can easily run out 300 or more yards, possibly leaving a mid-iron into the green to set up a finishing eagle putt.
The tee ball on the third hole is reminiscent of the tee shot at Dismal (Doak) #17, in that it features a carry over a ridge to a blind (but huge) fairway.
Hole #5 is a classic cape hole where a par or better can be extremely difficult. An aggressive line off the tee might lead to a blind approach shot over a huge wall of sand. A less aggressive line, if hit too short, leaves a long approach to a narrow green.
Hole #6 is an interesting take on the Redan. From the “back tee” where I played (which is shorter than the “medal tee”), the yardage on the card is 231 but a tee shot that carries around 190 yards or so (downhill) will likely reach the green.The slope right of the green is so steep that a ball hit with a fade has an excellent chance of trickling down to the hole. Indeed, a nice draw will likely run out past a pin on the right half of the green (where it played Friday) and toward the deepest part of the green.
Hole #16 is a similarly interesting par 3. The green has an upper tier on its right side and a much lower tier on its left. A pin on the right (where it was located when we played) is best reached by taking the tee shot over the “brow” well to the right of the green and using the right to left slope to run the ball on to the green.
I haven't seen the routing posted anywhere on the web so I took a screenshot of a satellite image that was taken, obviously, before the grow in was completed:
(http://www.joestansell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gamblesands.png)
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Terrific post, Joe. Thank you. You've answered my first question---should I make a trip soon to GS?---in a perfect manner. Damn! There are too many other courses in play until the colder weather! First chance...
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There is a Callaway golf ball, hit by me, somewhere in the eastern Washington scrub. Doubt that it will ever be found. To tired to post more after 7+ hrs on the road. I tried to lower my expectations because of all the positive comments, but I was wrong.
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Driving north from Wenatchee you see the magnitude of the recent fires. Miles of charred land on both sides of the highway. When you get to the small town of Pateros you see both the destruction of property and the valiant saves by firefigthers. Their course, Alta Lakes, lost the pro shop/living quarters and the maintenance building.
Leaving Brewster you jog right onto Wa17 and there is a big sign 1/2 mile up the road. Sun in the eyes, understated writing, dirt road, gravel road - was this foreshadowing?
Gamble Sands won't rate highest in Golf Digest, the resistance to scoring isn't there unless you step back a tee marker. That may not be a big problem because there is plenty of roll on the fairways. Kidd has borrowed the ribbon tee as they wind toward and enter the fairway.
The only step-down tee block I remember is on the par 3 6th.
Ah, the lost Callaway. Even par through the fourth I was waved through a foursome. They had a forecaddie ($100/fourball), I didn't.
After hitting a drive on the 5th, which is reminiscent of Bandon Trails' 11th - hit it long and left- I had about 120 over a bunker. Ugly, ugly, pick up. Follow the sign to the next tee and am flummoxed. Par four nowhere to be seen. Decide its a blind tee like #3, pipe one southbound,
look at the scorecard, see I forgot to score the fourth and fifth. Turned around, hit it to 15' on the northbound par 3, hurredly putt as the fourball is wating. Rush to play the 7th, great drive, don't realize it was a par 5, try to reach and card another max. Triple, double double.
Back to golf courses. I don't know if architects try to balance out greens because the course is going to be played with a front/middle/back hole rotation. The day I played holes were set in zone 3 (back location on the 1st) and the setup was easy, only one difficult pin, on 17.
It would be hard to get a good opinion unless you played all three zones.
The simplistic approach by Kidd got me in trouble. I tried to outthink him. You don't have to take chances. Wide fairway is just a wide fairway, you don't have to hit it to a specific section for a specific zone of the green. Most of the time you have an open green, sometimes a sideboard or backboard to help.
Greens are 45-70 yards deep, macro-contoured, stimp around 8.5 in my estimation. Could go as high as 11+ and not cause too much stress on the puttee.
It is 6 hrs by car from home, but I'd go back in a group situation as it was very enjoyable. It has an enormous vista and I think DMK did a very good job on scaling the course and hazards to its surroundings. Few uphill shots, mostly on the out half.
Looking through my yardage book -
#2 reachable par 4. Took it over the right edge of the center bunker. Hole high (zone 3 in front, 20 feet from the green, 40 feet from hole.
Eagle.
#3 Combination of Bandon Dunes 16 and Pacific Dunes 9th. Large horizon bunker, if you don't carry it will likely end up in an unraked footprint. Aim about 30 yds left of the right side stair and you'll be fine. Flight over midway bunker to set up approach angle.
#4 Biarritz green, the draw doesn't look deep until you look from the left side. I think the front portion is reverse cambered.
#5 Long and left and you'll have a view of the green. Otherwards you'll have a long roll to the right like Bandon Trails 11
#7 well placed bunker just short of landing area for lay up. Turbo off tee makes this reachable.
#8 play the left side, towards the green, opens up tons of options.
#9 backboard, but left backboard is deceivingly undersloped from fairway view. Still, use it for zone 3.
#11 challenge the center hazard, you'll have a wedge in
#12 challenge the bunker on the right side and you'll turbo home.
#14 best hole on course
#15 lots of left roll on the teeshot, play right
#16 backboard '
How would I rate this course. Need to play. Very fun. Maybe in my top 25, but definitely in my top 50. Probably tied for #2 public in Washington, probably in a tie with Wine Valley. That course has higher resistance to scoring, micro-contouring of greens, as well as macro-contouring. Far exceeds Desert Canyon. Of my recent courses comparable to Dismal-Doak. Restaurant was understaffed.
Far and away the best golf option for those vacationing near Chelan. I think this is their main market, and GS has stay and play packages here as well as one in Brewster (summer room rate about $170). I
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The simplistic approach by Kidd got me in trouble. I tried to outthink him. You don't have to take chances. Wide fairway is just a wide fairway, you don't have to hit it to a specific section for a specific zone of the green. Most of the time you have an open green, sometimes a sideboard or backboard to help.
Pete, you articulated perfectly my main disappointment in the course. Thinking is not required. Kidd has swung the pendulum so far in his attempt to make golf fun that the course doesn't require much in the way of strategic decision making. A good caddie would be stumped to come up with tidbits of advice to guide your game. He would tire of saying "hit it down the middle" and "fire at the green, you have backboards and sideboards to help you". Because of this, I can't put GS up there in as high a company as you compared it to. Yes, it's fun. It's worth a play. However, it won't leave you second guessing your playing decisions, wondering what could have been and itching to get back for another crack at it.
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I just booked a tee time for this Sat. I am ver excited to try this course. Let's hope Brent does not get us thrown out this time...
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Can't get passed that kilt. ;D
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Can't get passed that kilt. ;D
What are your intentions? And, why would you want to get past the kilt?
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Can't get passed that kilt. ;D
What are your intentions? And, why would you want to get past the kilt?
(http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif) (http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif) (http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif)
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A friend of mine who played Gamble Sands two weeks ago emailed me to say that if he hadn't known better he would have bet I had designed it. I'm not sure if that will make David happy or piss him off :) But I am definitely never showing up in a kilt for the ceremonial first tee shot. That's David's gig.
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The simplistic approach by Kidd got me in trouble. I tried to outthink him. You don't have to take chances. Wide fairway is just a wide fairway, you don't have to hit it to a specific section for a specific zone of the green. Most of the time you have an open green, sometimes a sideboard or backboard to help.
Pete, you articulated perfectly my main disappointment in the course. Thinking is not required. Kidd has swung the pendulum so far in his attempt to make golf fun that the course doesn't require much in the way of strategic decision making. A good caddie would be stumped to come up with tidbits of advice to guide your game. He would tire of saying "hit it down the middle" and "fire at the green, you have backboards and sideboards to help you". Because of this, I can't put GS up there in as high a company as you compared it to. Yes, it's fun. It's worth a play. However, it won't leave you second guessing your playing decisions, wondering what could have been and itching to get back for another crack at it.
Daryl,
but you don't know about strategic decision making until too late. I was taking thirty years of learning how to an architect tends to protect certain areas and apply that to Gamble Sands, but DMK may have decided to go EIEIO.
With the size of the greens setting up potential 100-200 foot putts the green speed around 8.5 seems to increase the chance of three putting multiple times.
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Peter - what do you rank it in the Doak scale? More importantly, is it worth the drive from Seattle / Portland? Sounds like it.
Driving north from Wenatchee you see the magnitude of the recent fires. Miles of charred land on both sides of the highway. When you get to the small town of Pateros you see both the destruction of property and the valiant saves by firefigthers. Their course, Alta Lakes, lost the pro shop/living quarters and the maintenance building.
Leaving Brewster you jog right onto Wa17 and there is a big sign 1/2 mile up the road. Sun in the eyes, understated writing, dirt road, gravel road - was this foreshadowing?
Gamble Sands won't rate highest in Golf Digest, the resistance to scoring isn't there unless you step back a tee marker. That may not be a big problem because there is plenty of roll on the fairways. Kidd has borrowed the ribbon tee as they wind toward and enter the fairway.
The only step-down tee block I remember is on the par 3 6th.
Ah, the lost Callaway. Even par through the fourth I was waved through a foursome. They had a forecaddie ($100/fourball), I didn't.
After hitting a drive on the 5th, which is reminiscent of Bandon Trails' 11th - hit it long and left- I had about 120 over a bunker. Ugly, ugly, pick up. Follow the sign to the next tee and am flummoxed. Par four nowhere to be seen. Decide its a blind tee like #3, pipe one southbound,
look at the scorecard, see I forgot to score the fourth and fifth. Turned around, hit it to 15' on the northbound par 3, hurredly putt as the fourball is wating. Rush to play the 7th, great drive, don't realize it was a par 5, try to reach and card another max. Triple, double double.
Back to golf courses. I don't know if architects try to balance out greens because the course is going to be played with a front/middle/back hole rotation. The day I played holes were set in zone 3 (back location on the 1st) and the setup was easy, only one difficult pin, on 17.
It would be hard to get a good opinion unless you played all three zones.
The simplistic approach by Kidd got me in trouble. I tried to outthink him. You don't have to take chances. Wide fairway is just a wide fairway, you don't have to hit it to a specific section for a specific zone of the green. Most of the time you have an open green, sometimes a sideboard or backboard to help.
Greens are 45-70 yards deep, macro-contoured, stimp around 8.5 in my estimation. Could go as high as 11+ and not cause too much stress on the puttee.
It is 6 hrs by car from home, but I'd go back in a group situation as it was very enjoyable. It has an enormous vista and I think DMK did a very good job on scaling the course and hazards to its surroundings. Few uphill shots, mostly on the out half.
Looking through my yardage book -
#2 reachable par 4. Took it over the right edge of the center bunker. Hole high (zone 3 in front, 20 feet from the green, 40 feet from hole.
Eagle.
#3 Combination of Bandon Dunes 16 and Pacific Dunes 9th. Large horizon bunker, if you don't carry it will likely end up in an unraked footprint. Aim about 30 yds left of the right side stair and you'll be fine. Flight over midway bunker to set up approach angle.
#4 Biarritz green, the draw doesn't look deep until you look from the left side. I think the front portion is reverse cambered.
#5 Long and left and you'll have a view of the green. Otherwards you'll have a long roll to the right like Bandon Trails 11
#7 well placed bunker just short of landing area for lay up. Turbo off tee makes this reachable.
#8 play the left side, towards the green, opens up tons of options.
#9 backboard, but left backboard is deceivingly undersloped from fairway view. Still, use it for zone 3.
#11 challenge the center hazard, you'll have a wedge in
#12 challenge the bunker on the right side and you'll turbo home.
#14 best hole on course
#15 lots of left roll on the teeshot, play right
#16 backboard '
How would I rate this course. Need to play. Very fun. Maybe in my top 25, but definitely in my top 50. Probably tied for #2 public in Washington, probably in a tie with Wine Valley. That course has higher resistance to scoring, micro-contouring of greens, as well as macro-contouring. Far exceeds Desert Canyon. Of my recent courses comparable to Dismal-Doak. Restaurant was understaffed.
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I just booked a tee time for this Sat. I am ver excited to try this course. Let's hope Brent does not get us thrown out this time...
Never been kicked off a course in my life sans Salish. That was a strange day.
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Brent asked : Peter - what do you rank it in the Doak scale? More importantly, is it worth the drive from Seattle / Portland? Sounds like it.
Only TD can answer that one. It could be as high as an eight, as low as a six. It is probably as remote as the Nebraska sand hills courses, being five/six hours from Seattle/Portland. It doesn't fit into an established niche of strategic/penal. I doubt if it is considered a destination course because it lacks lodging and I didn't search Brewster for motel quality. I haven't checked MapQuest for comparative travel time from both Seattle and Spokane to Brewster vs Walla Walla, but I guess it is similar. For Washingtonians it would be worth the trip from a golf standpoint. Not so from Oregon as a regular destination, as it is 2x Wine Valley , 1.5x for Bandon and 2x for central Oreogn.
If someone put on a group outing, I'd be interested. But remember I think Sagebrush is worth a 7.5 hour drive, plus BC has upped their speed limits.
There are some courses where you feel you belong, feel like home. That's what I feel at Sagebrush and can see it at Ballyneal, Dismal or Sand Hills. As much fun as Gamble Sands provided, it didn't push me to that level.
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Played Gamble Sands yesterday with my father. Here are my notes:
*Adventure! I have played in Scotland, Bandon, and many other places and I have never played a course that exemplifies adventure more than this one.
*Terrific routing. Green to tee transitions are, overall, short. At no point did I think that the routing should have been different.
*The fairways were the perfect amount of firm and fast.
*As Pete mentioned, positioning off the tee can greatly impact your approach. Take the risky play on many holes, and you are rewarded with a straight-forward approach, one where you are hitting straight on into the green without having to carry a bunker. Take the easy line or lay up and you have a much tougher approach.
-Standing on the 17th tee, the "bite off as much as you can chew" bunker on the right felt boring/overused due to the previous iterations on the other holes.
-As was mentioned, Kidd scaled it back on this course. The place where this was most evident was on the greens. The green surrounds were wicked, but a majority of the greens themselves were very large and quite docile.
Overall, we had a blast and we will absolutely go back.
The greens were fairly slow yet firm, which is expected of a first year course. It will be interesting to see if the micro-contours in many of the greens will play larger as the speed picks up. If they do, the course will be plenty tough. If not, the course will still give an easy and interesting day.
This course fills a gap in a trek across Washington State. I promise a trip consisting of Wine Valley, Gamble Sands, Tumble Creek, and some Puget Sound courses will not disappoint.