Tacoma

Tacoma Country & Golf Club was founded in 1894, with golf played on the prairie lands outside the city of the same name. Eleven years after its formation, the club moved ten miles south to its current position on the shores of American Lake.

Members now have the use of an Olympic-sized outdoor swimming pool, a couple of tennis courts and a fully-equipped fitness centre so health and fitness are easily achieved with the range of facilities on offer at the club.

It’s not known who laid out the course originally but architect John Steidel is credited with carrying out a major renovation of the layout (including the addition of three new holes) in the mid-1980s.

In the modern era, this tree-lined trach extends to 6,906 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 72 and it’s configured as two returning nines, each of which finish with a strong par five close to the clubhouse.

A number of national USGA tournaments for female golfers have been hosted at Tacoma: the US Women’s Amateur in 1961, the US Senior Women’s Amateur in 1984, the US Women’s Mid-Amateur in 1994 and the US Girls’ Junior Championship in 2007.

Architect John Steidel kindly provided us with this exclusive comment: "I was hired in 1983 by Tacoma Country & Golf Club to do a Master Plan for Remodelling.

At that time the club had not made any improvements to the course for a number of years. They had a very small, inadequate practice area/driving range with space for only 6-8 golfers and the 10th hole was no more than 280 yards long.

The club also owned around twelve undeveloped acres immediately south of the course. We considered not doing anything with the property but the Club ultimately accepted and developed a plan where we built three holes on this tract of land.

That allowed us to create a much larger driving range and practice area, that can now accommodate thirty golfers at the one time on the practice tee, on what used to be the #17 and #18 holes. At the same time, their 10th hole was lengthened to around 400 yards."