Wine Valley Golf Club

kaschreiber · March 29

Heading to WV for our annual spring buddies trip in mid-May with a stop at Apple Tree on our way over from Snoqualmie. Have yet to play it and of all courses in WA I haven't played, it's #1 on my list of places I want to get out. I have yet to hear a negative word about the place. We're playing 18 at Apple Tree on our way over with an airbnb < 10 minutes from Wine Valley. 36 on Sat, 18 on Sun. Handicaps in the group range from 3 - ~20 and we'll let everyone pick their own tees with a 4 round Ryder Cup-esque game through the weekend. A couple questions:

Anything we should know prior going in?
Typically play tees at my home course that are ~6500 which is just a hair shy of their merlot tees (blue / black combos). Blue tees are at a 6350. I'll be on vacation, leaning blue tees, but with how firm and fast I hear it plays is it going to be driver wedge all round?
We'll likely hang out at our airbnb when not on the course, but anything in Walla Walla worth checking out if we venture out?

Seamus_MacDuff · March 29

Wine Valley is fantastic. Assuming no wind, it does play a somewhat shorter due to the firm and fast turf. The course is great, though the bunkers can be a bit rough.

Walla Walla is a pretty vibrant downtown, especially for the size of the city. Public House 124 is a good place for cocktails. Wine tasting rooms scattered all over downtown, though the well known wineries book up well in advance.

Wardonation · March 29

greta track it is Dan's best... The windier the better... Go Lakeridge 🏋️‍♂️

pgww · March 29

One of my favorite courses, you will have a blast. Barring rain, it plays firm and fast. Bunkers/waste areas can get a little rough as noted. If you have particularly poor timing, odor from farmers spraying the adjacent alfalfa fields can be a thing.

If you are into Washington state history, the Whitman Mission National Historic Site is a few minutes from the course and worth a visit. Beautiful grounds for a stroll if nothing else.

Everyone talks about wine, but there is a fabulous hole in the wall brewery just south of the course (barely into Oregon). Dragon's Gate Brewery is a small operation only open on Fridays and Saturdays. Their Belgian and Farmhouse style ales are amongst the best you will ever taste.

spud3 · March 30

WV is my favorite course in the PNW that doesn’t have “Bandon” in the name.

Wind is a thing there.

In Walla Walla, check out the Yelp reviews for the best taco food cart. You won’t be disappointed

BirdieRoll · March 30

You're in for a treat. Wine Valley is so good. Firm and fast conditions with great green complexes.

Playing it multiple days will make it even more enjoyable because you'll get to putt to different pins each day.

If the wind isn't howling, the course plays shorter than its stated yardage so I suspect you'll like the Merlot combo tees the best.

The one question I do have: did the architect, Dan Hixson, move a lot of dirt to make the course or very little? I ask because the course feels like all the holes were already there.

There are some breweries in the area and the main drag downtown has plenty of wine tasting rooms, restaurants, etc. If you're grilling steaks at the rental one night, then I'd hit up Butcher Butcher for the beef.

kaschreiber · May 31

Got back from our trip last week - 18 at Apple Tree then 54 at Wine Valley.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I found Wine Valley to be fairly underwhelming. I tend to hype things up but the big ticket courses always exceed my expectations - Gamble, Bandon, Pronghorn, etc. but I walked away from Wine Valley wondering what all the fuss was about. The holes seemed to run together for me and didn't seem to really have a ton of variety to me. I can usually walk off a course and tell you what the 13th hole does, but had to stop and think through each hole in my head to recall. There didn't really seem to be anything super definitive. We played the black tees, so it was plenty long, but felt like a lot of layups off the tee or a tee shot that needed to thread a needle (which is fair risk / reward) and then really penal greens and surrounds. If you hit the wrong side of the fairway, you were met with a near impossible approach, but playing to the other side of the fairway just seemed super penal. I also don't love when a course has 4 yards of rough, then knee high grass, even if the fairways are a bit wider than average.

I was hoping for something more linksy where the ground game was more playable, but aside from a few approaches the slopes seemed subtle enough to not use to get close to the hole but large enough to make putting a hell of a challenge. I'd still put it as a top 5 public course in the state (I'd struggle to name two other courses other than Chambers / Gamble ahead of it - it's been quite a while since I've played Palouse) but don't know that I find it that much better than Salish, Gold Mountain, Loomis. It feels like it's not in the same tier as Chambers / Gamble and then course 3-10 could be any number of 12-15 courses throughout the state depending on your preference.

Would I play it again driving through Walla Walla? Probably. Is it something that I'd plan a trip out to again to play like I would Gamble? No.

ThermalDan · July 8

Our annual tourney is returning to Wine Valley this year. Couldn’t be more excited for 4 rounds over 3 days. Actually playing an extra round the day before.

While Chambers has the views and the USGA pedigree and Gamble has views and “I shot my best round ever!”, Wine Valley has good to great golf holes from start to finish. Literally, the 1st and 18th are in the running for best openers and closers! Plus tons of fun stuff throughout.

Smaller greens than Gamble, but much better internal movement. Less side/backboards than Chambers, but more decision making.

If they put in a hotel and rotated wineries through there!

ThermalDan · July 8

On 5/31/2023 at 11:56 AM, kaschreiber said:

Got back from our trip last week - 18 at Apple Tree then 54 at Wine Valley.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I found Wine Valley to be fairly underwhelming. I tend to hype things up but the big ticket courses always exceed my expectations - Gamble, Bandon, Pronghorn, etc. but I walked away from Wine Valley wondering what all the fuss was about. The holes seemed to run together for me and didn't seem to really have a ton of variety to me. I can usually walk off a course and tell you what the 13th hole does, but had to stop and think through each hole in my head to recall. There didn't really seem to be anything super definitive. We played the black tees, so it was plenty long, but felt like a lot of layups off the tee or a tee shot that needed to thread a needle (which is fair risk / reward) and then really penal greens and surrounds. If you hit the wrong side of the fairway, you were met with a near impossible approach, but playing to the other side of the fairway just seemed super penal. I also don't love when a course has 4 yards of rough, then knee high grass, even if the fairways are a bit wider than average.

I was hoping for something more linksy where the ground game was more playable, but aside from a few approaches the slopes seemed subtle enough to not use to get close to the hole but large enough to make putting a hell of a challenge. I'd still put it as a top 5 public course in the state (I'd struggle to name two other courses other than Chambers / Gamble ahead of it - it's been quite a while since I've played Palouse) but don't know that I find it that much better than Salish, Gold Mountain, Loomis. It feels like it's not in the same tier as Chambers / Gamble and then course 3-10 could be any number of 12-15 courses throughout the state depending on your preference.

Would I play it again driving through Walla Walla? Probably. Is it something that I'd plan a trip out to again to play like I would Gamble? No.

For WA rankings:

1-3 (CB, Gamble, Wine) are pretty close, depending on what you look for in a course.

4-6 (Palouse, Gold Mtn, Salish) similar.

7-??? a ton of options

But the gap between 3 and 4 is huge and the gap between 6 and 7 is bigger!

including the privates muddies the waters considerably

kaschreiber · July 11

On 7/7/2023 at 11:10 PM, ThermalDan said:

For WA rankings:

1-3 (CB, Gamble, Wine) are pretty close, depending on what you look for in a course.

4-6 (Palouse, Gold Mtn, Salish) similar.

7-??? a ton of options

But the gap between 3 and 4 is huge and the gap between 6 and 7 is bigger!

including the privates muddies the waters considerably

The each their own - I just consider the gap between 2 (Chambers / Gamble depending on what you like) to 3 (WV) to be a lot larger than that between WV and a lot of the other top tier courses in the state. Give me 10 rounds between Chambers / Gamble / WV and I maybe play 1 at WV, if at all.