New Palouse course earns its stripes

PULLMAN – Bruce Perisho, the general manager of Palouse Ridge Golf Club, heard plenty of complimentary comments about his course this week during the Washington State Golf Association Men’s Amateur Championship.

But none struck home as deeply as the e-mail Perisho and several members of his staff received from a competitor who went home early after missing the 36-hole cut on Wednesday but still proclaimed the par-72, 7,308-yard layout that serves the home course for Washington State University “one of the best courses,” he has played.

“That means a lot,” Perisho said. “The guys that play well always say great things about the course. But this guy missed the cut and still enjoyed it.”

And he wasn’t the only one.

“All the players loved the course,” Perisho said of the John Harbottle-designed layout that opened to rave reviews last fall. “You want a championship course like this to hold up well and test the best players, and ours did exactly that the last four days.”

Tyler Johnsen, the WSGA’s manager of rules and competition, also praised the Palouse Ridge layout.

“This is the perfect course for our championship,” he said. “It rewards good shots and punishes poor ones. It was a great challenge, which is obvious by the winning score (of 4 under par), which is pretty high by our standards.”

The course was set up in a dastardly manner for Friday’s final round. The fairways were dry, the greens hard – but smooth – and most of the pin placements downright nasty. But Austin Hurt, a senior-to-be at Washington State University, who took advantage of his familiarity with the Cougars’ home course to fire a course-record 65 that gave him the title, didn’t seem to mind.

“It was great setup,” he said. “During the practice rounds, everybody was coming off the course saying, ‘This is going to be the hardest course ever. The wind is ridiculous, and the holes are ridiculously long.’ Everybody was complaining, but it was a great challenge – which it should be.”

Even third-round leader Derek Berg, who took a nasty triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 eighth hole, couldn’t find much to dislike about Palouse Ridge, outside of the dramatic elevation changes.

“The greens were great, and greens make a golf course,” he said, after posting a final-round 75 that left him tied with Drew Reinland, a stroke behind Hurt. “They could have been a little quicker, but they were smooth, which is the best thing. You get a putt on line and it’s going to go in.

“Personally, I’m not a big fan of all that up-and-down out there. But for the average golfer it’s great, because they love to look at the views and all of that. There’s certainly nothing hokey about the course. I can see even a regional (NCAA) tournament being held here, no problem. It’s got the length, it’s got the toughness, and – when the wind is blowing – there’s a lot of stuff that can happen.

“It’s a great golf course.”

But on this week, it was a golf course dominated by golfers who know it best.

Four of the top 15 finishers – Hurt, Kevin Tucker, Nick Ellis and Xavier Dailly – were on WSU’s roster this spring.

Cougars coach Walt Williams, who is expected to give up his dual role as both the men’s and women’s coach next fall to devote his full attention to the men’s program, felt the advantage his players had in knowing the course was huge.

And he wasn’t the least surprised by the way Hurt bounced back from an opening-round 81 to claim the championship.

“I’ve been with him when he’s had an erratic round like that before,” Williams said. “He’s emotional, and he gets a little hot sometimes and makes a big number here or there. But he’s a phenomenal talent, and he can make birdie on any hole anywhere.

“After that first round, I told him there’s not a golf course in the country he can’t shoot 65 on, and he showed that today by coming back and really lighting it up.”

The course, according to Perisho, was ready for this kind of event, despite its infancy.

“And the community was ready for it, as well,” he said. “We had great support, and we filled up all the hotels in Pullman for three or four nights. That’s one of the things we’re after, is to be an economic engine for the area and bring things to Pullman and hope our local businesses thrive as well.”