With 18 holes spanning 7,424 yards of verdant green punctuated by sand traps, The Home Course in DuPont honors the local area's history as it heads into the future.
Owned and operated by the Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) and the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA), the course's goal is to be the home of golf in the Northwest.
Opened to the public in June 2007, The Home Course will eventually house the offices of the WSGA, the PGNA, the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame and other programs.
"This is a picturesque course," said Justin Gravatt, PGA golf professional and the course's director of golf. "Everything about this challenging course and the surrounding areas fits. The rolling fairways, sod face bunkers, plus the views of the Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier make it hard to beat."
Along with the course's scenery and future plans for golf in the Northwest comes a connection to the area's history.
"The property that The Home Course is built on is also rich in history," continued Gravatt. "The land was once home to several tribes and the center of commerce for the Nisqually Tribe in the 1800s."
In 1833, the British established a storehouse called Nisqually House at the mouth of the Sequalitchew Creek, and a year later they constructed Fort Nisqually as part of the Hudson Bay Company.
Next to the first green on The Home Course, the original site of the fort has been preserved.
Interestingly, the PNGA's research into the area's history indicates that the Hudson Bay Company traders who came to the fort laid out a crude six-hole golf course, the first of its kind in the Northwest.
In 1906, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company purchased the property and constructed an explosives manufacturing plant. The black powder and dynamite were used to clear stumps for the railroads as well as land, to include the construction of Camp Lewis in 1917.
The production of explosives ended in the late 1970s, and the Weyerhaeuser Company bought the land.
"This is the reason our furthest back tee boxes are called the dynamite tees," continued Gravatt.
In 1991, Weyerhaeuser and the City of DuPont began discussions with the Washington State Department of Ecology about the site of the explosives plant; construction of a golf course was part of the environmental remediation process.
The result was the 2007 opening of The Home Course.
Since then, the course has forged a strong relationship with Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
"Our standing offer is a 10 percent discount on Mondays through Thursdays and 15 percent on Fridays for active-duty military," said Gravatt. "We are also offering a Military Appreciation Punch Card where the first 10 rounds are 25 percent off at any time."
The Home Course, 2300 Golf House Rd., DuPont, 253.964.0520, thehomecourse.com