DMK serves up ‘different dish’ with Scarecrow course at Gamble Sands

Gamble Sands in Brewster, Washington, will hold a soft opening of a new course in August 2025.

The ‘Scarecrow’ layout will be the third at the resort, joining the original Sands course, which opened for play in 2014, and the 14-hole QuickSands short course, which opened in 2021. All three were designed by DMK Golf Design, headed by David McLay Kidd.

Kidd developed an initial routing for land upon which the Scarecrow course lies in 2015, but that plan didn’t move forward because a power line runs through the property.

“The family weren’t that enthusiastic about going through the pain and cost of moving a major power line,” says Kidd. “So, we built the first course, but we knew that for a future course, there was this great piece of land. Ten years later, the will to move that power line was there and that enabled us to get into creating the second full-length layout.

“It is the resort’s most dynamic piece of land; it’s got more topography to it and perhaps better views of the water than the first course. Many holes look right down the Columbia River Gorge, probably 20 miles down the river. This site might be better than the first!”

Kidd’s design associate Nick Schaan led the Scarecrow project. “Those of us that worked on the first teased the Scarecrow’s crew, saying that they’ll never beat the Sands,” joked Kidd. “They took that like a red rag to a bull. So, even though it’s the same design team, it’s different people and they were highly motivated to kick the butt of the first team.”

Part of the brief from Gamble Sands was to make Scarecrow a different experience to what the resort already had. “Nick and I figured out which parts of the DNA we wanted to transfer from the Sands and which parts we wanted to consciously deviate from. Scarecrow shares some of the same characteristics: wide fairways, fescue grasses everywhere and you’ll be able to roll the ball from a long way out onto the greens. However, the bunker style is quite different, the greens are more contoured, the lines of play are tighter, and the greens are smaller. We’re still in the same type of restaurant; we’re just offering a different dish.

“With the first one being so well loved, we could give ourselves a little more latitude to be a bit more aggressive with the golf course design, so this one might be half a dozen strokes harder.”

When construction was nearing completion, Kidd and Schaan walked the Scarecrow course and compared it with the Sands. “We went hole by hole, and what we concluded was that the front nine on the Sands, which plays along the river, is probably stronger than the front nine on Scarecrow, but the back nine on the new course is potentially the best back nine on the property.

“On the Scarecrow’s front nine, you start inland from the riverfront and you’re completing it on the par-three ninth with probably the biggest view on the golf course. This infinity par three looks down 20 miles of the Columbia River Gorge. I mean, it is just breathtaking.

“And then the back nine begins along gulches and the river’s edge, with a lot of drama, a lot of heroic shots, before really building towards a big crescendo.”

The tenth hole also has a 20-mile view down the river, all the way towards the town of Pateros. “On the Sands, the river is on an oblique angle – you don’t get to see all the way down the river,” said Kidd. “That is very different on Scarecrow.”

Another aspect that separates the courses is the topography. “The fourteenth green has a very steep slope that doesn’t exist on the Sands,” said Kidd. “The original course is on a much softer piece of land; there aren’t any holes that are significantly uphill or downhill. But on Scarecrow, there is significant elevation change; the fifth hole is 40 feet uphill, the tenth is around 40 feet downhill.”

Kidd is optimistic for the future at Gamble Sands. “I think the Sands is the best fescue golf course in North America,” he said. “The climate here is just so perfect for fescue – it is very dry, and they have very hot summers. For Americans that want to experience links golf, Gamble Sands is the only place that you can play 100 per cent fescue and you can really chase, run, bounce and get the ball to do what it will do on a summer’s day on a links course in Scotland.

“Gamble Sands has a two-acre putting green, a 25-acre short course and now a second course. I think, a bit like the Bandon Dunes model, if the second course and additional rooms fill up, then I would not be surprised if, in a few short years, the family think, let’s go again.”

Richard HumphreysRichard Humphreys

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