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HIGHLANDER
Golf Course
PAR 3 179 YARDS
East Wenatchee, WA
509.884.4653
www.highlandergc.com
It feels as if you are standing on the rim of the world, some 800 feet above the
massive Columbia River, all of which can make golf rather insignificant—for a
moment, anyway. But the reality sinks in as you back away from the panorama and
have to deal with the shot. There may be more notable par 3s in the Pacific Northwest,
but there is none more commanding than the ninth at Highlander Golf Course, high in
the orchards above East Wenatchee.
From the back tee, it is a 179-yard shot over a ravine. If you don't look down, the
shot isn't terribly difficult on many days. But good players have hit everything from a
pitching wedge to a 3-wood, depending on the sneaky winds that sweep through the
Columbia River Valley, sometimes even undetected by the green's flag. A person with
sense keeps his shot on the right half of the green, for the world seems to tilt left on
this hole, the slope of the green heading a pulled tee shot toward a bunker if you're
lucky, or to the Columbia River if you aren't. Play too safe right and you're saddled
with a chip over a hump to a location that might be in a different ZIP code.
Highlander is an evolving golf course; the front nine has added trees and water
features while losing gnarly pot bunkers and inescapable fescue grasses bordering
the fairways. The back nine is due some of the same transformations, plus some hole
relocations that will come with the building of homes along the edge of the course.
All on the rim of the world.
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Photograph by John R. Johnson, golfphotos.com
