If all goes as planned, 2013
is going to be one of our best years to date as far as marking private courses
off The Quest. We played Michelbook in McMinnville recently. Riverside Country
Club in Portland is scheduled soon. Crosswater at Sunriver will be played
during August's Golf Week, as will the Prineville Country Club (plus hopefully
another Central Oregon private course or two).
Some really big news for us
was recently stumbling into an introduction to a member at the Waverly Country
Club in Portland, one of the state's premier private courses. Don and Pete will
be at Waverly in late August! That will be a big day for sure.
When we started The Quest in
2007, we were just going to try and play every public course. But Golf Week 2009 in Eastern Oregon really
spurred us to change that to every course, period. That trip was when we
learned that "private" has different meanings at different places. The private
Pendleton Country Club's sign at their main entrance, for example, says "Public
Welcome" in very large letters. Turns out membership in the Pendleton Country
Club is only required if you live in Umatilla County — out-of-town
players are always welcome. The same circumstances prevail at the La Grande
Country Club as well.
So how do we get on the true
private courses? Hinting, cajoling and begging all come to mind. We have
friends who are members at Michelbook and Riverside, so those two were easy. A
Forest Grove High alum in the class behind Don's recently moved to Sunriver and
joined Crosswater, hence that upcoming round. A friend of a work colleague saw our
Facebook page and offered to take us
out on Witch Hollow at Pumpkin Ridge. The chance meeting with a Waverly member
mentioned above. Shoot, we even won a round at the Oregon Golf Club last year
by finishing second in a scramble in a tournament at another course. Better
lucky than good, as they say.
There will be some tough
ones, for sure. The Fazio Course at Pronghorn in Bend is, we've heard, perhaps
the hardest private course to get on. If we get down to that being the last
one, we'll resort to begging. If that doesn't work, perhaps we'll camp out at
their entrance with a cardboard sign and try to embarrass them into letting us on!
We'll leave no stone unturned.
It goes without saying, if
you're reading this and you're a private club member, we'd love to hear from
you! You'll certainly get a public thank you right here on Don and Pete's
website — what greater prize could there be?