Olympia Country and Golf Club celebrates 100 years

To walk Olympia Country and Golf Club is to move through more than a round of golf; it is to step into a story that has been unfolding in the South Sound for more than a century.

The club’s roots reach back to 1914, when golf in the Olympia area began modestly with a nine-hole course in Lacey known as Mountain View. Those early golden years established the spirit of what members would come to affectionately call “Oly”: welcoming, enduring and unmistakably Northwest.

In time, the club found its lasting home on a bluff above Budd Inlet, set among Douglas firs, ravines and sweeping views toward Mount Rainier and Puget Sound. The setting gave the club a sense of permanence, as though the course had always belonged to the land around it.

By 1958, Olympia Country and Golf Club had grown into an 18-hole course, deepening its place in the region’s golf landscape while preserving the quiet

character and natural beauty that had defined it from the beginning.

The next chapter began in 2012, when longtime member Dr. Angela Bowen purchased the club and its land. She recognized both the history in her care and the promise still ahead, investing in the course, strengthening membership and helping position the club for a confident future.

After Dr. Bowen’s passing in 2017, a group of members purchased the club from her estate, carrying forward her vision and ensuring that Olympia Country and Golf Club would remain guided by the people who knew and loved it best.

The club has continued to honor that legacy by hosting important regional competitions, including the 2023 PNGA Women’s Amateur Championship, and just this year, the Washington State Men’s Senior and Super Senior Championships, while remaining first and foremost a place where members and guests experience golf at its most authentic.

Today, the walk is defined by immaculate grooming, beautifully presented holes and famously fast, true and receptive greens. Every view, every approach and every putt reinforces the feeling of a timeless Northwest golf

experience shaped by history, cared for with pride and still very much alive.

That is the lasting appeal of Olympia Country and Golf Club: not simply where it has been, but how gracefully its past continues to accompany every round played there.

The course might not play long, stretching to 6,106 from the blue tees but do not be deceived by the yardage. This is a course where yardage does not matter when you take into account the elevation changes and the contour of the putting surfaces.

Elevation changes? How about right out of the gate on the first hole. It measures just 244 yards but heads straight up a hill from the clubhouse next to the driving range. A shorter tee shot lands in a flat area. A longer shot ends up on a hillside in the rough.

And just when you think you might have the front nine mastered at Olympia Country and Golf Club, along comes the back nine which measures about 600 yards longer and features back-to-back 400-yard-plus par-4 holes. There is definitely some distance to tackle – especially on the back nine.

The 18th hole is spectacular – a downhill 444-yard par-4 with Budd Inlet in the background and a perfect way to finish off your round at the course. ​