Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. That’s fine, laugh a little. I know I did. Starting from the beginning of this tale takes me back a few weeks to when we thought it would be a good idea to play Snohomish after our last round at Riverbend. I had heard that Snohomish is a challenging course with some length and some target shooting. That was mostly correct, but what nobody covered was the hills… Oh the hills that I would face on that course. It seemed as if every hole on the course was cut to either head up 50 to 100 feet or down 50 to 100 feet. Some holes even did both on the same fairway. I had to admit that I was hopeful as we teed off just before first light, but that hope all but ended after the first tee shot. But enough doom and gloom, let’s talk about layout at Snohomish and a bit more about the course.
Snohomish Golf Course is located about 35 minutes from Everett, or about 20 minutes from Monroe, high in the hills above Highway 2. The course features 4 different tees that come in the form of copper tees that measure 5325 yards (65.5/114), silver tees that come in at 5691 (67.2/118), the gold tees that push out further to 6325 (70.0/123) and finally the somewhat insane black layout that just destroys you at 6813 (72.5/125). While these yardages don’t seem to extreme, when you combine them with the doglegs
Starting out, I fired a dead left pull on into the trees on the first hole. The 524 yard par 5 shoot uphill about 50 feet from the tee boxes and has enough length to make it a very difficult hole when you only it 135 yards off the tee. Seeing the remaining yardage going in, I hit a solid 5 iron up the hill leaving me about 210 into the green. My 3 iron came off nicely, but landed just left of the green where I pitched it on to the green and two putted for a bogey. The second hole was a hard dogleg left, where instead of following my original plan, I laid back like our playing partner suggested – which laid me back into the trees at the end of the dogleg. A 222 yard 3 iron found the trees at the end of the corner, but another punch out 3 iron saved me by landing in the greenside bunker, A decent sand shot left me about 25 feet for par, which I just missed and tapped in for another bogey. The par 4 third the crest in the middle of the fairway made this 433 yard hole play much more like 470. It wasn’t a big hill, but it was just enough to make the ball not want to roll up it. Still, a solid drive, a good 6 iron in and a short chip shot left me an easy 1 putt for par. After three holes, I was sitting at 2 over.
Moving on around the front side, the 377 yard par 4 fourth hole was another uphill monster that climbed 50+ feet from the tee box. A solid drive up the right side left me a 9 iron in to the green. Somehow, it decided to jump off the face and fly the green by 30 yards. A pitch back and a two putt left me with another bogey. Next up was the 192 yard par 3 fifth. Again another 50 feet in elevation change that made this difficult par 3 even tougher. My 6 iron into this green faded slightly and left me a bit of a pitch on, which again left me a tough two putt bogey, but it was a bogey on a tough hole so I was happy to escape with it. The 6th hole is where we gained back some of the climb, with a 50 foot drop from the tee boxes to the fairway. a 298 yard booming drive left me a nice 125 yard sand wedge to the green for an easy 2 putt par. That left me at 4 over after 6 holes.
So that leads to the behemoth 7th hole. This 527 yard par 5 plays 50 feet uphill, and 25 feet uphill from the drive to the landing area. It was so uphill, my ‘crushed’ drive only made it 235 yards out into the fairway. A solid 3 wood left me 80 yards in where a lob wedge flew the green. A pitch back on, followed by a lucky two putt for a bogey. From there the front nine settled back down for me. with a great 3 iron and chip on the 244 yard par 3 eighth and a 3 iron, sand wedge, 2 putt par on the 9th. The front side saw me bring in a 5 over 41, or about 3 shots off of where I should have been. The stats weren’t pretty on the front side as I only hit 4 fairways and 2 greens.
The par 5 tenth hole was another prime driving hole, but unfortunately, my tee shot started left and stayed there. The pulls were definitely an issue today and the tenth was no exception. Fortunately, a punch out, to the middle left me a solid 5 iron into the green. A pitch across the green, and another chip back on left me a single putt for bogey. Not a great start to the back on a hole that should have been in my wheel house. All feelings of terrible-round-itus were removed on the par 3 eleventh. A solid 7 iron found the right side of this uphill par 3 right before a two putt par fell into the hole. The twelfth hole was a simple par 4 that set up for a perfect 260 yard drive down the middle and a solid pitching wedge into the green. From there, a two putt from 50 feet was all I needed. That took me to 6 over after 12.
My lone birdie of the day came at the par 3 thirteenth. a beautiful, fading pitching wedge landed about 5 feet from the hole for a tap in birdie. It was the first hole of the day that actually played like I had written it up, but that was ok. On the par 4 fourteenth, tragedy struck my new FG 100’s. My drive was pulled left on to the cart path. I took relief on to a side hill lie and proceeded to hit a layup shot on the long par 4. As I contacted the ball, I saw a spark and felt a jolt. My 8 iron had be gouged on the bottom. It’s bound to happen, but I was hoping to make it more than a month and a few rounds before it did. Maybe if someone from Wilson reads this, they can do me a solid and find me a new 8 iron head to swap out – doesn’t hurt to ask, right? After recovering from that, and a perfect lob wedge to the green, I drained the 1 putt par to somehow save that hole from being a disaster. That took me to 15, where I proceeded to play ping pong down the hole. My 3 iron went right off the tee, then my punch went back through the fairway to the left. A gap wedge caught the tree back to the green leaving me a lob wedge pitch from 20 yards away. A 2 putt left me with a double bogey on the hole and let me escape at 7 over after 15.
The 16th was the last of the highlight reel of the round. A perfect drive found the center of the fairway. A nice 6 iron settled on to the green where a 2 putt par finished the hole. From there, the 17th featured a pull off the tee, a 6 iron through the trees that was knocked down by a tree limb and a lob wedge pitch to the green. 2 putts later, I carded a bogey and made my way to the long 18th hole. The 541 yard 18th again should have played right into my wheel house. My 254 yard drive found the middle of the fairway, though it should have been farther based on the strike. Again, another uphill hole left me with 270 yards in. I pushed a three wood to the right and it came up about 115 yards short and on the green of the hole next to it. I pushed forward with a sand wedge that just caught the trees and fell 40 yards short of the green. A pitch out of the trees left me with one last two putt to finish the round at 9 over par. The 81 was far from a good score, but to be honest, the way I played, it should have (and probably was) much worse.
Overall, Snohomish was a great course to get out on. It was much more hilly than expected and I would have opted for the Gold tees if I were to play there again. The black tees were a great challenge, but without knowing the layout, the hills made up for the distance increase. For example, Riverbend clocks in at 6300 yards for their blue tees that I usually shoot 75 from. The 6700 yard black layout has netted me an 80 and an 81 so far this year. I was right on pace with that this round, so I should consider it a success. I guess next time I play a course for the first time, I should probably take a look at the elevation changes along with the yardages. This one was definitely a course that I should have moved up a set of boxes for on the first go round.
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