65
WHITE HORSE
Golf Club
PAR 4 435 YARDS
Kingston, WA
360.297.4468
www.whitehorsegolf.com
White Horse Golf Club, a veritable collection of signature golf holes in the sandy
hills above the coastal hamlet of Kingston, still saves the best for last. The 18th hole,
arguably the best finishing hole in the Northwest, is a par 4 to remember, breaking
free of the surrounding forests to embrace the picturesque two-and-a-half-acre
lake bordering the entire left side of the fairway and framed by the club's majestic
20,000-square-foot clubhouse.
With the lake on the left, and bunkers and a grove of trees framing the right side of the
fairway, the tee shot is not for the meek. And in order to have a user-friendly approach
shot that doesn't require removing a headcover to go for the pin, the drive can't
be about playing safe. That being said, White Horse Golf Club, the original design
of Cynthia Dye McGarey, is truly a second-shot course with greens that are often
oblique to the player's eye—greens difficult enough to make her famous uncle, Pete
Dye, envious. With water sculpting the green to the left and little layup area right, the
shot to the 18th must be taken straight on, with the locals watching from the nearby
deck of the new clubhouse. It's all pretty spectacular.
White Horse opened as Golf Digest's number eight top new golf course in 2007.
It underwent numerous challenges until finally being gathered up by the adjoining
Suquamish Tribe. John Harbottle III did an extensive remodel of the course in 2011,
removing nearly 60 bunkers and considerably more trees. It has since been honored
as one of the state's top 10 courses you can play and is definitely worth adding to
everyone's "must-play bucket list."
18
Photograph by Rob Perry
