salish cliffs golf club

Have only heard good things about Salish Cliffs Golf Club down in Shelton, so a friend and I finally decided to drive down to Shelton to give it a try on a GolfNow.com Hot Deal. From my house in Kent it took just one hour and 15 minutes to get there, but longer getting back due to all the rush hour traffic along I-5 and the Valley Freeway. When you get there it isn't immediately obvious how to get to the course, but the course is back behind the casino and resort so if you go to the back right of the casino you'll see signs for the golf course and an arched bridge guides you to the road. The driving range and practice facilities are first class. The clubhouse is gorgeous with a Native American theme and appropriate art work, and the staff members were friendly and helpful; the restrooms were about the nicest I've seen at any golf course in WA (even the restrooms on the course were really nice). The electric golf carts are relatively new, clean and had doors to ward off the cold wind. The carts also had GPS devices that gave fly-over commentary on each hole when you arrive at a tee. Be advised that the carts are not allowed in the parking lot (wish they were). Although the fairways were soggy due to all the recent rain (cart paths only), they were generally playable in spite of the wetness. However, there are a lot of unrepaired divots in the fairways; I emptied 4 bottles of divot sand mix on the course and was just getting started. By the way, the divot sand mix is colored green to match the grass, which is something I've not seen at any other course I've played in WA; good idea, I think. The greens were really nice, similar in quality to a good private course; it may be that the few golfers in the winter allow the greens to have few ball marks; in the summer when the course is really busy I'm sure you'll see a lot more ball marks. The multitude of sand bunkers were wet and hard, which is to be expected at this time of the year (December). The course is nicely laid out and spread out over a lot of acres; you are required to use a cart and no walking or push carts are allowed due to the distance between greens and tees and the many elevation changes; I generally prefer to walk golf courses for the exercise, but after playing this course I can fully understand the rationale for requiring the use of the electric carts. There were only a few other golfers besides us on the course, so we never had anyone ahead or behind us, which was really nice. Tee times are spaced at 10 minute intervals to reduce bunching up, but for winter golf there are no crowds to worry about. There are no homes lining the course at all, so the course definitely has a wilderness feel about it with every hole surrounded by 3rd or 4th growth fir trees; you almost never have to worry about hitting into an adjacent fairway or green, except on the 9th and 18th green. However, there are no water hazards on the course except for the approaches to the 9th and 18th holes (which share a large green). So, my only complaint is that it seemed to me that many of the holes looked and played similarly and my friend and I sometimes thought we were playing a hole we'd already played. The par 3 holes were the most picturesque, as you are hitting down to the green. To me, this course had a similar feel to it as White Horse or Olympic Gold Mountain, if you've played those courses. Overall, I thought Salish Cliffs Golf Club was an excellent resort course and one of the nicest courses I've played in WA, and definitely worth the drive. I'll look forward to playing it again in nicer weather to see how the course plays when it is drier.