gjbayley

Another Bill Robinson flop. Bland, predictable, thoughtless design typical of Mr. Robinson. Too many stinking artificial ponds signals a lack of ingenuity. Poor turf and poor turf drainage signals incompetence. Little wonder the place went bankrupt when it first opened.

Fortunately people love to play golf, so they can get a steady clientele at a low price point.

A below average course. Most, if not all of the munis in Portland are better.

This course is not a links, nor does it nearly approximate a links. The only justification thy might have for calling it a links is the lack of trees. However, they are busy growing trees so that is going away. They do not have the right grass, the right soil, nor do they have the dunelike landscape required of a links.

This course has 10 holes. it should only have 9. Squeezing 10 holes into this small parcel of land means that they created in course out of bounds, which is considered very bad practice, on a couple of doglegs. With wider separation the larger area of rough between holes would remove the need to make the next fairway over out of bounds.

I can see why many reviewers call this a fun place to play. For the not so highly skilled player the level playing surface makes for a good game. However, this course has forced carries over water, which would be interesting the first few times, but would become a nuisance after repeated failures to carry the water hazard. Also, there is a sand bunker running completely across the extra hole they use as their 18th hole when you go around twice. This used to be a common feature on early golf courses, and earned the name "top-shot' bunker. in the first half of the 20th century the PGA hired A. W. Tillinghast to go around the country removing such bunkers.

Shame on the architect for buying land and building cart golf. The back 9 is relatively new and built on extreme land that is not conducive to walk. Shame on the architect for teaching the good people of Port Townsend that golfing should be done in carts.

Shame on the architect for modifying master A. V. Macan's design of the front nine. Asmundson is not nearly as capable an architect as Macan.

Shame on the groundskeeping staff for overwatering part of the course. I actually overheard one member of the staff chewing out another for overwatering on the back nine, and when I got there he was right. Given that this course is in a relatively cool climate near the sea, there should be no excuse for overwatering.

If I return to this course, I will limit my play to the front nine, because it is a nice walk, whereas the back nine is a real pain without a cart.

Golf is a sport, and basketball is a sport. In golf, the physical exercise component of the sport has been minimized by the introduction of golf carts to carry players around. The USGA has stated that if you are riding a cart to play, then you are not playing golf, but something different that perhaps could be called cartball. After the golf cart was introduced, the design of many courses became dependent on the golf cart. White Horse is one such cart ball course. Anyone wanting to walk and play golf should probably avoid While Horse. The day before I played White Horse I played Ocean Shores Country Club in slightly under three hours. I played White Horse in slightly over four hours. That is over an hour of walking concrete paths to connect golf holes. Jack Nicklaus has a famous retort to his wife when she claimed he should walk the mall with her since he walked for a living where he replied that the difference is that he walks on grass for a living. In basketball, you can take the walking and running component out by playing in a wheelchair. Would you choose to play your basketball in a wheelchair?

I have spent most of my life in a rural environment. I see and appreciate what nature provides. I do not appreciate how White Horse is so heavily shaped. I played Discovery Bay Golf Club the day after playing White Horse. Discovery Bay has similar mountain terrain for part of the course, but looks far more natural than the heavily shaped White Horse. I suppose part of the shaping is to mimic the natural dune shapes you find on a links course at the seaside. If so, then it fails noticeably at looking like natural dunes. Old news articles say the course went into foreclosure for $5.7 million dollars. Also, that shapers claiming to be among the best in the world were brought in from Hawaii to do the shaping. Since the most successful courses being built at the time Wild Horse was being built were by Tom Doak, and by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, I would suggest they have the best shapers. Wine Valley is another superbly shaped Washington public course that did not have to bring in shapers from Hawaii. In conclusion, Wild Horse is poorly shaped and overly done to be a naturally beautiful golfing environment.

White Horse has a deserved reputation of being difficult. Part of this reputation has to come from parts of the back nine where the terrain is a bit too extreme for good golf, and instead of shaping to ease the extremeness, it was shaped in a fashion that added difficulty. Instead of softening slopes, the slopes appear to have been shaped into more extreme slopes that give more extreme bad bounces.

Golf was developed as a fun past time, and developed that way for a long time. Unfortunately Robert Trent Jones brought on an era of difficulty overruling the fun. At the end of the last century the pendulum began to shift back to fun golf design. It appears that White Horse was built to live in a bygone era.

The front 9 was watered, the back 9 not. I actually prefer the unwatered maintenance.

The biggest negative is that one golf hole is squeezed between the canal and a city street.

I was hoping for a more dunelike terrain with the course this close to the ocean, but found a mostly flat terrain that would be easily walkable for almost all golfers.

The course is on some great land for golf. However, they ruined much of it with their glaringly artificial ditching and ponding. What looked like places where water would naturally flow were grassed over and ditches cut into hillsides. Are you creating a golf course? Or, irrigation ditches for hay fields? The drop shot par three has vertigo inducing artificial mats at cliff edge instead a nice grassed teeing ground in the space available.

People taking up the game should be able to have a great time on this course. The more discerning golfer will find the course too wet and greens too soft. Perhaps in the summer conditions would be more demanding. They could improve by working on drainage and sanding for the wetter seasons of the year.

Really fun ride through the dunes. Some blind shots, but not extreme. My only reservation on giving this a top rating is that it is a little crowded into a small area, bringing play from nearby holes into the picture.

The course has several artificial ridges built on it apparently for increasing difficulty. These are unnecessary, and ruinous to viewing the landscape. The bunkers have been placed and shaped to collect more balls than necessary. Again, a difficulty that is unnecessary for a good and fun golf course.

The ground was dry and bouncy like any great links should be.

This is a cartball course, often with horrible green to tee transitions, Plus the practice areas are horribly located as they increase the walk unforgivably. The course was routed with little imagination, and next to no knowledge of how to use the terrain appropriately. The course is over watered, and the greens excessively soft, and slow. I have to wonder if they have a trained superintendent, or just a hobbyist grass grower.

On the Doak scale of course evaluation, 3 is an average course. In Salem, I would put McNary at 3, and this course at 4.