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BREWSTER, Wa. - Pulling up to the 16th tee of the not-yet-open Scarecrow - a brand-new golf course coming soon to Gamble Sands - I'm immediately terrified at what I see on a stunning par 3: a 190-yard+ carry over a sandy chasm.
It's a good thing I'm playing a preview round with the course architect as a guide. Nick Schaan, who took the lead on creating Scarecrow for David McLay Kidd's DMK Golf Design, pointed at a new target 30 yards left of the green.
"See that bunker? Aim at that. If you hit it over there, it will all funnel down onto the green," he said.
I was dumbfounded: Over there? Even if I didn't pull off the shot, I was blown away by the architectural vision. The carry was much more manageable in that direction, about 170 yards or so.
Scarecrow is loaded with hidden trap doors and secret strategies like this. Playing it is like lining up the colors of a Rubik's Cube. There are so many combinations that can solve the puzzle.
The course, scheduled to open in August 2025, represents the future of Gamble Sands. Adding a second really cool golf 18-holer to the original Top-100-public Gamble Sands course, plus DMK's fantastic 14-hole QuickSands short course, finally puts this resort on the map for the national golf traveler. For a decade, Gamble Sands has been mainly a drive-in destination for golfers from Portland, Seattle and Idaho due to the difficulty of getting here. Adding Scarecrow and more accommodations next June feels like the bar mitzvah of Gamble Sands - Washington state's best golf resort has finally come of age. The four-hour drive from Seattle or two-hour drive from Spokane (or 70 minutes from the Wenatchee airport) will be well worth it to play two of the finest fescue golf courses in America.
"When people ask me, 'Why Gamble Sands?', my answer is always, when you are comparing it to Bandon Dunes or Sand Valley, is you have the most reliable weather all summer long," McLay Kidd said. "It doesn’t rain. It’s super dry. It could be 70 (degrees) or it could be 100 (degrees) but chances are, there are no thunderstorms, it’s not muggy, there’s not a bunch of bugs. It’s got beautiful weather, a dry heat, all year long."
What to expect from Scarecrow
When McLay Kidd first visited the property in central Washington overlooking the Columbia River somewhere around 2008, he really wanted to use the Scarecrow tract for his first course. The problem? A massive set of power lines ran through the corn fields (hence the Scarecrow name).
"We came to this side of the giant gulch that was here and knew that it was better land - better used, more topography, better dunes on the start and finish - but the power lines were expensive to move," he recalled. "It took a decade or more where this was a success where they (the owners) were like ‘Okay, this is worth spending the money.’"
To ensure the two courses were "siblings, not twins", McLay Kidd handed the keys to Schaan, who, for the first time in his career, was in charge of editing someone else's work. "You can’t beat the first one," he teased Schaan's shaping team.
The hardest part was figuring out where to start and end the routing - it's a long cart ride back to the pro shop from both - and how to perfect the best spot on property, a point overlooking the river that could only fit a green and some tees 155 yards away.
The solution was to put the 11th tees just to the left of the 10th green, the end of a demanding but scenic par 4. After playing the par 3, golfers double back to return to the 12th tees also near the 10th green to take on the short but intimidating par-5 12th that boomerangs around that dangerous gulch.
The back nine continues building momentum to the point where McLay Kidd admits it's probably the superior loop at Gamble Sands. Scarecrow ends on a potentially drivable par 4, the second of the day. If the wind's at your back, it's bombs away.
"The first golf course has peek-a-boo views down across the biggest of the water. No. 2 is the postcard," McLay Kidd said. "The new course sees that (view) everywhere all the time. It has the chance to be the Pacific Dunes of this one’s Bandon Dunes, which really disappoints me.”
The comment drew laughter from the media gathered for a weekend of preview play in October. But the concern is valid: Scarecrow could definitely usurp the Sands course as the consensus top public course in Washington state. It's that good.
When you're in doubt about where to hit your approach, the best decision is always to land it short and look for the contours that will feed the ball into the green. Golf is most fun when it's played from the ground up.
"The way the travel schedules are coming here, (most groups) will probably play three times," Schaan said. "When they are deciding where to play twice, we want there to be a debate. It shouldn’t be automatic."
What it's like to stay at Gamble Sands
Gamble Sands was, as the name implies, a definite gamble for its owners, the Gebbers family, who are farmers, not developers. They have been thoughtful stewards of the resort's growth.
Expansion has come steady and sure, like the roots of the apple trees they grow. Gamble Sands now has a campus of buildings, restaurants and golf holes to impress even the most jaded of golf travelers.
The Inn at Gamble Sands overlooks the river and one of golf's coolest greens, the Cascade Putting Course. The new accommodations will be double king rooms with a mini fridge located on Scarecrow. They're designed to host buddies trips.
QuickSands, a short course McLay Kidd and Schaan built during the pandemic, sits in a bowl below the pro shop. Don't miss it. In the span of a couple of hours, I witnessed two aces from two different groups playing with at least six golfers. The 14 holes range from 60 to 160 yards.
Golfers can find food in The Barn, a casual hangout serving breakfast, burgers, pizza and salads, or Danny Boy, which offers a bigger menu of steaks, seafood, pasta and more.
Fire pits and a soaking pool give golfers other hangout spots to unwind. Come 2025, it's easy to predict a brighter future for Gamble Sands. Could that future include more golf down the road? Gamble Sands has already beaten the odds once. Who's to say it can't happen again?
"We haven’t had much discussion about that," said Tory Wulf, the project manager at Gamble Sands. "You know, this one took 10 years. The (Gebbers) family is very measured in what they do. They are long-term thinkers. This has been a very big step for them, getting a second course, honestly. We will see where that takes us. Nothing is impossible."
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