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SEATTLE GOLF CLUB
PAR 5 511 YARDS
Seattle, WA
206.363.8811
www.seattlegolfclub.com
The ninth hole at Seattle Golf Club is an unforgettable glimpse into another time and
another era. Out of the towering stands of fir and cedars you are suddenly confronted
by the magnificent old clubhouse where members used to stay overnight because
the trip back downtown was so far.
An uphill par 5, the ninth plays long but is reachable in two shots for a long hitter. The
problem is a narrow opening to a green, guarded by bunkers left and right, and a
putting surface that can demand an approach shot be on the same level as the pin
placement, or be the start of a three-putt birdie-turned-bogey result.
But no matter the result, the lasting memory is of the clubhouse. So much at Seattle
Golf Club is about history and tradition, and nothing captures it better than the chalet-
style clubhouse. Its predecessors were a tent for the original, turn-of-the-century
clubhouse near Gas Works Park in downtown Seattle, and then a family residence for
the expansion to the Lake Washington neighborhood of Laurelhurst. Built in 1908 on a
site north of the city by Cutter & Malmgren—the architects of The Rainier Club and the
Stimson-Green Mansion on First Hill—today's clubhouse retains its original purpose
as a vacation-style lodge. It features spacious banquet facilities and decks with
magnificent views: west to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, east to the
course. The clubhouse underwent a massive overhaul in the 1980s but never forgot
the style and simplicity that its founders wanted.
Over the years, Seattle Golf Club has worked at perpetuating amateur golf in the
Northwest as host of the 1952 US Amateur, the 1961 Walker Cup, the 1981 US Senior
Championship, and the 2010 Men's Pac-10 Conference Championship.
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Photograph by Bryce Schoonmaker
