Washington National

6/20/2011

 I got the chance to play Washington National this June. Though I married a Coug, I still gave this great course a chance. As far as the course and the amenities I was pleased from the moment I arrived “other than all the purple and gold” a very aesthetically pleasing first look. The staff is very pleasing and the bartender had a good sense of humor. My tee time was 10:40am is that too early meet the bartender? Anyway, it had a great little club house with an outdoor sitting area off the café looking down the very intense 18th with it’s three tier green and giant bowl in the left front. Sure to make an exciting finish to any round.

The practice facility is… let’s just leave it at OK. It is down away from the first tee box and not really marked for yardages on the public end anyway… I would imagine the UW team side is marked for yardage but oh well. It is turf, it was in good shape and I got my shanks out down there.

The putting green is nice and big. It’s very close to the first tee and the speeds were true enough to the green speeds throughout the course.

When I got to the first tee, the starter was very helpful. He explained the waist areas and let us know that they had the greens rolling at 10.5 to 11 on the stimpmeter. He also gave us our scorecards and a nice little bonus with the card is a yardage book that you will need! Great starting hole, a par 5 to give you chance to start your round with a birdie and get the ball rolling in the right direction. Tune up your bunker play because they put “W” shaped bunker on almost every hole in case you forget where you are. We were convinced that the greens crew was having a really bad Monday when they placed all the pins, some of them were pretty tough to get to. All in all I was very happy with Washington National and would definitely play again.

Pros; Course condition, pace of play, green constancy, staff

Cons; Location, price, practice facility

“RATED9.0”

Washington National Golf Club

14330 SE Husky Way
Auburn, WA 98092                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 253-333-5000

www.washingtonnationalgolfclub.com

Brandon’s review