Basin golf courses gear up

MOSES LAKE — Warmer weather has finally come back to the Columbia Basin, and with this change in temperature comes golf season to Central Washington. Over the winter, golf clubs are notorious for becoming dormant and waiting for the spring months to bring more prosperous times, but some golf courses around the Basin decided to spend the colder season making some changes that would benefit them when golf season began.

This year promises to be a great year for Basin golf. In the last few years Central Washington has been rising as a golf destination for many travelers. With some new faces and extreme changes to some of the area's courses, golfers can look forward to an excellent season.

The Othello Golf Club has gotten the ball rolling on the design for an additional nine hole course, according to head pro Doug Buck. Owners are hoping to begin construction on the project by late summer, but Buck said it is too early to commit to timelines.

Over the winter months The Links at Moses Pointe Golf Course has brought in some new additions by way of employees. Joel Moblery was hired on as an assistant pro.

Moblery is originally from Spokane, but spent the last three years working at Grant's Pass Golf Club in southern Oregon. Before that, he worked at Deer Park Golf Club near his hometown of Spokane. He specializes in merchandising and club repair as well as giving golf lessons. He also helps run all of the daily operations at the course such as collecting fees, checking in players, booking tournaments and directing the service staff. "We feel like he's going to bring a lot to our operation," said head pro Bill Porter.

Molbery says the aspect he enjoys most about his job is the interaction with the customers. "People are generally out here to have a good time," he said.

Another addition to the staff at Moses Pointe is Gordon Corder. Corder played baseball at Big Bend Community College and then at Gonzaga University. He played professional baseball with the Oakland Athletics until he was injured and is now working on becoming a professional golfer. He began work at Moses Pointe in November.

Corder started playing golf regularly last summer and, with the help of Porter, improved his handicap from a plus 20 to a minus one handicap. "It was because of Bill Porter," Corder said of his improvement over just one year of golf. He says that his goal is to one day play on the PGA Tour. "It's an honor to get on here and work for good people at, without a doubt, one of the best golf courses in Washington," said Corder. He stressed the help that Porter has given him with his experience in professional golf. "It's great to have someone who's been on the PGA Tour. Bill is unbelievable."

"We seem to get busier every year," said Porter of the Pointe's growing popularity. "We continue to push ahead to be one of the top courses in the state."

Porter prides himself on his course being in great condition all the time and said the theme for the course this year is to, "continue to keep the course in great shape and draw people from all over the state."

By far, though, the course that has made the most changes since last summer is Moses Lake Golf Club. New ownership took hold last year and since then there have been drastic changes around the course. The club's restaurant, the Pillar Rock Grill, has opened to the public and owners Pamp Maiers and Jake Jacobsen are hoping it will bring in more revenue. It is now available for daily dining, private events and weddings.

Some landscaping changes have been made as well, including a wooden retaining wall around the tee box at the first hole. Head pro Mike Eslick said plans have been made to dramatically change much of the surrounding landscaping in front of the restaurant and around the course.

The latest of these changes was the demolition of the club's pool that used to reside at the far end of the clubhouse. Eslick says they are planning to put in a putting green in place of the pool and cover the remaining area with grass to be used as an outdoor banquet area which will host everything from weddings to barbecues to tournaments.

Jacobsen said that the club is in the middle of beginning a new tree program around the course that will include planting new trees, relocating trees and tearing out knocked over or dead trees.

The downstairs area of the clubhouse has been converted from a relatively unused area into a member's lounge complete with a full bar, leather couches and plasma screen televisions. The owners are "spending money left and right, but it's all for the betterment of the course and the membership," said Eslick of the recent spending spree.

On the golf side of things, the club is in the process of reshaping the collars of the greens on the course which will allow approach shots to hold on the green more than in previous years. Also a plan to turn hole 17, the longest par 4 on the course, into a 550-yard par 5 is currently in the works. The green will be moved back from its current position towards the entry road to the club.

The owners have met with architect John Stidell, but the plan is still in its early stages. Jacobsen said the hole will include some type of functional water, which will most likely be a pond. However, he also said that nothing is set in stone as of now.

The club has also put money into preserving its driving range by putting in a strip of grassy turf that will be used to keep the range from becoming torn up. Jacobsen and Eslick both agreed that the new turf is the best on the market right now. It is unlike other driving range mats in that golfers will be able to place tees into it instead of the old rubber tees that come with non-grassy turf mats. Players will hit off the turf to keep the real grass on the range in good shape for members. According to Eslick, the turf will be used most heavily at big tournaments where many golfers will be using the range.

Adding to the excitement of the new season is a brand new employee at the course. Cindy Wilson began work as assistant pro/marketing director at the club last November after working for five years at Moses Pointe. Her job description is very broad and her duties include everything from everyday operations management around the course, like any other assistant pro, to advertisement and membership recruitment.

Eslick says the addition of Wilson will greatly improve the ladies' program at the club including the women's golf division and women's social functions.

Eslick says that the goal of these new additions and all the spending is to get the course back into shape the way it was five or 10 years ago. "We want it to be one of the best golf courses in Eastern Washington," he said.

"We have a lot to offer, it's a golf experience," said Eslick of the course he is working hard to return to its former glory. He believes that the club has something to offer that the public courses cannot. A personal relationship with the members. "We work hard on creating a personal dialogue with the members. The thing that will bring people here is not having to play a six-hour round and being able to come out and tee off when they want," Eslick said of the different environment of the private course. "It's a more personal atmosphere."

Jacobsen spoke of the growing population around the Basin, especially the influx of people coming over from the west side of the state who are used to belonging to a private golf club. He believes that people coming from private courses at their previous residence will want to join a private club in Moses Lake when they move here. The club wants to provide that service for new residents of the Columbia Basin. "There's room for a private golf course," he said.

Jacobsen was very optimistic about the future of the club, although he explained that these changes do not happen over night. "The improvements that we're making are things that are built into the future."

He stressed the name change from Moses Lake Golf and Country Club to just Moses Lake Golf Club saying that he and Maiers want the club to be golf-oriented and focus on the golf side of the club. Jacobsen closed with words of anticipation, "We're just looking to the future," Jacobsen said.