Talking GolfGetaways: Your Golf Getaways Podcast · Mitch Laurance and Darin Bunch

Talking Gamble Sands and the upcoming Scarecrow course

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

Joe Sass says he "couldn't even sleep" before opening the drapes on Gamble Sands.

1. Talking Golf Getaways episode 194 focuses on Gamble Sands in Washington and the upcoming Scarecrow course opening on August 1. 2. Mitch Lawrence hosts from Myrtle Beach, Darren Bunch joins from California, Chris McEwen appears from Chicago, and Joe Sass is the Dallas-based recurring guest with recent Gamble Sands perspective. 3. The episode asks what Gamble Sands feels like, how Scarecrow changes the property, and why the resort keeps pulling these golfers back. 4. Mitch says he now works for Gamble Sands through a partnership with Match Play Media and Robert Thompson. 5. Mitch says Brian Orr will be at Gamble Sands at the end of April to photograph Scarecrow before the opening. 6. Joe Sass says he has been to Gamble Sands before, including a 2016 trip when the lodging was not finished. 7. Joe says that on his later trip he stayed with his 20-year-old son and 27-year-old nephew. 8. Joe says he could not sleep because he wanted to open the drapes and show them the putting green, river, and mountains in the morning. 9. Mitch says Gamble Sands was not easy to reach from Myrtle Beach and involved multiple flights into Spokane and then a long drive. 10. Mitch says meeting Ben Green at the rental counter and taking a Dodge Charger turned the drive into a two-hour introduction to a new friend. 11. Mitch says the resort reveal happens after a left turn off the long road and a rise that opens the view to golf and the Columbia River Gorge. 12. Mitch says the rooms face the putting course and the first holes, and he describes the view as taking his breath away. 13. Mitch says David McClay Kidd’s Gamble Sands course changed his view of golf architecture because it helps players enjoy the round rather than only defend against it. 14. Mitch says the course gives golfers of every skill level chances to make birdies and even eagles. 15. Joe says Eric Arnold eagled the 18th and still talks about it every day on their text thread. 16. Joe says his own memorable stretch included four straight birdies on holes 7 through 10 and still no skin winnings. 17. Joe says Scarecrow feels more dramatic in terrain and now shows golf as soon as players crest the ridge. 18. Mitch and Joe describe Scarecrow as using width, elevation change, runners, and slope in ways that differ from the Gamble Sands course. 19. The episode sounds like a loose, conversational roundtable with teasing, trip stories, and course-architecture discussion. 20. Golf travelers, architecture fans, and Gamble Sands regulars will get the most from this conversation. 21. Listeners seeking a tight narrative or a non-golf topic may skip this one.

As heard by us

A relaxed look at why Gamble Sands keeps drawing golfers back.

This episode puts Gamble Sands at the center, moving from what makes the Washington property so playable to what Scarecrow adds and why golfers keep returning.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Gamble Sands story from a conversation that looks back, looks ahead, and stays rooted in one of the hosts' favorite golf destinations in Washington.

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