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Let’s Take Care of Our Course!

Gold Mountain is proud to be one of the top municipal courses in the country and one of the top public course options in Washington State.

We regularly surpass 400 rounds per day through most of the year and 500 rounds per day through the summer months.

Our maintenance team does a tremendous job keeping the course in stellar condition so that every golfer experiences Gold Mountain at its best.

As a golfer and having worked on the maintenance side of golf for multiple courses over five years, I would like to reinforce how important it is to repair pitch marks and fix divots while playing.

There is nothing more frustrating than getting to a green and finding that my ball’s path to the hole looks like it is traveling over the moon’s surface.

It is especially prevalent later in the day after the bulk of the tee times have passed through.

This small act of repairing pitch marks takes less than one minute to complete and can help all golfers enjoy their round that bit more.

This would also help maintenance each morning as they must repair all ball marks before they can mow or roll the greens each morning to ensure an even and smooth cut.

There are more ways that golfers can make the course better for everyone (including themselves) but this is the most commonly missed opportunity.

If you have questions on how to fix your ball marks, the simplest way to think about fixing pitch marks is to insert the tool from the perimeter and push your hand toward the center of the mark.

Work around the hole until you have the hole covered, then tamp the area flat with either your putter, foot, or club.

It is amazing how clean and better the course conditions are when everyone does their part.

Robert Silky

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Get Summer Golf Ready

After a long wet winter, golfers are reminded of the upcoming golf season with the occasional stretch of nice sunny weather.

Now is a good time to break the clubs out, knock the rust off, and start tuning up!

Here is a laundry list of sorts that will identify some of the things you will want to do before the golf season is upon us:

Equipment Tune Up:

This is a great time of year to go through your set, asses any needs, and give them a deep clean top to bottom.

We have several wedge and club demo clinics coming up that will give you a great chance to address any club needs.

When you clean your clubs, you always want to include cleaning the grips.

Depending on the type of grip, a bucket of hot soapy water will do the trick.

I recommend replacing your grips every other year, a procedure that usually takes a couple of hours for us to complete and we have a wide range of grips to choose from.

Outerwear/Shoes:

If you like to play spring golf you need to be prepared for the occasional rain shower.

I like to keep rain gear in my bag so I am prepared, but layering up is always a good idea.

Most of the golf shoes made now are waterproof to some extent, just make sure you clean them after every round to keep them that way.

You also want to store them and your clubs in a dry area when not in use, trunk, garage, or even the house is a good spot.

Another item that’s always handy to have in your bag is a beanie, you never know when the temp is going to drop and wearing a beanie will keep your heat in.

Lessons:

This is also a great time to get a refresher lesson or two to make sure you’re in your best spring-summer season shape possible.

If a golf lesson is not your gig then a bit of practice could be up your alley.

It’s always a good idea to get out a couple times for practice at the beginning of the season just to make sure you can still get the ball airborne.

So make sure you break out your clubs, knock the rust off, and we will see you out here on the links!!

Golfingly yours,
Daryl

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What’s on the Horizon at Gold Mountain

Our hope at Gold Mountain Golf Club is to deliver a day of enjoyment for our guests.

Part of that experience is providing exceptional playing conditions throughout the seasons for our patrons.
Our maintenance team works tirelessly to continuously improve practices, growing conditions, efficiency, and maintenance standards at Gold Mountain Golf Club.

We do this by constantly re-evaluating techniques of maintenance practices and making appropriate changes.

Improving soil profiles through cultural practices such as topdressing, aerification, drainage improvements, and verticutting.

Addressing shade and air movement issues through tree management is an ongoing focus.

All these factors ultimately improve our playing conditions and overall experience of this extraordinary outdoor recreation facility.

To accomplish all of this, specialized equipment is needed and like most things, there is a life expectancy to that equipment.  The majority of Gold Mountain’s fleets’ life expectancy has come and gone.

We are excited to be in the process of procuring a much-needed fleet replacement.  This process has been years in the making. We have evaluated our aging fleet and made a priority list to address our needs.

Much of our fleet is 20-30 years old with the equivalent of upwards of 700,00 miles driven. This list includes greens mowers, rough mowers, tractors, utility vehicles, and the hope to have a second phase including additional rough mowers, utility vehicles, sprayers, and tractors.

Adding these to our fleet will give us better consistency, less downtime from breakdowns, and safer more fuel-efficient vehicles to operate.

May we have a great season full of golfers replacing their divots and repairing their ball marks.

Abel Anderson
Gold Mountain Golf Club Superintendent

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Fall/Winter Golf Gear Tips

Ahhh, fresh fall air. No mask necessary outdoors (while social distancing of course), exercise, hanging out with family and friends and playing the great game of golf. You almost forget the troubles of the times for a few hours.

That’s what keeps everyone that has continued to play, or that has just started playing these last two years and coming back!

So gearing up for the cold or wet days is important! And that’s what I’ll be prepping you for!

As the Merchandiser of the Golf shop at Gold Mountain, going on for six years now, getting the right stuff for your game makes a big difference in your confidence and enjoyment.

Here are some Fall & Winter gear tips:

  • Pack your bag with layers of golf attire. A polo, a long sleeve ¼ zip, and a waterproof jacket.
  • Get some good waterproof golf shoes or golf boots with spikes for better traction when it’s wet.
  • Have an umbrella and rain cover for your golf bag.
  • Put in a waterproof hat, rain pants, and rain gloves that get sticky once they get wet to help you grip your clubs.
  • Towels and a brush to clean off your clubs.
  • Hand warmers. Even new battery-powered hand-warming units are available.
  • Think about getting your clubs regripped with Dritac Grips. It all adds up to a more comfortable round.

We will continue to bring in the newest gear at a competitive pricing so stop in anytime.

We’ll get you golf ready for the fall season!

See you soon,

Suzanne Mehlert,
Golf Shop Merchandiser

Waterproof Golf Shoes/Boots with Spikes

Towel & Brush 

Waterproof Gloves

Quality Rain Jacket

Umbrellas & Waterproof Hats

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The Importance of the 19th Hole

What is the 19th hole and why is it so important you ask? Well, after playing your standard round of golf, the most anticipated hole is the 19th! Why yes, you guessed right!

The restaurant at Gold Mountain is the ideal place for unwinding after a perfect day on the course.

With the grand patio overlooking the Olympic Course, it provides a picturesque backdrop to enjoy some of our delectable dishes and refreshing beverages.

This is the spot where golfers, diners and those who are just along for the ride gather.

The camaraderie and the laughter, of course socially distanced, bring us back to the joyful times, pre-COVID.

Whether you are just visiting us for an icy cold beverage or diving into one of our amazing menu items, we are here to make your visit memorable or at least fun!

Come stop by the restaurant, we’ll be waiting for you!

Food & Beverage Manager,
Pam Delos-Santos

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From a Golf Course Superintendent’s Eye

As a golf course superintendent, I have a unique perspective of a golf course which usually means looking down.

But over this past year, I found myself looking up and enjoying the interactions and pleasure that this game brings to so many.  Since golf was one of the only things you could do early in the reopening stages of 2020, we were a fortunate industry to be in.

I guess we’re lucky that golf is a game of social distancing, especially depending on how far you hook or slice it. With people wanting to do something, most turned to golf, rekindling the passion for many and shedding new light on the benefits it offers for one’s wellbeing.

The golf industry as a whole experienced a large uptick in golf rounds. We had weekend warriors become weekday warriors, many new to golf learned and continue to play and the groups that play every morning through the week which normally sneak out five minutes early began sneaking out 15 minutes early (I see you).

It was great to see people coming out, able to breathe fresh air, exercise, and enjoy the company of their fellow patrons, all while enjoying this wonderful game. For a moment people could forget about the craziness of everything else, get a sense of normalcy, and de-stress.

My hope is that more people continue to experience what golf has to offer and the game continues to grow.

If this means that our maintenance team and I are managing more divots, ball marks, and traffic patterns, then it is a welcomed task.

Through 2020 our maintenance team was able to take on some much-needed improvements while accomplishing our cultural practice plans and day-to-day maintenance.

During the shutdown, it allowed us the opportunity to put a drain in on #1 green Cascade. This area plagues us annually with poor health, due to standing water on the green.

We renovated more tee complexes by flattening and enlarging them, allowing a flatter tee stance and more teeing ground.  Our team also began rebuilding aging bunker faces to their original appearance.  We recently added 65 tons of sand to our bunkers on Olympic giving them a much-needed refreshing.

We designed new tee markers for the Cascade, flags, and sticks for both Olympic and Cascade, giving both courses a renewed look. We began replacing aging irrigation heads on the Cascade course with more efficient, newer ones.

One of our bigger feats was the design and renovation of our driving range tee and practice area, adding a 150ft hitting mat allowing golfers to practice all year long.

Here is a look back at some of the accomplishments of our team:

Stay safe and we look forward to seeing you on the course.

Abel Anderson
Golf Course Superintendent

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A Unique Year in Golf – COVID-19

2020 has brought us a multitude of things, good and bad (mostly bad), but was a year that the golf industry will never forget. Following the state lockdown, multiple recreational activities remained off-limits, while golf stood out as one of the safest activities where social distancing was possible and allowed those to get out of the house, stay active, and have fun.

Business at Gold Mountain saw a significant uptick due to this, and a sizeable increase in new golfers and lapsed golfers looking for lessons to improve their game.

Seeing as large group activities with people from separate households were generally frowned upon, the normal Gold Mountain instruction offerings (Junior camp, PGA Junior League, Spring clinics, etc.) were put on hold in 2020. We felt that this was in our best interest to be a responsible business in the current climate. This led to a big focus on individual instruction and certainly showed that people were interested in learning more about this great game.

With the light at the end of the tunnel going into 2021, group instruction offerings will be bolstered once again, and we are so excited to do so! Starting in the spring, our “Spring into the Golf Season” clinics will be returning, which will kick off our 2021 instructional offerings. Junior camp programs will be more abundant this season, and the same goes for adult clinics and programs.

As long as the health and safety of our students remains a focus (with a little help from this vaccine in the works), 2021 promises to be our biggest and best year of golf instruction in a long time. With the increase in demand, we saw this season, we expect a lot of golfers to be interested!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Travis Cary, PGA
Assistant Gold Professional and Teaching Instructor 

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Golf in 2020

Twenty-twenty. An unprecedented year. What can I say that hasn’t already been said by the news or social media a million times?

Well, to me, 2020 reminds me of what James Earl Jones said, as Terrence Mann in the movie Field of Dreams…

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been (GOLF) baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But (GOLF) baseball has marked the time.”

Except I would replace the game of baseball with GOLF. Golf, being the one thing we could rely on and escape by doing, in 2020.

So, stocking the golf shop merchandise and equipment has been extremely busy, as our guests gear up to enjoy the outdoors and escape the pressures from COVID-19, even if it’s for just a few hours a day.

Our vendors, even after shutting down for a couple of weeks or a month, have worked tirelessly to provide their equipment for all the avid and new golfers flooding the courses.

The staff of Gold Mountain has worked the front lines right from the start, adapting to the governor’s rules, keeping themselves and our guests safe, as much as possible.

And I have been moving forward, each day, with the hope that the rest of our local businesses will re-open any day as well.

But for now, I’ll keep bringing in the clubs, equipment, attire, and all the necessities to play this amazing game, rain or shine; keeping all our friends out golfing as much as they can, to find some joy being outdoors and participating in this timeless American past-time, golf.

Suzanne Mehlert
Gold Mountain Merchandiser, 2016-2020

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The Best Time to Golf

Hole #16, Par 3

STRANGE times!

It is hard to believe we’re already in August! This has been, to say the least, a STRANGE year so far. With the shutdown due to the pandemic, and all the operational changes put in place once we did open, it has kept us pre-occupied and helped time fly by.

Looking back at the last five months it is easy to get caught up thinking about all the negatives and worrying about what is to come. I, however, would like to focus on a couple of positives from this experience.

The first being the spiked interest in the game of golf. Certainly, being one of the few activities approved as “safe” by our elected officials’ post-shutdown has helped.

We have seen our regulars playing more golf and an influx of new players which has led to rounds and business levels I have not seen in decades.

The second positive would be the condition of the courses. I know being shut down for almost six weeks during the start of the growing season helped, but the operational practices by our superintendent Abel Anderson and his team have been paramount.

We aerified both courses green’s once the shutdown started and was able to continue topdressing them with sand for the weeks to follow.

Divot filling, some new tee construction, applications of wetting agent, and general maintenance also occurred.

The result, once we were able to open back up, was near perfection! Both courses were in the best shape for that time of the year that I have ever seen.

And because they were both so healthy, they have been able to handle all the increased traffic.

General Manager,
Daryl Matheny

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Spring is Right Around the Corner

With winter coming to an end and spring fast approaching, the maintenance team is switching gears from projects to preparations for the upcoming season.

Winter projects included a large amount of tree limbing around the property, which opened up some views across holes, made areas more player-friendly, and will help the overall health of our grass by allowing more air movement and light.

We also removed collar dams on 7 of our greens, which help with surface drainage and eliminating such a severe transition onto our putting surfaces.

We started on our list of tee complexes that need to be leveled, which over time have become uneven.

We spruced up the entrance of our wedding area with landscaping and relocated the remainder of our Rhododendrons to areas where they will hopefully thrive without interfering with irrigation.

Part of preparing for the upcoming season is our spring aerification.

This will take place on April 13th and 14th for the Cascade course, and early May for the Olympic course, following the Mountain West Tournament.

We look forward to seeing how these projects and newly implemented cultural practices will continue to improve play for the upcoming season.

We look forward to seeing you out here!

Abel Anderson
Golf Course Superintendent

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