WSGA & PNGA Purchase Golf Course from Weyerhaeuser

The Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) and Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA) have announced that the golf associations completed their acquisition of a new golf facility in Dupont, Wash., from the Weyerhaeuser Company.

The newly constructed course will be named "The Home Course." Slated to open for public play on Friday, June 29, it features five sets of tees ranging from the forward tees at 5,506 yards, the middle tees at 6,139 yards, and the tips at 7,437 yards.

The walkable golf course was built by Weyerhaeuser with state-of-the-art-drainage technology to be playable year round. The site offers panoramic views of Puget Sound, the Olympics and Mount Rainier. Green fee rates will be in the $35-$45 range during the peak summer season. Tee-time reservations will be accepted beginning at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, June 6, by calling toll-free 866/964-0520 or 253/964-0520.

"This is the realization of a long-standing dream of our two associations," said WSGA and PNGA executive director, John Bodenhamer. "The WSGA and PNGA have worked cooperatively for almost two decades to create a permanent home for golf in the Northwest and we are thrilled it is now a reality. We shall be forever grateful to the Weyerhaeuser Company for providing us with the opportunity to develop our vision at this historic and remarkable property."

The Home Course will eventually contain the offices of the WSGA, PNGA, and USGA activities in the Northwest, as well as other allied golf associations. It will be a home for junior golf programs, environmental stewardship and turfgrass research. Each year, The Home Course will serve as the venue for some WSGA and PNGA championships and USGA national championship sectional qualifiers.

The course was designed by architect Mike Asmundson of Port Townsend, Wash. Asmundson, a graduate of the University of Washington, has constructed numerous courses in the desert Southwest and in South America. He also owns Discovery Bay Golf Course in Port Townsend.

The property on which The Home Course is located enjoys a long and rich history. Several Native-American tribes, known collectively as the Salish people, inhabited the area for thousands of years. More specifically, it was a center of commerce for the Nisqually Tribe. The first European settlement began in 1833 when the Hudson's Bay Company established a cabin/storehouse called Nisqually House, at the mouth of the Sequalitchew Creek.

Fort Nisqually, a main trading and supply center for early U.S. settlers and local Native Americans, was built by the Hudson Bay Company in 1833. The original 1833 site of the old fort has been preserved today next to the first green of The Home Course. In 1843, the fort was relocated to a site adjacent to what is now Center Drive, which runs through the heart of the City of Dupont. A re-creation of the old fort now exists at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma.

The PNGA's initial historical research has indicated that the Hudson's Bay Company traders laid out a crude six-hole layout around the old fort. If validated, that basic layout built in the 1830s may represent the very first golf course in the Northwest - and perhaps even North America.

In 1906, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company (today's DuPont Company) acquired the property and constructed a plant that manufactured explosives. The facility was important to development of the West. Its black powder and dynamite were used to clear stumps for the railroad's western expansion and to provide space for farms in the region. Production of explosives continued until the late-1970s, when the property was acquired by Weyerhaeuser as part of a larger plan for industrial development in the DuPont area south of Tacoma.

Weyerhaeuser and DuPont initiated clean-up discussions with the Washington State Department of Ecology in 1991, and soon thereafter agreed to remove of the old explosives plant. The success of those efforts is attributed largely to partnerships the companies forged with the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historical Preservation, the Nisqually Tribe, the City of DuPont, the DuPont Historical Society and other stakeholders. Constructing a golf course was part of the environmental remediation process, which concluded last year.

For more information about the WSGA and PNGA, visit their respective websites at www.thewsga.org or www.thepnga.org, or call the Northwest Golf House at 800/643-6410 or 206/526-1238.