Sahalee Country Club in Washington recently updated its three nine-hole layouts, primarily reshaping and strategically moving bunkers on the host course for the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Sahalee’s South and North nines combine to tie for No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in Washington. Located 30 minutes east of Seattle, the course also ties for No. 168 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S.
The work was completed by Landscapes Unlimited, a golf course development, construction and renovation company. The renovations were the first phase of a master plan developed by Rees Jones, Inc. The tree-lined courses originally were designed by Ted Robinson and opened in 1969, and they were renovated by Rees Jones from 1996 to 1998.
Landscapes Unlimited changed the sizes, shapes, locations and depths of bunkers. New drainage and modern liners were added along with new sand to improve maintenance and provide a longer life span.
“Sahalee is a Pacific Northwest treasure,” Jake Riekstins, chief development officer of Landscapes Unlimited, said in a media release announcing the completion of the job. “Any time there’s an opportunity to smartly add modern infrastructure to a storied golf course while achieving a golden age style, the results are ‘wow’ experiences for different generations.”
The course also was home to the 1998 PGA Championship won by Vijay Singh, as well as the 2002 WGC-NEC Invitational (Craig Parry), the 2010 U.S. Senior Open (Bernhard Langer), the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (Brooke Henderson) and the Sahalee Players Championship.
