SAVE SOME GREEN

The Classic Golf Club • Spanaway

1 • The Classic Golf Club

SPANAWAY

Accessibility is a priority at The Classic Golf Club, and the word has at least two meanings around here.

In one sense, accessibility means the golf course, now eight years beyond the removal of almost half the trees on the property, is playable and enjoyable for a wide range of players of all skill levels.

In another way, it means the pricing structure for members and daily-fee players, ushered in under the business model of RMG Golf, keeps The Classic affordable.

None of this is new news. RMG, the management company founded by Ryan Moore, Tacoma native and PGA Tour pro, took over at The Classic in 2012 and in February 2015 engineered the removal of 1,600 trees.

It’s a distant memory to some golfers here and unknown to others, but the defoliating let in air and light and opened new spaces on the course, and it’s still paying dividends in 2023.

General Manager Joe Beach, in his 13th year here, can tick off on his fingers the benefits of letting the golf course breathe.

“Grass really likes the sunshine,” he said.

The Classic, opened in 1990, has long been known for the undulations and unique shapes of its greens, and the tree removal helped make fast greens even faster.

The course is generally drier these days, and maintenance crews use less fungicide and other chemicals.

Beach worked 15 years as head pro at a golf course where an annual membership could only be acquired in a lump sum once a year. The Classic’s annual can be purchased in 12 monthly installments, no matter what time of year it starts.

Daily green fees are reasonable, too, with a top rate of $55 on weekends and $45 Monday through Friday. Twilight rates ($30 and $28) and senior and first responder rates offer further discounts.

What you get for your money is a course that’s not overly long (6,256 yards from the blue tees). Beach says that as an “older” pro he doesn’t love the bomb-andgouge mentality that some courses encourage. Here, driver is not the play on many tee boxes, and most holes offer a variety of ways to play them.

The biggest virtue of losing 1,600 trees is a roughly 30-minute average reduction in the time it takes to play a round at The Classic.

YARDAGE (PAR:) 4,474-6,256 yards

RATES: $28-$45 weekdays; $28-45 weekends*

TEL: (253) 847-4440

WEB: theclassicgc.com

* Check website for current rates

Lynnwood Golf Course • Lynnwood

2 • Lynnwood GC

LYNNWOOD

Dan Smith is the only head professional Lynnwood Golf Course has ever known.

He was there when the City of Lynnwood opened the course in 1991, and he’s there now as general manager, overseeing a course known — maybe not as widely as it should be — as an impeccably maintained 18-hole muni that mitigates its relatively short yardages with significant challenges on every hole.

There’s not much to distract you from your game at Lynnwood — no practice range, no restaurant. “Pure golf,” Smith says. “What we have is well-done.”

And the greens … let Smith tell you about the greens.

“They’re great,” he says. “They’re smooth, they roll out, they’re always in excellent condition.”

Smith is often a man of few words and short answers, according to Aaron Lamb, his assistant general manager. Lamb was willing to fill in around the edges. “For being such a short course, we make up for it with how narrow the fairways are,” Lamb said. “That’s part of the character of every hole.”

For example:

No. 1, at 375 yards one of the longest holes on the course and featuring a sharp dogleg left, is a testy opener.

Nos. 11 and 12, back-to-back short par 3s (131 and 115 yards), are where most of the holes-in-one are made on the course.

No. 13 is a well-laid-out par 4, with water in the middle, a lot of character and a lot of options — lay up or try to carry it.

And the greens … Lamb can only echo his boss. “For the price,” he said, “these greens are pretty tough to match.”

Green is also the color of money, and you don’t have to drop a wad to play here. Lynnwood is one of 11 Seattlearea courses in the Premier Golf Centers family and sets its green fees under Premier’s “dynamic pricing” model. This means the green fee could be adjusted according to demand: on a super busy day, the fee could go up; on a slow day, it might go down.

For reference, listed green fees on a recent day showed $41 for a weekend 18, $37 Monday through Friday; college students (Edmonds Community College is close by) pay $25 for a weekday 18.

By any measure, Lamb said, “We’re wildly affordable.”

Smith was typically terse when asked what one thing he would want the world to know about Lynnwood Golf Course: “We’re always well-maintained.”

Well said.

— Bart Potter

YARDAGE (PAR): 4,741 yards

RATES: $29-$37 weekdays; $29-$41 weekends*

TEL: (425) 672-4653

WEB: lynnwoodgc.com

* Check website for current rates

High Cedars Golf Club • Orting

3 • High Cedars Golf Club

ORTING

In the local version of the “fiddling while Rome burns” tale, it goes more like this: Humans playing golf beneath the thunder and fire of the great erupting volcano, unperturbed by onrushing waves of boiling mud soon to engulf them and the golf course and the entire Puyallup Valley.

So far, at least since High Cedars Golf Club opened in 1971, it’s just a story, part of the ancient past and unimaginable future. Mount Rainier, the grandest of the Cascade volcanoes, watches quietly and regally today (and tomorrow?) over players at this popular course in eastern Pierce County.

That’s the value proposition at High Cedars: Good golf, good prices, and the mountain, too. The views are free. General Manager John Benedetti has worked at High Cedars for 23 years and lives on the course, 200 yards from the 17,000-square-foot clubhouse.

He looks out and sees the driving range being “crazy busy.” The nine-hole executive course, with seven par 3s and two par 4s, is well-used ($18 for 18 on weekdays, $12 for a niner anytime for juniors and seniors).

The championship 18 stretches to 6,647 yards from the tips (course rating 71.5/slope 120), with a top rate of $40.

The course plays alongside the Puyallup River on holes 6, 7, 15, 16 and 17.

High Cedars has been selected for the last half-dozen years to host qualifiers ahead of the PGA Champions Tour’s Boeing Classic at Snoqualmie Ridge. The course is happy to have them, and by all accounts the players are glad to be there.

“They’re very complimentary to us,” Benedetti said. “They’re amazed at the condition of the course.”

Benedetti said the course plays at a “sneaky long” 6,800 yards on qualifying days for the over-50 pros, still shorter than most of the tour courses they might play.

“They like it because they have to hit golf shots here.”

Likewise for low-handicap amateurs who want to “bang it” — High Cedars doesn’t suit that mindset.

What’s on the mind of the mountain?

“That mountain’s not going anywhere,” said Benedetti. Just in case, he’s got a contingency plan for those 22 minutes after eruption the experts say is all local humans

will have before mudslides swallow the world: “My wife and I are going up on the roof to drink Manhattans.” And if the volcano blows while you’re on the course? No sweat. You’ll have time for one more hole. — Bart Potter

YARDAGE (PAR): 5,295-6,647 yards

RATES: $25-$40 weekdays; $30-$50 weekends*

TEL: (360) 893-3171

WEB: highcedars.com

* Check website for current rates