Avalon Golf Club, Burlington, WA

Well, turns out I was only able to play the "North 9" at Avalon, but really enjoyed the experience. There were two par threes in the mix and some fairly long shots too. Almost 600 yards from the blue tees on #3. I, of course, was playing from the white tees once I figured out that the concrete blocks were the white tees and the pieces of wood were the ladies tees. Oops on hole #1. I discovered this when I flew the green on #2 and felt like where I was standing couldn't be 140 yards. After moving back to the proper tee, I stuck the green with a dart :-) .

The conditions were extremely wet. Not as bad as Overlook Golf Course (no website to my knowledge) I had played the day before. Overlook was on the verge of being a mud pit most the way. I suppose that's just the way golf on New Year's Day in Washington is going to be. At any rate, Avalon was beautiful to walk and offered plenty of challenge while affording good rewards to well struck shots.

Water came into play on a couple of holes and there were an adequate number of bunkers to deal with. I ended up in the bunker on a dogleg left and hit a well struck 7 iron out of it. The sand was too hard to expect to approach the sand shot in a conventional way (digging in ahead of the ball). It called for a proper chip - just grazing the sand while striking the ball directly. I found this out on the first bunker I ended up in. I was only in two bunkers by the way.

I expect that Avalon will make a fine destination when summer greets us. I look foreword to getting there early and playing all 27 holes. Well worth your time.

The "North 9" gets 4 stars.