Sahalee
Played Sahalee in 2017. Lately Chambers Bay has been getting all the love in the Pacific Northwest as it has made a mad dash up the golf rankings to supplant Sahalee as the top rated course in the Seattle area. I’ll still take Sahalee – conditioning, championship pedigree, and the beautiful fir tree-lined fairways that are, shall we say, tight. Sometimes pictures don’t do a course justice for how tight it is. I think these do.
Played with my PNW golf buddies Dennis and Brian here right after Brian and I came back from our Bandon trip. What a cherry on top of the couple of Bandon days Sahalee was. Sahalee couldn’t be more different than the Bandon courses. Where even Bandon Trails has more parkland-style holes, the trees don’t really intimidate you – for the most part. Here the trees are omnipresent. You can’t play a fade or draw here as there is no room to aim except right down the middle. There are fir trees in the middle of some of the fairways here.
Now if they were evergreens this would really bug me. Or if they let the weeds go crazy under the trees. However, with fir trees you can walk under and around them without stooping. You’ll find your balls in the pine needles and be able to get it back out into play. The positives? First each hole is framed and separated from everything surrounding it. Two, this is an obstacle that has almost been completely removed from the top 100 golf courses that are yanking trees down like hungry beavers. Three, Sahalee will be the quietest round of golf you will ever play as the trees absorb all surrounding noise and it’s just your group against the world. Finally, this is what you expect from a western Washington state course. Fir trees.
I had Sahalee on my first ever computer simulator game, PGA Championship Golf 2000. For an antique the game did a good job of capturing the course and environs.
Of my favorites here, I really like the second, 10th, and all the par threes. I get the complaint that a lot of the holes feel the same here. That could be a legitimate beef, but I thought it was refreshingly different in the modern age to play a TREE-LINED course that makes no bones about being tree lined.
Funny story, so I wrote earlier that one of our vendors sponsored the mini tour before Korn Ferry and had a golf concierge that could arrange golf for them and clients. Well we had a meeting and decided to see if we could get out afterwards so I texted him to see if he could arrange. He let me know that he was asked to leave my name at the gate but he couldn’t confirm that we would be able to play, have a tee time, or he was unable to speak with anyone from the course so he just wasn’t sure. We weren’t far so we decided to just go. We got through the gate but when we got to check in they didn’t have my name, my buddies name, or the concierge’s name. I finally said that the mini tour concierge made the call for us. At that point the pro/assistant pro working the counter said, “Oh you’re the tour guys. Yes you’re all set up, complimentary. Enjoy the course today. Ha they thought we were “on” the tour. So I told Dennis and Brian we just have to tee off like we know what we are doing since they’ll all be looking at us. Easier for them than me but we all got off okay and really enjoyed the round.
Golf Scrapbook 