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PALOUSE RIDGE
Golf Club
PAR 5 626 YARDS
Pullman, WA
509.335.4342
www.palouseridge.com
The vastness of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, framed by the sensuous,
rolling landscape of the Palouse, is the view at Palouse Ridge Golf Club on the
campus of Washington State University. Somehow the carry to the fairway on the 10th
hole is secondary to the view; the beauty more alluring than the beast in the 626-yard
par 5. While the tee shot is more exhilarating than it is demanding, it is the second
shot that separates the eagle-seekers from the tourists.
Architect John Harbottle III wanted the hole to blend into the horizon—a panorama
that includes 4,500-foot Moscow Mountain in the neighboring state of Idaho. With an
artist's eye, Harbottle matched curves and angles of the hole with the famous glacier-
formed terrain. In fact, with the wind at your back, the tee shot can be hit too far, riding
a slope to a point where you can't see the green. The second shot is hit over a small
knob left of the green, and from there the ball can run toward the hole. Anything hit
right of the green is trouble. The longest hitters will have a chance to reach the green
in two despite its length, while mere mortals will be left with a nifty bump-and-run chip
for a third shot.
The green, which surprisingly commands the same kind of view as does the tee, has
its own challenges, including a back pin placement that seems to simply fall off the
ridge. Palouse Ridge, which opened in 2008, replaced a funky nine-hole campus
course and is now regarded as one of the top five university courses in the country.
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Photographs by Rob Perry
