Northwest golfers will find 201 golf courses in Washington State where the public is welcome; several of these places have more than one course. Play them all and you’ll find some of the most beautiful scenery in the state. You can golf overlooking the Pacific Ocean, play golf in the shadow of Mount St. Helens, the state’s most active volcano, or play in the high desert of eastern Washington.
Golfers in Washington are rewarded with great views; you can see at least one snow-capped mountain from most courses in the state. Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, and Mount Adams are among the most beautiful, but there are many other mountain peaks in this state that also provide a beautiful backdrop for a game of golf.
Most of the natural features of the land have been worked into Washington golf course designs, transforming natural beauty into course hazards. You can play golf within sight of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, alongside the Columbia River and the Columbia River Gorge, and alongside dozens of rivers and waterways; and like all water, it is waiting to claim your ball. Wet encounters for golfers in this state include rushing rivers, waterfalls, lakes, wetlands, and streams.
Course designers include Arnold Palmer, Bunny Mason, Robert Muir Graves, Robert Trent Jones, Mike Asmundson, Peter Jacobsen, Chandler Egan, Robert Cupp, William Overdorf, John Harbottle, Bob Tachell, Jack Frei, and John Fought.
Multi-hole courses are popular in Washington. In Redmond, at Willows Run Golf Club you can choose from a total of 45 holes. And, there are several courses in this state that offer 36 holes; you’ll find double 18’s in Blaine, Bremerton, Lacey and Bellevue. Triple nine-hole courses are located in Burlington, Chehalis, Port Ludlow, Fort Lewis and Puyallup. And in Kent and Tacoma they have courses with a combination of 9 and 18 holes.
Although hundreds of golf courses have been in the planning stages for years, only a handful of new courses have been built in Washington in recent years. The northern portion of Washington’s I-5 corridor received the majority of those new golf courses, but downtown Washington is the site of the last course open; Suncadia Rope Rider opened in Cle Elum in late 2011.
With the opening of this course, Central Washington now has four 18-hole golf courses that are over 7,000 yards; Eastern Washington also has four 7,000+ yard courses.
Washington green fees vary by season and time of day, but most golf courses in the state have hours when golfers can play at reduced prices. Golfers can save more than half off regular fees if they know when to play.