White Horse Golf Club

BY BOB SHERWIN • CG WRITER

It has been more than 35 years since Bob Screen, a wealthy businessman from Bainbridge Island, walked around 440 wooded acres in Kingston, Wash., with the notion of carving out a parcel where his daughter, a competitive showjumper, could train and board her horses. He was dissuaded from doing so, however, by the man he invited to walk with him that day. Screen’s fellow-ambler told him it was not the optimum use of the property and advised him the land could provide so much more. “Don’t put a horse pasture here,” he said. “You have the makings of a great golf course.”

Screen sensed the fellow, a native Norwegian named Karsten, knew what he was talking about. And with good reason. Karsten Solheim, who grew up in Ballard and attended the University of Washington before the Great Depression, founded Karsten Manufacturing which would create its first Ping golf club in 1959. Solheim obviously knew golf, and Screen found him at the Suquamish eatery -- Karsten’s Fine Dining Restaurant – that his sister Elaine managed.

Solheim’s advice was crucial. Screen, who had initially been interested in only about 20 acres, changed his mindset, and decided to purchase the entire North Kitsap property. A year or so later, in 1991, he requested permits for building the course – a move that set off 15 years of courtroom battles with environmentalists and fisheries. Screen would win the legal war and, in June 2007, he finally opened White Horse Golf Club.

As it turned out, however, neither Screen nor Solheim would be around to see White Horse in full bloom. Solheim, who had no stake in the development, had passed away in 2000, and Screen, financially depleted following the legal scrimmages, could barely find the money to staff, fertilize, sand or aerate the course which needed to borrow equipment in order to complete even the most minimal maintenance.

“There were times when you didn’t know if the key would still fit in the door,” says Bruce Christy, White Horse’s longtime Director of Operations who had overseen the City of Everett’s golf courses before Screen hired him in 2006.

Inevitably, in 2009, just two years after the course had opened, the bank foreclosed on Screen who owed $5 million and lost the dream he had worked so hard to create. It would only get worse though as the bank, American Marine, was dissolved. In January 2010 it ended up being taken over by Columbia State Bank. The responsibility for maintaining the golf course property was given to golf management firm, Touchstone Golf LLC.

It was at this point that Port Madison Enterprises, the business arm of the Suquamish Tribe, took over. The Tribe, which viewed the course as a potential amenity for guests of its Clearwater Casino Resort, purchased the property in March 2010 and pumped millions into improving the course which sits on the Tribe’s ancestral homeland.

“Golfers get used to a lot of noise, cars, traffic, homes, airports, trains,” Christy says. “So it’s very refreshing to play a course that winds its way through the Northwest scenery. It’s quiet and peaceful here. Only three holes have actual homes on them and the Tribe is keen to keep it at that number. They want it to retain its pristine, parklike setting forever.”

Maintaining the beauty was one thing, improving the actual golf course quite another, however. For many, Cynthia Dye-McGarey’s original design had always been just a little too much to handle. Pete Dye’s niece, Dye-McGarey had built a fine course that Golf Digest had named ‘Best New Course of the Year’ (Dye-McGarey was the first woman to build a course so honored), but it didn’t play well for most golfers.

Waist high fescue close to the greens and cart paths, a lack of bail-out areas, small and uneven landing areas, rock-hard greens and 156 bunkers added up to a test too tough for most. Low-handicappers loved it, but most high-handicappers found it taxing and frustrating and rarely returned — not good for business.

Tacoma’s John Harbottle was hired to soften the course in 2012 and spent $700,000 removing about 200 trees and over 90 bunkers (leaving only 62), cutting back the fescue and adding a new, shorter set of tees. Tragically, Harbottle died just weeks after completing his work on the course which, last summer, was voted seventh best in the state by Cascade Golfer readers.

The Tribe also committed to a clubhouse upgrade, removing the former double-wide trailer, and replacing it with something altogether more comfortable, functional, and impressive. “The Tribe wanted nothing but the best,” says Christy. “They put a lot of effort into the design of the building.”

Christy took Tribal committee members to various Northwest courses — Salish Cliffs, Coeur d’Alene, Circling Raven and Suncadia — to compare clubhouses. “They settled for something like Suncadia has,” he says. “They’re very happy about it. It’s a Northwest design that looks like it’s been here for years.”

Its most popular feature is the wide and inviting outside patio, with fireplaces, overlooking the 18th green.

“White Horse was the best kept secret for a while which is fine if you’re a private course but not so much for a public course as being a secret doesn’t pay the bills,’’ Christy says. “We had to make sure we got people over here, that they enjoyed the experience and wanted to come back.”

The course, about a five-minute drive from the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry dock, is not as accessible as many so the Tribe made a big effort to get the word out with improved funding for advertising and promotion. More tournaments and events have been scheduled in recent years. The USGA Women’s Senior Championships has been played at White Horse twice and both times competitors have raved about the layout and its level of condition. “It took time for people to realize what an amazing golf course it was,” says Christy.

Unfortunately, that awakening to the delights of White Horse coincided with the onset of COVID, which obviously set the course’s continued revival back a bit. Thankfully though, the Tribe was well-prepared for the moment Governor Jay Inslee gave golfers the all-clear to return to the course.

“The Tribe was way out in front,” says Christy, “and players of all ages and skill levels, first-timers and familiar faces, showed up in droves. It was like drinking from a fire hose every day. We’ve had two of the busiest years the facility has ever seen, most rounds and revenue.”

Christy says that, between the new clubhouse and course revision, White Horse has become more profitable and sustainable. Golfers came back to give it a second chance and loved it. “We were on a razor’s edge for a while but it’s very different now. We’re very happy with what the Tribe provided. Their vision was for a premier facility, and I think they got it. They have completed Bob Screen’s vision.”