By Hailey Palmer, Puyallup Tribal News
A better player experience is on its way to North Shore Golf Course as a $7.5 million renovation project around the facility began in November.
The biggest part of the renovation is a replacement of the course’s irrigation system.
“The original irrigation system is 40 years or older depending on which part of it we’re talking about,” North Shore General Manager David Wetli said. “It was time for that to go. … It turned into where our maintenance crew spent a lot of time and money every year just repairing leaks on it.”
Other pieces of the renovation project include some tree removal around the course and a revitalization to the tee boxes and greens.
“The tee boxes are going to get releveled and all of the greens are going to get picked up and recontoured,” Wetli said. “Some other changes are we’re changing the positioning of some of the sand traps and some are being removed. It’s just kind of a big refresh to the golf course over the years. We were going to be doing the irrigation replacement anyway, so it made sense to do some of these things when the course was torn up.”
The work itself is expected to take about a year to complete, Wetli said, and they’re expecting to reopen the entire course in fall 2025.
Presently, golfers are able to play the front nine while the back nine is renovated. Once the back nine is complete, golfers will be able to play that while the front nine is worked on.
“In probably about June they’ll flip over and start working on the front nine, and then the back nine opens at that time or very close to that time once it’s grown in properly,” Wetli said.
Once fall comes back around, Wetli said he’s looking forward to seeing how different the course is from the management side, but also the player side.
“The players should find it more enjoyable to play is what I think is going to be the biggest outcome of it,” he said. “The selected trees that were removed have grown so big that it’s encroached on the fairways and the greens, and there’s tree roots in the cart paths that have made the property go from feeling wide open to very, very narrow. We’re opening that up and you’re going to feel like there’s more room to play. It’s going to make it feel more open and inviting around here.”
And while golfers are missing out on playing all 18 holes right now, Wetli said he thinks the wait will be well worth it.
“We really think they’re going to appreciate the changes and have a much better product to play when they’re done,” he said. “We’re just very grateful the Tribe is undertaking these improvements.”
More information on the renovation project and on the course can be found at nshoregolf.com
