MeadowWood

The Tacoma area is noted for its meadows; its municipal offerings include both a Meadow Park and a MeadowWood Golf Course. The latter is a Robert Muir Graves design from the 1980s, which is the second-most celebrated municipal course in Tacoma (the first is U.S. Open host Chambers Bay). Although it’s a long road to catch up with that course, MeadowWood offers a collection of impressive hazards, which are kept at peak condition.

One of Graves’s favorite ploys around the course was to create large bunkers that feature islands of turf within; there are seven of these along the route, creating a range of awkward lies for those who miss the fairway.

Many of the holes stick to land on the flatter parts of the property, but the final stretch of the course travels up into the hills (a decent amount of this climb will occur during your approach shot at No. 16, a 600-yard par five that climbs dramatically to the green). This culminates with a closing par four that dives down toward the final green. Although measuring nearly 400 yards from the back tee, it will almost seem drivable from on high (it isn’t).