High and Dry: Western Washington’s Best Winter Courses

The par-4 third hole at Newcsatle's China Creek.
The par-4 third hole at Newcsatle’s China Creek.
From an outsider’s perspective, wintertime golf in Western Washington is a cold, wet experience, full of plugged lies, puddled bunkers and putts that kick up rooster tails the Miss Budweiser or Oh Boy Oberto would be envious of en route to the pin.
Actually … that’s pretty much accurate.
The fact is, not all of our Western Washington courses are made equal, and some play almost the same in winter as they do in the 90-degree August sunshine. Courses built on a bed of sand will always drain better than those built on dirt — hello, Chambers Bay, White Horse and Cedars at Dungeness. Typically, courses on exposed slopes, too, will dry better than those completely engulfed by trees — nice to see you again, Chambers, and welcome, The Home Course, West Seattle, Newcastle and Legion Memorial.
To make it easy on you, we’ve dialed up a full 18 of courses for you to target this winter:
The Links at Avalon (Burlington)
Capitol City Golf Course (Olympia)
Cedars at Dungeness (Sequim)
Chambers Bay (University Place)
Classic Golf Club (Spanaway)
Eaglemont Golf Club (Mount Vernon)
Gold Mountain Golf Club (Bremerton)
Golf Club at Newcastle (Newcastle)
Golf Club at Redmond Ridge (Redmond)
The Home Course (DuPont)
Legion Memorial Golf Course (Everett)
The Links at Hawks Prairie (Lacey)
Lipoma Firs (Puyallup)
Maplewood Golf Course (Renton)
Trophy Lake Golf Club (Port Orchard)
Washington National Golf Club (Auburn)
West Seattle Golf Course (Seattle)
White Horse Golf Club (Kingston)
Use the comments section below to add any other courses you think are worthy — or, to note if any of those we’ve listed above aren’t holding up as well this year as they have in years past. Even if it does turn out to be a wet one, these tracks should outperform the rest, and let you hit the ground running next spring.

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