The second in a series of meetings on the proposed West Seattle Golf Course Driving Range was far better attended than the first and saw a lot more emotion. This meeting, intended to reflect issues already raised by the Seattle Golf Master Plan and in the August meeting on the issue, also was meant to solicit opinions from golfers. They got them and a majority of the golfers present were not happy.

YOU CAN SEE A LARGE VERSION OF THE PLAN THAT WAS PRESENTED BY DOWNLOADING THE FILE AT THE LINK ABOVE.

The second iteration of the plan moves the proposed double decker range away from the Master Plan suggestion near 35th Ave. s.w. (which is where the former range was located until it was removed in the early 1980's) and places is much farther east, actually on to the existing course.

That's what drew vocal complaints about "desecrating our golf course." from at least one person present and "if you do this you're going to have a revolt," from another.

The primary change would be a shortening of the current par 5, 9th hole by some 200 yards, making it a par 4 hole but as Schoedoer put it, making the hole much more of a "risk/reward golf hole," than the present one.

For many, the Chandler Egan designed course is something you cannot change. Egan was a well known course designer who also designed the famous Pebble Beach course near Carmel, California.

Garrett Farrell, Project Director began the meeting by advising that again, this project is in the proposal stage and that feedback from the public was part of the process. He introduced Todd Schoeder of icon Golf, a golf architect on the design team who spoke about the changes in this version.

Why move it down? "You won't have to deal with the wetland system, you won't have to deal with the impact to the Camp Long trails," Schoeder said. The new proposal also solves the problem of view impact for local residents since the range would be on a much lower "step" of the hillside. Nets to keep balls on the range would have extended some 90 feet from the ground in the original concept. This version would have them be at most 10 feet over the lowest viewpoint where you "might catch a glimpse of them," Schoeder said.
Most importantly it results in a budget savings of almost half of the total funds allotted ($2.5 million) since the other location means building walls to both reinforce and retain the hillside directly adjacent to 35th s.w.

Along the way to this proposal Schoeder explained that, "We looked at a variety of areas. We looked 17 and 18, would the driving range fit over here?(...) We finally settled on the idea that we have a fairly, relatively flat area between the first and ninth hole right here on the West Seattle Golf Course. It just happens to be an area that has good proximation to the existing Clubhouse and good synergy if we create a driving range structure." The structure would have 50 stalls on two levels, "which we need to have to meet the revenue projections ."

Those projections are part of the Master Plan which includes golf course renovation and upgrades for courses around the city over the next few years. Golf as a subset of City of Seattle Parks and Recreation makes money, yielding enough revenue to fund close to 4% of the Parks budget annually.

It's not possible to make the range smaller since that would not meet the revenue projections Schoeder explained. It's the same size as the range at Jefferson Park although a bit more narrow at the southern end. "Quite frankly this is a narrow range anyway," said Schoeder. He indicated that the range at Interbay is much wider.

"We've created an experience here that lets you hit every club in the bag, yes it's 250 yards long, 280 feet wide at the structure, 180 feet wide at the end which which will allow 90% of golfers to hit every club in their bag. It has nets on all three sides." The nets on the east and south side are for safety reasons and on the west side for operational reasons, keeping balls from going in the woods.

One benefit of the newest proposal is that because of the terrain it will feel like you are playing on a real golf course. "It has undulation and terrain and the plan calls for it to be natural grass not artificial turf," said Schoeder.

He added, "if you don't know, the game of golf is suffering right now. We have to start again at the grassroots level to build it back up."

One aspect of the current plan not yet determined is how to get golfers from the new end of the ninth hole to the tenth hole tees. It's a safety issue since they would have to walk next to the range. One way to solve this might be to shorten the first hole by some 30 yards, making it a par 4 hole (instead of the current par 5) at 464 yards. The combined changes result in the course being a par 70.

"Is it the final plan?" asked Schoeder,"By no means is it the final plan, we're still looking for ideas."

Some three hours prior to the public meeting they sought some of those ideas from the West Seattle Men's Golf Club.

Bob Chamberlain, their President speaking for many golfers there said, "We have 700 members(...) This really changes the course in ways we never anticipated.(...) I don't think the site that they wanted was ever going to work in this day and age with new technology (...) The golf balls go farther so it's not going to work up that hill there and there's been a number of talks about trying to put it down below but when you do that you change the golf course in not just a small way but in a big way. So we don't want it there if it's going to do that. We'd rather have something else. I don't know what will come of this. I think there's a way to have a smaller practice facility that is working on your short game or that is indoors and you're hitting into a net and using cameras."

Chamberlain believes that an electronic/technological solution like this would in fact be revenue positive and Schoeder later acknowledged that while it's not the first preference, the team is open to looking at that kind of idea. Chamberlain added that, "You allow the pros here to have more lessons to teach people, you allow the opportunity to have a First Tee organization here because we could bring kids out and get them somewhere to teach them, and get them introduced to the game. It is not ideal. It is not a full driving range." Still he had praise for the design team saying, " They've done a fine job but they are trying to solve a problem that is almost impossible, given the constraints."

Bob Kleckner on the Board of Directors for the Men's Club, who plays more than 90 rounds of golf a year at the course said, "I don't have opposition to any kind of change. I do have opposition to changing these two holes. I think they are integral to architect Chandler Egan's design(...) Changing those two holes would dramatically change the character of the course."

Some members doubted the revenue projection of $400,000 annually meaning the project would pay for itself in approximately nine years.
The question was asked about whether or not a scaled back proposal would still fit with the Master Plan projections. Farrell and Paul Wilkinson, Director of Golf Operations for the City of Seattle said it was unclear at this time.

The proposed range would operate longer hours than the course since it would have lighting, though non obtrusive since it would be whatis called "down lighting", and let golfers practice well beyond daylight hours.

Another meeting will likely ensue in the next thirty to forty five days. While the opposition to the proposal at this stage was both outspoken and pointed Robert Thorpe of R.W. Thorpe and Associates said, "I think we'll be able to find some kind of compromise."