Bruce Perisho, the general manager of Palouse Ridge Golf Club, heard plenty of complimentary comments about his course this week during the Washington State Golf Association Men’s Amateur Championship.

But none struck home as deeply as the e-mail Perisho and several members of his staff received from a competitor who went home early after missing the 36-hole cut on Wednesday but still proclaimed the par-72, 7,308-yard layout that serves the home course for Washington State University “one of the best courses,” he has played.

“That means a lot,” Perisho said. “The guys that play well always say great things about the course. But this guy missed the cut and still enjoyed it.”

And he wasn’t the only one.

“All the players loved the course,” Perisho said of the John Harbottle-designed layout that opened to rave reviews last fall. “You want a championship course like this to hold up well and test the best players, and ours did exactly that the last four days.”

Tyler Johnsen, the WSGA’s manager of rules and competition, also praised the Palouse Ridge layout.

“This is the perfect course for our championship,” he said. “It rewards good shots and punishes poor ones. It was a great challenge, which is obvious by the winning score (of 4 under par), which is pretty high by our standards.”

The course was set up in a dastardly manner for Friday’s final round. The fairways were dry, the greens hard – but smooth – and most of the pin placements downright nasty. But Austin Hurt, a senior-to-be at Washington State University, who took advantage of his familiarity with the Cougars’ home course to fire a course-record 65 that gave him the title, didn’t seem to mind.

“It was great setup,” he said. “During the practice rounds, everybody was coming off the course saying, ‘This is going to be the hardest course ever. The wind is ridiculous, and the holes are ridiculously long.’ Everybody was complaining, but it was a great challenge – which it should be.”

For the rest of the story see Bergum.

Last week at Deer Park and Saturday at Sundance our groups ran into Wedding parties. Playing golf, or sort of.

Is this something new and wonderful? NO!

The Deer Park event was a batchelor party. Yup…a bunch of drunk guys getting served more booze by the beverage cart girl. We spoke to her and she said the marshall had gone home. Now I know Craig Schuh, and if he had been in our group he would have been livid. So, we are on 15, and these guys have slowed to a crawl, are chatting with the next group (also party-boys). We are a five-some with two carts, always keeping up with them, often waiting, and finally we issue some encouraging words from the tee box. Good ending: They pick it up and we don’t see them again.

Sundance: This is a group of women…apparently a batchelorette party. At least eight carts full - very chatty and slow. They tee off as a six-some in front of us and take 25 minutes to play #1. Then they break up into a foursome and a two-some on the second tee. But the cart really doesn’t help, because they spray balls everywhere and nowhere. I’m waiting and waiting on the little bench watching all this and turn to my playing partners and thank them, shake their hands and say goodbye. I trot back to the pro shop and get a raincheck. The pro is courteous.

But it’s not golf and it’s not fair to those who would actually like to play golf, not dink around with clubs and balls and party on the pretty grass.

It’s also a sign of the recession, I guess. Cashflow is cashflow. Very sad for golf, however.

Although Steve Nelke and his fine team at Hangman have offered lessons on how to hit shots from the new sand (delivered from Clayton, north on 395), there is just too much of it. Yes, it will settle down eventually, but it drains so well, that that might be a while. Like a couple of years.

In order to get good footing (so your body does not move up and down during the swing) you have to fill your shoes with sand. A high shot dropped into the new sugary stuff makes its own crater with two-inch walls. It’s a fried egg in a deep hole. Do not try to hit that ball more than ten yards. Which means, on #14, you can’t go for the green if you hit into the former waste bunker on the right. Fly one in there off the tee and you get bogey… IF you can get it out of the trap.

Plus, raking it is a headache and kind of a back strain. Yes, you should walk in from the shallow side, but that all takes time, etc.

Solution? Take some out or bring in a turf packer? Not being a superintendent, I do not know, but in my opinion, the penalty is too severe right now.

* * * * *

That said, the tee boxes and new bunker placement locations are wonderful, and the newly opened area near the fourth green should help preserve that through the tough winters.

Here’s a plea to the 7 people who read my blog… please post local course conditions so we know were to go! Here’s what I know:

Indian Canyon: hit balls there the other day, not a lot of grass on the range, and it’s very wet. The course is open, bit muddy. Wear the right pants.

Qualchan: In amazing shape. Played it Monday, and had very few if any wet conditions… greens were mowed on Tuesday, so they should be even better than when we played, and they were not bad then. 2 temporary greens from rebuilding, #10 and #14. Other than that, i would be shocked to find a local course in better shape.

Fairways: they are open, but it’s walking only, and even that’s tough. It’s very wet, with quite a bit of casual water. Greens are rolling nice.

Sorry for the lag in posting, everyone — I must have gone into blogging hibernation for the winter, just like most of our courses. But, as the courses start gearing up for a great season, I also need to get the lead out and start blogging!

Wow — what a winter! I know there’s plenty of you who have had the itch to play itching itching since the New Year. And that snow that just stayed around didn’t help matters at all. Well most of it is gone, knock on wood, and most courses are open for play by now. The landscape is changed a little — Liberty Lake and Hangman are closed for renovations, and Rimrock is closed for good. By the end of the season there’s also the possiblity of a few others shutting down due to the tough economy. So be sure to support your local courses!

Along with the area courses gearing up, GoGolfNW is working on a redesign — some of the changes will be on ‘our’ side (how we handle the hundreds of pieces of data that make this site great), and some will be on ‘your’ side (how you see and access said content.) If you’ve ever had ideas, suggestions or complaints about how this site looks or works, now is the time for us to hear them! You can post your thoughts here or email me at joebu@spokesman.com!

With gas at $1.63 /gal, it’s not so hard to think about Lewiston-Clarkston. Bryden Canyon in Lewiston (209-746-0863) and Quail Ridge in Clarkston (509-758-8501) are my favorites. I’ve usually been able to just show up and get off at both of these. Both the Clarkston Country Club (509-758-7911) and the Lewiston Country Club (208-746-2801) also accept guests - call in advance, however.

I have fond memories of hitting an eight iron to the middle of a par-three green and watching it bounce ten feet in the air and into the trap! Of course, I also remember ripping a drive pretty low and watching it roll forever…into the canyon on a par five.

Nice people down there!

My golf column that will appear in Saturday’s S-R deals with the fear factor many of us face when stepping to the tee box on certain holes.

I’ve included a tongue-in-cheek list of what I consider to be the 10 toughest tee shots here in the Inland Northwest, and you can take a look of the unedited verstion of the column below.

Also, feel free to submit your own comments and lists of holes that don’t quite fit your eye from the tee box.

NOW THAT’S INTIMIDATION

Step up to the tee box on certain golf holes and things just feel right.

Maybe it’s the way the hole fits your eye. Or the shape of the shot you’re most comfortable with – which, in my case, is a high and often-times overly aggressive fade.

Past experiences can sometime play a part as well.

But whatever the cause, you suddenly feel comfortable, in control and capable of blocking out whatever evils might lurk between you and the green.

Unfortunately, views from certain other tee boxes can generate completely different kinds of feelings, with dread being one of the first to come to mind.

And again, past experiences – especially those negative ones that I tend to stumble onto far too frequently – can impact your confidence and the trepidation you feel on those particular holes as much as anything.

With that in mind, I present my own personal list of the ten more intimidating tee shots in the Inland Northwest:

10. NO. 13 AT THE CREEK AT QUALCHAN

Sorry, but I can’t force myself to put together any list of suspect golf holes without including this 333-yard ogre of a par 4. Actually, once you complete your reading assignment, learn just how “interesting” and “challenging” the hole is and step to the tee, there isn’t much – visually, at least – to chill your blood. What ratchets up the intimidation factor is the realization that any tee shot not blasted left into the trees is destined to end up in the same 20-foot circle at the base of the hill where 85 percent of all tee shots seem to gather.

Which means there’s a good chance you’ll be hitting your short approach shot to a narrow, elevated green out of a fresh divot.

9. NO. 17 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO

This devilish par-3 stretches 232 yards from the back tees and plays along a narrow ridge that falls off dramatically on both sides. Hit it a little left and your ball ends up back on the 16th fairway. Hit it right and your ball rolls out of bounds, down another steep grade and into a . . . actually, I’m not sure what’s over there.

I’ve hit several tee shots to the right off this hole but have never had enough nerve to venture to the edge of the precipice to see where they’ve ended up.

8. NO. 3 AT DOWNRIVER

As the trees just beyond and to the left of the elevated tee box on this 366-yard par-4 continue to grow, trying to land a fade on its knife-narrow fairway becomes less and less of an option – especially with all of the trees on the right. The correct play off the tee, according to the advice offered anonymously on Downriver’s website, is to play it safe and use a club that will get you to the 150-yard marker.

So if you want to spend your $23 to hit that kind of shot, go ahead. Me? I prefer to aim right with my driver and hitch my hopes on being able to generate one of the three draws I tend hit each summer.

7. NO. 12 AT ESMERALDA

The visual from the tee box, which sits some 50-60 feet above the green on the 159-yard par-3, is scary enough. A bunker guards the left side of the putting surface and any tee shot that rolls off the back of the green can be a bear to get up and down. But what makes the tee shot a real nightmare is the walk back down the steep grade – hoping all the while that you don’t step on a loose stone or railroad tie and tear an ACL.

Good luck, and happy knee surgery.

6. NO. 8 AT DOWNRIVER

As I pointed out earlier, past experiences can play a big role in shaping your mindset as you approach the tee on certain holes – even relatively tame looking par-3s like this 216-yarder.

So anyone who remembers the column I wrote last summer about making a 12 from the bunker here during a pro-am tournament should need no further explanation.

The second of three special golf sections the S-R publishes each year was inserted in this morning’s paper.

Included was this story I wrote on the $4.8 million facelift that Spokane County officials have proposed for Liberty Lake Golf Course.

Without being able to see the diagram of the master plan that ran with the story in the paper, it might be difficult to get a visual picture of some of the proposed changes. But anyone wishing to comment on the major remodeling plan — whether they’ve seen the master plan diagram or not — can do so here.

In addition, the special section contained this travel piece written by Vince Grippi about his recent golfing excursion to Disney World in Orlando, and this Jim Meehan story about locals who have played Torrey Pines South, the public course that will serve as the host venue for this year’s U.S. Open Championship (June 9-15).

Again, feel free to comment on either story, especially those of you who might have additional Torrey Pines experiences to share.

Are you ready for some golf?

Apparently a lot of people are, because every course I checked with over the phone today reported extensive play.

The grandkids will keep me off the links this weekend, but after that, look out!

I spent much of my Friday afternoon running down major changes in pro-shop personnel at the many public courses in our region. You can read an unedited version of my column that will address the matter in Saturday morning’s S-R by clicking on the extended entry line below.

And I’ve also included some links to a couple of other golf-related items you might find interesting — although I’m not seeing the humor in the Big Daddy Driver.