Fairways front nine closes Aug. 14

It was just a matter of time before it would happen.

The Fairways golf course in West Terrace has announced that the final day of play as an 18-hole facility will be Sunday, Aug. 14.

Fittingly, perhaps, the men's club championship will be the final official events that play the entire course. The public, however, will have their opportunity afterwards.

Word came to regulars at the course via an email newsletter last week but the loss of the front-nine that essentially borders Melville Road and will ultimately be turned into building lots was long expected.

"We were losing it at some point to development," head pro and general manager Dakota White said. "The timeline on that was never really known."

Disappointed, yes, but White is also happy that he was able to coax more time out of the process. "It was really nice to get a couple extra months, because we thought back in May, we might be losing it," White said.

But just as the lead up was a slow process, so will be the morphing of the greens into homes and yards. "It's not like you're not gonna' see a house pop up on hole two (tomorrow)," White said.

While a looming shadow, now that course contraction is happening White at least knows what lies ahead.

"They're still a ways out from actually doing much, but from my standpoint, I haven't been able to commit or plan anything in almost a year now," White said.

As White looked at the monthly bill from the city of Spokane who provides water to the course he did so with a pained look. He called water "liquid gold" that was essentially throwing money away because much of the irrigated land was going away.

Fairways opened in May 1987 and was built by Charles Klar from Calgary, but he sold the business to developer Buster Heitman in 2007.

What will remain of the course is arguably one of the best - and most challenging - nine holes around with water playing big parts with the par-5 12th and the par-3 13th.

"It gives you opportunities to play it as it's built, and not take on the risk," White explained of fairways 12, 13 and 14. "But it also gives you every opportunity you want to try to press and make up strokes or make really big numbers."

There's a lot of potential for different tee boxes to change some angles. "That way it can really feel like you're playing two different nines, for people who still want to play 18 or whatever; there's some opportunity there," White said.

Water has long been one of the major challenges at The Fairways. The course is now in year-six of a lawsuit against the city over rates that were to be reduced when the facility conserved water - but that never happened.

The Fairways, along with over 5,000 other users outside the city limits of Spokane, all have a 50-percent surcharge added to their water bills as a means of covering the cost of the infrastructure that provides the service.

But as part of the ordinance, which was passed by the Spokane City Council on Jan. 5, 2009 and enacted Feb. 11 of that year, The Fairways was supposed to receive a significant discount for water if it was able to keep yearly consumption under 40 million gallons.

For six of 10 years between 2005 and 2014 the course met that goal, and in two other years was just over the 40 million cut off. But water rate reductions as stipulated in Spokane Municipal Code Chapter 13.04, Section 13.04.2017 never followed.

Three of the city courses, Downriver, Esmeralda and The Creek at Qualchan, never had water use below the threshold.

Because of a protest over those rates and non-payment of the course's bill, water service was stopped May 23, 2017 but by court order was restored June 6. The lawsuit, which has since grown into a class-action involving many county rate payers, followed.

Now just as the course moves into a new phase, so does White, who grew up playing 9-hole golf in his hometown of St. John, Wash.

"I'm trying to take the positive approach," he said. "I had my time to mourn but now it's like, okay, the only way it's gonna' work is if we stay positive and be excited."

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].