Local Golf Notes: Wenatchee's Desert Canyon to be auctioned

The Desert Canyon Golf Resort outside Wenatchee, consistently ranked among the state's top 10 courses, will be sold at auction in May.

A Douglas County Superior Court judge has ordered the sale to pay off nearly $7 million owed to creditor General Electric Capital Corporation.

Kelly Soltwisch, the civil deputy in the Douglas County Sheriff's Office who is handling the sale, said Thursday that May 12 is the likely auction date for the course, which is in Orondo.

The sale was ordered Feb. 14 by Judge John Hotchkiss, according to The Wenatchee World, which reported that Desert Canyon owners took out a $6.7 million loan from General Electric Capital in 1998 but paid back just $560,000. Interest and attorney fees have raised the total to nearly $7 million, the newspaper reported.

A 21-suite lodge and privately owned housing development at the course are not part of the legal proceedings, Soltwisch said.

Desert Canyon opened in 1993.

Winslow entered in LPGA event

Andia Winslow, the University Prep graduate who was the 1999 National Minority Junior Golfer of the Year, has received a sponsor's exemption into an LPGA event in Florida in April.

Winslow, a Yale graduate who was the first African American to compete on an Ivy League golf team, will be the first black woman to compete in an LPGA event in four years.

Winslow now lives in Winter Garden, Fla., where she is a freelance writer and documentary filmmaker with LPGA aspirations. She won last year's Orlando Amateur Championship.

She will play in the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open at the Reunion Resort & Club, April 27-30 in Orlando.

Winslow played her high-school golf for Roosevelt because U-Prep didn't have a team. She won the three-team Metro League 4A (then AAA) title as a freshman in 1996.

Notes

• The Little Creek Casino and Resort, owned by the Squaxin Island Tribe, has contracted noted golf architect Gene Bates to build an 18-hole course at the resort outside Shelton.

Bates is the architect of the award-winning Circling Raven Golf Club south of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Douglas J. Boon, CEO of the resort, said the course is likely to be named Salish Cliffs Golf Club. The course could open in 2008.

• A survey of women golfers in Washington is under way at www.gmaresearch/com/wgs. The survey is a joint undertaking of GMA Research and GolfMarketingTeam.com in cooperation with the Seattle Chapter of the Executive Women's Golf Association. The survey, which collects feedback on golfing, shopping and clubhouse impressions and experiences, will update similar research done in 2006.

• Two-time PGA Tour winner Rick Fehr has joined the Gaylord Sports Management in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Seattle native will be involved in recruiting and managing clients.

• Sahalee Country Club has dropped out Golfweek's list of top 100 "modern" courses. It was No. 83 last year in the ranking of courses that have been built or undergone major remodeling since 1960.

Seven Oregon courses made the list: Pacific Dunes (2); Bandon Dunes (9); Bandon Trails (17); Eugene Country Club (48); Witch Hollow at Pumpkin Ridge (57); Crosswater at Sunriver (70); and Pronghorn Club at Bend (71).

The No. 1 course is Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Neb.

• Golfweek lists these as the five best public-access courses in Washington: 1, Olympic Course, Gold Mountain Golf Complex, Bremerton; 2, Trophy Lake Golf & Casting, Port Orchard; 3, Semiahmoo, Blaine; 4, Resort at Ludlow Bay (Tide/Timber nines); 5, Desert Canyon, Orondo.