Golf Club at Hawks Prairie – Links Course (Lacey, WA on 08/28/12)

I met up with a friend near Olympia on 08/28/12 for some afternoon golf. I am too cheap to pay to play Chambers Bay during the peak season and we needed something with easy access to I-5 so that I could get back to Vancouver where I am staying so I booked a time at Hawks Prairie. I had read that the Woodlands Course was the better of the two, but a league was going off so we played the Links Course from the Black tees at 72.8/124/6887. I do not regret my decision to play here because of the circumstances of the day, but it should be known that this is not a destination course. It however, had a great value at $36 for a twilight time during the week and we got around in 3.5 hours on a cool and blustery afternoon. I looked at the rating and slope and thought it would be easy to play, but boy was I wrong and for comparison, I shot 13 strokes higher here than I did the day before on a little more difficult course. The 1st hole is good hole where I could see all the trouble, but then there were some holes with trouble hidden. I picked an incorrect line on #2 and ended up in a hazard and missed long on #3 to avoid the water short, but there was a huge drop off behind the green. Hole #9 is a huge dog leg left par 5 that felt like the designer ran out of ideas, #10 had a hazard in weird spot 30 yards short right of the green, and #11 and #12 are semi blind dog legs right. Also, the course seemed to slope into the hazards, so a shot with any steam to it kicked out of play once it hit the ground. So I guess awkward and irritating would be good words for me to describe the design to this point. The course is a community course and through the first 12 holes I was unimpressed as homes lined pretty much both sides of the holes. The homes were not really in play except for a very poor shot, but they were very noticeable and distracted from play. My opinion of the course was salvaged from #13 to #18 which are interesting holes and holes that make me smile when thinking about Pacific Northwest golf. None of these closing holes currently have homes lining them. Hole #13 is a downhill par 3 framed by trees in the background and #14 is the signature hole which is a mid-length downhill par 4 framed by trees and the Puget Sound in the distance. Hole #16 is a beast of a par 3 back up the hill and #18 is a dog leg left par 5 which is a good closing hole. The conditions were spotty and there were some dry patches that affected play and aesthetics, but for $36 in peak season I can overlook it. The greens were a little bumpy, but seemed to hold a line inside 10 feet pretty well, but lag putting was a little more difficult because of the bumps. The greens were firm and quick and it seemed a lot of the flag sticks were placed on slopes instead of on different levels. Local knowledge around the greens certainly would be helpful. I certainly hope to try somewhere a little more memorable if back in the area, but the last 6 holes somewhat saved this course.

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