4 minute read
Titos Hanmade Vodka • Travle The Northwest
Visit the dry side
Cedars at Dungeness is among the driest courses in western Washington
It’s hard to not be pessimistic about our winter weather, but scrutiny of the stats suggests Seattle’s “Rain City” nickname might actually be a little harsh.
According to a 2019 article on the American Council of Science and Health’s website, Seattle doesn’t even rank in the top 30 for rain among the U.S.’s 50 largest cities. The 37.7 inches it gets puts it 32nd.
Seattleites know, however, it’s not the total that really matters, but the drizzle’s persistence that gets under your skin. Seattle gets a little rain — but enough to count — on many days (149 per year, in fact), good for fifth place in the country.
That said, it can get grim in the winter when we’re working on our 53rd straight day of heavy cloud cover, ceaseless wet, and temperatures that try but usually fail to top 45 degrees. Conditions like that can make golf outdoors an unpleasant experience (see the indoor golf article in this issue for those seeking cover). What you need, at times like these, is a good rain shadow where the golf course is situated on the leeward side of a highly elevated region.
Thanks to the Olympic Mountains, there are a few good ones on the Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County, and none better than the Cedars at Dungeness. Head Professional Garrett Smithson tells us that only 14-16 inches of rain falls on the course each year, including about nine between the months of November and April. That’s roughly the same as Salt Lake City, and even Los Angeles.
It’s not hard to see, then, why Dungeness has a reputation for being the driest course in western Washington, with very few days lost to weather each year, and golfers can expect mostly dry fairways and few plugged balls. “We will close the course if there’s snow on the ground,” says Smithson, “but we might only get five days a year when the weather’s bad enough for us to close.”
“We will close the course if there’s snow on the ground,” says Smithson, “but we might only get five days a year when the weather’s bad enough for us to close.”
Dungeness not only sits in a rain shadow, but it also benefits from a wonderful sandy loam soil, not unlike that at Bandon Dunes, says Smithson. “The drainage here really is some of the best in the Pacific Northwest.” He also notes that the turf at Dungeness is perennial ryegrass with poa annua greens.
Unlike most superintendents in the country, Mike Snyder changes his operation very little in the winter. “The maintenance crew stays pretty much on schedule during the winter,” he says. “And because there isn’t much growth, we roll a lot rather than mow.”
As we reported in the June issue, The Cedars at Dungeness committed to a new irrigation installation earlier in the year. In fact, the project began during the last week of September. “We’re on pace to be done around early May,” says Smithson, who adds that any resulting hole closures will be offset by a new Par 3 on the existing chipping green. “It will be about 130 yards long (100 yards from the forward tees) and will allow golfers to play 18 holes at all times.”
We asked users of the Western Washington Golfer chat group on Facebook what other courses in our part of the state remain dry in winter. Those who responded agreed Dungeness was the driest, but a few others received mention: Oakbrook, Whidbey Island, Chambers Bay, and Gold Mountain.
The Home Course also got a few votes, but it was Capitol City in Olympia which came up most often. Indeed, the tree-lined course designed by prolific Canadian architect Norman Woods (opened in 1963), thinks it remains the most playable. “With excellent drainage,” it says on its website, “our golf course provides the driest playing conditions in Western Washington year-round.”
