Reviewing Golf Digests' list of the Top-10 Golf Courses in Washington and Oregon

 Trophy Lake Golf & Casting Club
3900 SW Lake Flora Rd.
Port Orchard, Wash., 98367
Championship Tee: 6,756 yards/Rating 72.8/Slope 132

Washington State’s Kitsap Peninsula is just minutes from downtown Seattle by ferry, but feels far removed from the urban environment. Surrounded by water on three sides and dominated by deep woods and striking views of the Olympic mountain range, this area also features some of the best golf in the Pacific Northwest.

Start with Trophy Lake Golf & Casting Club. That’s right, casting club. You can fish there too. Lunker Rainbows dominate the many lakes found on and around the property, and near dusk the mood and chatter at Trophy Lake changes from golf to fishing.

It is the golf, however, that will leave a more lasting impression, or mark, if you prefer. Trophy Lake boasts a front nine  difficult enough to send a good player packing at the turn, be it mentally or physically. The yardage from the championship tees was listed as a paltry 3,376 on the scorecard, but played much longer.

The back nine, while playing to a longer yardage of 3380, seemed a breeze compared with the brutal front nine. In fact, I didn’t have to pull a long iron out of the bag on the back until the par-3 thirteenth hole, where I smashed a 6-iron all of 178-yards uphill, to a front pin.

Trophy Lake's Signature Par-3

The beer-cart-girl, who once made a hole-in-one on the very same hole, called it a “money shot.”  

And it was. By the end of the day Trophy Lake’s ‘length’ and toughness had me hitting confident money shots, from tee to green, leading to a birdie-par-birdie finish that would bail out those poorly timed double-bogeys laid on the front nine.

Signature Holes

#4 — a par-4 that stretches to 441-yards, all of it playing uphill and into the wind. After an average, but straight drive I was forced to hit a 21-degree hybrid (the Bobby), and scramble for par.

#6 — While standing on the tee for the scenic , 396-yard, par-4 sixth hole, my senses were bewilderd by the awesome views of Mt. Ranier on the left and the Olympic mountains on the right, and I promptly sprayed one onto the seventh fairway. A miracle shot with the Bobby ended up in yet another par.

#13 — pictured and described above, simply a great hole.

#18 — a great finishing hole, this 532-yard par 5 offers a chance for big hitters to go for it in two, but with a shallow green and a creek in front, the best chance for birdie is a lay-up.

Value: of the three courses being reviewed for the Kitsap Peninsula series, Trophy Lake is the most expensive, but then not by much. The OKI card is a great way to play Trophy Lake for cheap, and spring rates are very reasonable. Considering the quality of the golf, the club’s rates seem perfectly reasonable.

Walkability: with a push cart, Trophy Lake is fairly easy. Carrying a bag? Not so much.

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