Playing A Round: The Golf Club At Echo Falls–Snohomish, WA

I’m changing up from my usual Friday Budget Beater this week in favor of getting in a quick nine holes. I love sneaking in a round when I can, but it doesn’t happen that the weather lines up with some time off, but it just happened to today. It’s always fun to get in a quick nine after work, or maybe on a lazy afternoon, but getting a quick nine and shooting well is even better. Yesterday I was lucky enough to have both happen to me in a great round at The Golf Club At Echo Falls. While the course was definitely in winter play conditions after the record rainfall we had in October, besides the wet fairways and mucky rough, the course has actually held up rather well. I would say a few weeks of dry weather and it will be back in top shape in no time at all. All things considered, for a quick afternoon sneak in, this round played out about as well as I could have hoped. In my two hour afternoon break, I was able to sneak in an even par 36 on the tough front side at Echo Falls.



The first hole started out with a great 263 yard drive, that drew into the left center of the fairway. It probably would have been much worse off, but the wet fairway held the ball and didn’t allow it to roll down the slope into the rough. A 51 yard lob wedge found the front of the green and a two putt from 30 feet landed me a par on the first hole. The par 4 second is a short, but uphill hole that only measures 265 yards from the white tees. With the hill though, the hole plays much longer. In fact, my solid drive up the hill only made it 221 yards, leaving me a 41 yard lob wedge to the green. I misjudged the distance off the hill to the green and left my self a 45 footer for birdie. Another 2 putt let me escape even par after two. Ah, now to the third hole, the hardest easy hole that I have ever played. This hole is short, measuring only 258 from the white tees. The problem with this hole is that there is a ton of trouble on it. From the water that runs the right side to the trees that line the left, there’s not much room for error. Then you finally find the green which has enough hardened bunkers around it to scare off most folks. Well, my drive was about as good as possible, finding the front center bunker on the green. A quick shot out with my lob wedge and another two putt and I was off to the 4th, still even.



The fourth is another one of those sneaky holes that requires more targeting than distance. As you hit your drive down the fairway, there’s not much in the way of trouble. A left center drive is best, but going right won’t penalize you much. My drive drifted to the right side of the fairway and came up much shorter than I expected, coming in at only 234 yards. I had a possible shot into the green with a 3 iron, but when I struck the ball, it pushed down into the soft fairway and only travelled 153 yards. Again, a 61 yard lob wedge played into the green where a 2 putt left me an easy par. I’m just going to go on record right now as saying that I don’t like the fifth hole. This annoying little par 3 only plays 160 yards, but it seems to be the hardest hole on the planet for me to play. Once again, it played tough for me today. My 7 iron off the tee drifted right and ended up almost closer to the 13th green than the 5th. A great lob wedge over to the green left me a 5 foot putt for par and another hole of even golf. On the long, downhill sixth hole, my drive found the center of the fairway and actually rolled out to 277 yards. It was definitely the most solid strike of the day. I took my gap wedge from there to lay up as the landing area near the green was very tight and if one went left on a day like this, the ball would be lost forever in the soft rough. My layup landed almost where I wanted it, but was actually a bit close for what I was trying. A 61 yard lob wedge found the front edge of the green, but left me a 57 foot putt. Fortunately, my putter was still hot and I ran the 57 footer to a few feet away and tapped in for par. This left me even par after 6.



I stepped up to the final three holes feeling pretty confident about the nine. Drives were going well, irons weren’t bad given the conditions and my putting was strong. It was obvious to me that I needed to work on my mid wedges a bit, but overall, for a wet November round, my game was about as on as it could be. The par 3 seventh drove me insane. Again, an easy shot to a large landing area should make for an easy hole. What it ended up being was an 8 iron into the side bunker, then a brilliant sand shot and one putt for par. That’s just the kind of day it had been. The slightly up hill eighth hole left me feeling a bit strange off the tee, so I thought I would try something new and hit a 4 iron off of it to see what it would do. Of course, trying to get stats on it let me over swing a touch, which caused me to fan the shot right and lose a ton of distance. I tried to hit it again on the next shot, but hitting it out of the rough was more like hitting it out of a puddle today. Needless to say, I was 60 yards out on my third shot. I popped another lob wedge close and somehow drained the 35 foot putt (I’m still not sure how it went it, but it did) and made yet another par. The ninth hole was set up perfectly for my driver swing today, even though I didn’t need that much distance from the white tees. A slight draw, just to the right of the big tree in the center of the image above would be a perfect shot. What ended up happening is a 295 yard drive that found its way past the tree and in a perfect line to the green. A 58 yard lob wedge and a 2 putt from 57 feet and the round was done and I had finished at even par.

If I were to take anything away from this round, it’s that I need to work on those shorter irons and really put some effort into my sub 60 yard wedge game. Other than that, continuing to work on my putting and getting used to the F5 driver will be the big areas of focus over the winter. I will be sneaking in as many rounds as the weather allows at Echo Falls over the next few months. The course is close enough for me to sneak in 9 after an early day at work and also that if the weather is good enough to get in a round that I can do that without much planning. I’ll be continuing my drive to becoming a scratch handicap next spring, hopefully, with quite a bit of practice over the winter. Let’s just hope it’s not as wet as the record setting October we just had!