Playing Gamble Sands is like deja vu all over again

Rodney Harwood

| July 17, 2018 1:00 AM

I guess it’s been six, seven years now since I played Bandon Dunes on the Oregon Coast. I did a column, wrote a snappy lead that read, “Be sure to eat a little something before you play, because Bandon Dunes will eat your lunch.”

Bandon is a 6,732-yard, par-72 David McLay Kidd (1999) creation that was once ranked as high as No. 5 in the world in Golf Digest’s Top 100 Public Golf Courses. Now it’s sixth on the Top 50 most fun public courses list.

In typical Scots fashion, McLay Kidd laid out a design, molded and shaped it to the wind-swept coast quite typical to his Scottish homeland. It truly is a thing of beauty even though I felt more like a Bunny Hill guy on a Double Diamond slope.

Since I struggled to break 100, I tended to drone on and on about how difficult one of the greatest links-style courses on American soil was. Laying it on thick with talk of the greens were like putting down the windshield, trying to stop it on the hood. This is extremely difficult, but fun I finally concluded.

Sure enough, Bandon Dunes Resort hosted the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the best golfers in the land came in and smoked Bandon. Clemson's Corbin Mills became the first qualifying medalist to win the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 11 years, holing a 5-foot par putt on the 37th hole to earn a spot in the 2012 Masters field with the victory. So, I guess you could say those who work on their game get better and those who don’t … complain.

Well to borrow a Yogism, “It’s like deja vu all over again.

I have a golf vacation planned for McLay Kidd’s Washington creation — the Gamble Sands Golf Club in Brewster. My golfing partner Charlie Norell and I tackled this course a few years back when it was named the Golf Digest editors' pick as the Best New Course to open in America in 2014.

McLay Kidd left the door open for the 15-handicapper on the 1,000-acre parcel overlooking the Columbia River Valley. The playability is what makes this experience, with firm, fast fescue fairways and massive fescue putting surfaces, such a treat to play. You still have to play fairways and greens to score, but it’s not all risk in a risk-reward world.

Charlie shares my passion for golf. We played 18 holes on the first day 36 on the second. He ended up shooting 2-under-par 34 on the front on the second day, and let’s just say I was along for comic relief.

It’s bad enough that my playing partner is capable of dipping under par, but the Columbia Basin whiz kids’ fingerprints are all over Gamble Sands.

Kenedee Peters’ resume reads like a who’s who of Pacific Northwest Junior Golf. The Ephrata grad is a PNGA junior player of the year, played on the international stage at the IMG World Championships, won three 2A state medalist honors in four attempts, and is headed to Washington State University on a golf scholarship.

Oh yeah, she owns the women’s course record at Gamble Sands with a remarkable round of 66.

No pressure.

Then there’s my Othello golf-scribe-in-training Patrick Azevedo. I dropped Patrick a line saying I was headed up for a little R&R, gonna play Desert Canyon Golf Resort in Orondo, then swing by and play a couple of rounds at Gamble Sands.

Patrick fires back an email, “I just played Gamble Sands last week. I shot 68, it was a great time.”

If I shot 78, that’d be grounds for dancing naked in the street. So I suspect 68 might be enjoyable even though my age is closer to 68 than my golf game.

But it’s time to tee it up, let ‘er buck and take a nice walk along the great Columbia River.

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer with the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com