Just the other day, Golf Magazine writer Dylan Dethier posted an article at golf.com announcing the U.S. Open qualifying sites for 2022. The last one on the list was in Palmer, Alaska in late May. Sprinkled in around the article were links to the story Dethier did about our Alaskan qualifier. You can click here to follow the thread.
Dethier did a wonderful job capturing the spirit of Alaskan golf when he was up here and there is a word in the title of his story that defines much of what makes Alaskan golf unique. The title of his story was Remote Chance and “remote” is the word I’m focused on.
Alaskan golf is more than just geographically distant from the rest of the golfing world. One could argue we are always a decade behind the times up here, technology wise. We also play on courses with different conditions than anywhere in the United States, essentially making our version of golf more raw. We are in a golfing world of our own, and that is the way we like it.
There are some up here who think top players like tour pros would struggle to play our courses, but that notion has been proven wrong. A few aspiring tour pros have visited our U.S. Open qualifier and done quite well in blowing away our fields. Still, one top amateur a few years ago claimed Anchorage Golf Course was the toughest course he ever played, after he won the mid-am qualifier there.
Anchorage Golf Course is our toughest course, without question. With the new developments happening out there to prepare for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur this summer, AGC is by far becoming Alaska’s best golf course. It is looking so nice at AGC, I’m tempted to find a house nearby and never play any other course in Alaska.
This brings me to another point about Alaskan golf, and that is our lack of golf courses. When Dethier visited Alaska, he did a nice job of pointing out courses off the beaten path, illustrating that Alaska’s passion for the game can lead to building a course anywhere. From a competitive standpoint, however, if you are Alaskan and want to test your game over 18 holes of regulation golf, your options are limited.
Essentially, you are limited to golf in Anchorage, though Fairbanks does have at least one decent course still open. Anchorage technically only has two golf facilities, that of AGC and Moose Run. Less than an hour’s drive away are Settlers Bay and Palmer, which I include in my list of Anchorage golf courses.
The fairways of those four facilities are where Anchorage golfers play each summer, which is essentially a three-month window to cram in all the golf you can. June through August is really all we got, though diehards will tell you differently. As a former die-hard, I can tell you golf in May and September is not usually worth the effort.
In the end, it may be our short golfing season that makes us most unique from a competitive standpoint. In my 30 years or so of competitive golf, I’ve learned that golf is a game of touch and feel from tee to green. Touch and feel are generated through practice and time spent on the course. It’s a quality tough to maintain when you don’t touch a club for eight or nine months each year.
Alaskans embrace that challenge, however, and pursue golf with a passion that is tough to match, yet another unique quality of our golfing culture. When we get a chance to play, we relish it.
I could go on and on, but this post is getting out of hand, so I’ll have to save some of these thoughts for another time.
As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned to see how our Alaskan golf season goes in 2022.
