South Pierce County's golfing mecca turns 50

By Pat Jenkins

The Dispatch

Fifty years ago, Lake Spanaway Golf Course opened with Fritz Geiger and Tom Cross as perhaps its two biggest fans. Today, the course has more admirers than you can shake a 9-iron at.
The 18-hole layout that was carved from a forest and became one of the region’s top public-owned golf courses is marking its 50th year the way it has marked all of its other years—by giving golfers of all abilities a test amid the firs and keeping its status as the top course in south Pierce County and one of the best in the South Sound area.
At the high end of the golfing scale, Lake Spanaway has hosted top regional amateur tournaments, including the Washington men's and the Puget Sound Amateur. The latter’s competitors once included Ryan Moore and Kyle Stanley, who have gone on to become winners on the PGA Tour. In 2003, it was a qualifying site for a national tournament -- the United States Golf Association’s Mid-Amateur.
A strong venue for good players and duffers alike was the goal in the late 1960s when the idea of building the course was hatched by then-county commissioner Harry Sprinker and Tom Cross, at the time the county parks director. The course officially opened March 31, 1967, and is still owned by Pierce County and maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department.
More than 1 million rounds have been played on the course that is known for being long (about 7,000 yards from the championship tees, but 1,500 yards shorter and more playable from the front tees) and populated with towering, old-growth Douglas fir trees. Some golf analysts have called it one of the top municipal courses in the state, singling out some of its holes as the most challenging in the Puget Sound region.
Credit for the design goes to golf course architect A. Vernon Macan, Ken Tyson, Lake Spanaway’s first club pro, and  John Harbottle III.  Macan also designed Fircrest Golf Club, Broadmoor and Inglewood in Seattle, and Royal Colwood in Victoria, B.C.
The course is part of a recreation complex in Spanaway. Next to it are Lake Spanaway Park (and the lake) and Sprinker Recreation Center.
For players who like to tee it up during the winter, Lake Spanaway holds up as well or better than most courses during the rainy season. More than 700 tons of sand that was applied to the fairways, tees and greens in 2007 has helped with that.
The course also has recovered from a fungal root rot that tainted 13 greens a few years ago. They were restored with sod from the former Sumner Meadows course that closed in 2014 and have been doing fine ever since. They were restored with sod from the former Sumner Meadows course that closed in 2014 and have been doing fine ever since. They were lush and immaculate even during the recent heat wave.