Tacoma Country & Golf Club

Overview: Tacoma Country & Golf Club is an 18-hole private course beside American Lake, with a par of 72 and 6,906 yards in the live course record. The layout is the product of more than a century of use, relocation and revision rather than a single modern construction project. Mature trees, open lake-country ground and a sequence of long-established corridors give the course a traditional Pacific Northwest character, while later work has added sharper playing lines and restored older bunker details.

History: Tacoma Golf Club was formally organized in 1894 by sixteen charter members led by Alexander Baillie, and an 18-hole men’s course existed on the original Edison property by 1896. The club acquired the American Lake site in 1904, merged with Tacoma Country Club in January 1905, and finally showcased its new 18-hole course at the 1910 PNGA Championship. The club’s historical research says the original architect is not firmly documented; John Steidel added holes 13, 14 and 15 in 1989, while a later bunker-restoration program began in 2013.

Did You Know? Tacoma was one of the six clubs present when the Pacific Northwest Golf Association was formed in the city in 1899. In the early Edison days the links were little more than pasture, and a club history recalls players hearing golf balls thud into cows that wandered across the course.