Westport Golf Links Update

Whether you are for it or against it, everyone still wants to know: what’s up with the golf course? I recently sat down with Ryann Day, President and CEO of Westport Golf Links to get an update. The long term vision of Westport Golf Links includes an 18-hole Scottish-style links course, a more casual short course, and a driving range. Other plans include a clubhouse, hotel, cottages, and restaurant for golf course guests on a city-owned undeveloped parcel on S. Forrest Street. Another restaurant and bar would be built near the short course on Jetty Haul Road, along with 180 new parking spaces. A smaller concession area with outdoor seating and fire pits would be constructed closer to the beach, next to the current jetty parking lot. The paved beach trail would remain but would be upgraded and widened for better ADA access. Other trails would also be created inside the park for anyone to use, as well as maintenance crew and emergency access vehicles. More details of the proposed plan can be viewed on the Washington State Parks website. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

-Interview by Anne Beasley of The Drift

What can you tell us about the status of Westport Golf Links?

We are currently waiting for the Environmental Impact Statement draft to be be completed. That should happen in the next few weeks. Then, the EIS draft goes out for a 60 or 90 day public comment period. We take all those comments and respond accordingly. Once the EIS is completed, we publish the final version.

The EIS basically explains everything that we are intending to do, all the versions of the project that we've come up with, and what we think is the preferred alternative. We have redesigned it several different times to have as few impacts as possible on wetland areas. We also came up with two alternatives and the “no action” alternative.

At the same time, we are working with the Department of Ecology on the mitigation and wetland fill strategy, which is probably the biggest challenge to this project. We need the DOE’s approval for that wetland fill. Once we have that and the final EIS, we start the permitting process. Shoreline use permits, permits from the city of Westport, and a whole bunch of other permits need approval.

If WGL gets the green light to move forward, what is the timeline from buildout to opening day?

We anticipate having a permit by early spring of 2025. There are some challenges in the preferred building period- we don't want to create a lot of dust and there's migratory bird issues- so we wouldn't start building until the fall of 2025. It would take six to eight months to shape everything and the golf course would probably open by the spring of 2027.

Would everything be completed by then, the proposed lodging and cottages?

All of that will happen in stages. At first we would have one temporary sort of clubhouse. We may build three of four cottages to start off with. The hotel would be in phase two, which would be three or four years after opening.

WGL’s website states that WGL will be responsible for removing and managing invasive species, wetland preservation, monitoring, and forest management. That sounds like a massive undertaking. How do you accomplish that?

We’ve been hiring experts to the tune of a lot of money over the last four years in order to study this site and understand the challenges that it has.

For example, we’re impacting roughly 25 to potentially 30 acres of wetlands, but we will be creating almost 70 acres of brand new high quality functioning wetlands that will be in preservation, protected and monitored.

We have also partnered with DNR and the regional fire authority. We met with DNR a year ago and Mark Titus, the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator, basically said this is what you guys should do to mitigate your forest fire risk. We're going to have to hire a forestry company to come in and do some logging. We will be creating clear fire breaks.

Our biggest issue is the European beach grass, which is highly flammable. We would replace it with a fescue grass, which is a native species and grows naturally in the northwest and is the preferred grass of this style of golf course. This would create a natural buffer around the perimeter of the park. We would also work toward removing the invasive Scotch Broom (*above image*), which is mixed in throughout the entire park

We will also be working with the city to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant. It will add another layer of treatment, a tertiary treatment which means that the water is essentially potable. That would allow us to use it as our primary irrigation source. The effluent would pump into holding areas and then pump into all of these underground areas that will have pressurized water access. At that point, if the regional fire authority needed to get in the park to fight a fire, they could access actual fire hydrants.

The park is 605 acres, how much will WGL develop? Who will manage the new walking trails in the park?

We estimate it’s roughly a hundred acres or so of what we call managed turf. As far as trails go, we haven't negotiated that. This has been a long journey and at one point we were asked to remove all of them. And I refused, because I had stood up in front of the city of Westport and said, part of our proposal is to increase public access to this park. The trails are dual purpose. We need to have access to and from our maintenance site, but people will also be able to ride a bike or walk on the trails.

So this is a walking course? No golf carts? Will there be a caddy program?

We obviously have to offer carts for ADA purposes, but yes this is primarily a walking course. One of the things we're really excited about is we are going to have a robust caddy program. There's different grades of caddies based on experience levels. So a high school kid with almost zero experience would be a grade one caddy and could make $60 or $70 bucks for a “loop” (golfing term for taking golfers through all 18 holes). An experienced caddy could make $200 or more per loop and some may be able to do three loops per day. So there's significant dollars to be made. It's going to be a great summer job for a lot of people.

Any plans for an Ocosta School Golf Team?

Well, so that was one of the things I was trying to impress upon State Parks a while ago. This course is really going to inspire some kids, and in 20 to 25 years after this opens, there's going to be a kid who gets a scholarship and goes to school and plays golf on the PGA or the LPGA tour because this thing is in their backyard.

A round of golf costs hundreds of dollars, how can local youth afford to play?

We will have first tee programs. Scholarship programs like the Evans Scholarship. Youth rates. We will probably become a part of the Youth On Course program where Juniors can play on certain days for $5. We will also offer discounts to county residents similar to what Chambers Bay does in Tacoma.

Would you hire employees locally from Grays Harbor County for the site build and maintenance staff, lodge employees and so on?

Preferably the more folks we can hire locally the better. There's going to be a lot of construction jobs. The vast majority of jobs will need to be people that live within a bus ride.

The community is very divided when it comes to either support or opposition for the golf course. Can you speak to that?

We've always looked at this as a catalyst to improve the economics here. Not only for taking care of the park itself, but also to give Westport tourism 12 months out of the year. By putting Westport Golf Links here, you have a partner with a vested interest in protecting this whole area. We don't want it to burn down. We don't want it to wash away. We don't want it to erode away. There's a permanent 24/7-365 partner there that is working with the city and following their management codes in order to protect and preserve this asset. We are also going to start small. There will be limited offerings when we first open. As we grow we can assess issues. During this entire process we have been able to engage in conversations with the city. They have expressed what they are concerned about and we plan to work with them the entire time to identify challenges. This course is going to be in the national spotlight, especially when it comes out. I would anticipate that it gets ranked in the top five of the best new courses of the year, if it doesn't get ranked as the best. This is going to shine a spotlight not just directly on Westport, but Grays Harbor.

What about the use of fertilizers and pesticides?

We have studies that show that all of the fertilizer and limited pesticides that we use, are undetectable once they get 12 inches below the surface. They are undetectable because they are consumed by microbials in those 12 inches. This is why this site is so fantastically suited to this kind of golf. It's 200 feet deep of pure sand. It's a natural filtration device. And you have the microbials that consume the fertilizers before they would ever enter into any sort of aquifer or into the ocean water.

Can you comment on the lawsuit?

I really shouldn't comment on it, but what I can say is, this was not a surprise. Their lawsuit is saying you didn't have the right to start this process. So you have to stop it now. These groups tried to stop the previous development years ago and were unsuccessful then, and I am confident that they will be unsuccessful this time.

*Note- You can read more about the lawsuit in this article on the Washington State Standard