Palouse Ridge Golf Club

Palouse Ridge Golf Club at Washington State University in Pullman is one of the Pacific Northwest's most architecturally-celebrated modern public courses, and the home venue for the WSU Cougars golf teams in the Pac-12/Pac-2 Conference. John Harbottle III opened the course in 2008 across the rolling wheat-country terrain of the Palouse region, using the dramatic undulations and ridge-to-valley sightlines as the course's defining feature rather than working against them. At 7,308 yards par 72 from the Crimson tees with a 75.4 rating and stout 140 slope, Palouse Ridge plays as a serious championship test. The par-5 10th is the signature strategic decision, reachable in two with the prevailing wind, but a full three-shot hole when played into it, the kind of wind-variable hole that changes character completely between rounds. Harbottle, whose portfolio also includes Gold Mountain Olympic and Hawks Landing and who died too young in 2012, considered Palouse Ridge one of his best routings; the terrain clearly inspired him. For a Washington golf trip that extends beyond the Puget Sound to the eastern-Washington wheat country, Palouse Ridge is the must-play that justifies the drive.