Golf courses, like children, grow up in wonderfully different ways.
Many tend to mellow with age as superintendents widen fairways and shorten roughs in an effort to speed up play. A select few, however, proudly maintain the rough edges and no-compromise character that were such an integral part of their childhoods.
The Links Golf Club in Post Falls is one of those courses. And Emmett Burley, who built the challenging links-style course four years ago for a mere $1 million, couldn’t be more pleased with the way his brainchild has aged.
"I’ve really enjoyed watching it grow up," Burley said earlier this month about his 7,450-yard, par-73 layout.
And with good reason.
Criticized initially for its rocky rough and sparse fairways, The Links has emerged as one of the best-kept golf-course secrets in the region. Its fairways have filled in nicely, the rough is no longer absolute death to the leading edges of wedges and the massive, undulating greens remain among the best in the area.
But perhaps the most impressive thing about the golf course is the way it has managed to keep its spectacularly natural look and feel.
Since opening his course in May of 2000, Burley has let the fescue grass lining his immaculately maintained and deep green fairways brown up and grow to knee-high lengths. The contrasting colors are a stark reminder of golf’s origin on the crude, links-style course of Scotland.
Unlike most other courses in the area, the sand traps that dot the course are ringed by clumps of untrimmed natural grasses that add to the untamed look of the flat, nearly treeless layout. And the greens, several of which were modeled after those at such world-renown courses as Pinehurst, Augusta National and Pine Valley, feature wild breaks and bends that make lag putting a true adventure.
Throw in the fact the course sits alone on what was once a sprawling span of farmland – without a house in the vicinity and no plans to build any – and you get the true, demanding golf experience Burley had in mind when he launched his "late-life" adventure into golf course design and construction.
"I wanted to give golfers a private-course experience on a public course," explained Burley, who was a longtime member at Manito Golf & Country Club prior to starting construction of his course in 1999.
Burley had the option of selling lots and building homes, but his idea from the onset was to create a course designed purely for golfers rather than real estate developers. He also wanted to build a course that would tax the best players to walk its fairways.
And The Links, which sits just north of Post Falls at 6400 N. Chase Road, has proven it can do just that – especially when the winds kick up.
Earlier this summer, the University of Washington men’s golf team played a practice round here, and no one was able to break 70.
"Of course, I knew they were coming and I set the pins that day," Burley said through a devilish grin.
Burley, who grew up caddying and playing golf at long, demanding courses back in Ohio, feels most of the courses in our region are too easy, which makes it tougher for local players to score well on the longer, tougher layouts that play host to regional and national tournaments.
In building The Links, he made sure every club in your bag would be used. From the back tees, the course features eight par-4s that play longer than 400 yards and the 777-yard par-6 9th that has added to the mystique of the imaginative, well-maintained layout.
Menacing pot bunkers are scattered along the way and visual distances can be deceiving because of the lack of trees or hills in the background.
Of course, Burley has made a few changes since opening the course – most of them to address the complaints of golfers who find the course too long and the long rough too severe. He has built several new tee boxes to make some of the longer holes more manageable. And he even added a small pond, which seems a bit out of character, to the 510-yard, par-5 12th, where the green is modeled after the 11th at Augusta National.
"I had a guy complain that the 11th at Augusta had a pond in front of it," Burley explained, "so I put one in. Plus, I heard it was a good way to attract more wildlife."
In addition, Burley has pulled the two back sets of markers from each tee box, removing the temptation for golfers of modest abilities to play from the tips.
"The average golfer thinks he can play better than he actually can," Burley explained. "They end up playing from tees that are too far back and have a bad experience, so I just got rid of the back markers. Besides, the really good golfers know where they’re at, and they can play from back there if they want to."
Despite its excellent condition and the many challenges it offers, The Links remains one of the least-played and most accessible courses in the area.
Burley admits it has been hard keeping the course financially solvent, mainly because of the abundance of good, affordable public golf courses in the Spokane area.
He tried, at one point, to take the course semi-private, hoping to entice 200 members to pony up $2,000 in annual dues. The idea, he explained, didn’t catch on, in part because Burley wanted The Links to be a non-equity club in order to avoid the decisions by committee that make it so difficult to enact changes and make improvements at many private clubs.
Today, he employs a small staff of about nine and helps do much of the mowing and other maintenance work himself.
His 18-hole greens fees range from $22 Mondays through Thursdays to $28 on weekends, which include Fridays. Kids 17 and under can play for just $9 and seniors over 60 can play on Monday, only, for $18.
Burley said he has also been criticized for keeping his fees a little higher than most public courses in the area. But he insists his rates are fair and necessary to keep the course in operation.
"The one thing we do have over some of the busier courses in the area is that you can get a tee time on our course – usually at the time you want," Burley said.
And in that, Burley also takes pride.
"It’s been a tough business," he admitted, "and I’m sure not making any money. But we’ve managed to stay afloat. And it’s been a lot of fun."
Source: Spokesman Review (Spokane, Wash.)