Shelton’s Salish Cliffs continues to receive national golf course awards

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Updated: February 2, 2012

Brand-new Salish Cliffs Golf Club at Little Creek Casino Resort – located a short drive from Olympia and Seattle – has added to its already impressive resume with inclusion in Golf Magazine’s “Best New Courses You Can Play 2011” and as the highest-ranking casino course (No. 11 overall) to open this year in “Golfweek’s Best: Casino Courses 2011.”

The Golf Magazine article is featured in the January 2012 issue, while the Golfweek ranking is in the current December 9-16 issue.

Salish Cliffs – a Gene Bates design that just opened in September – was lauded by Golf Magazine Travel Editor Joe Passov, who spotlighted the magazine’s “Best New Courses You Can Play 2011” in a variety of categories from the United States and around the world.

“After delays dating to 2008, this Gene Bates design for the Squaxin Island Indian Tribe’s Little Creek Casino Resort finally opened this past summer,” wrote Passov of Salish Cliffs. “It was worth the wait…Salish Cliffs unfolds over 400 acres, without a home or road to scar the landscape. Generous fairways allow all to smack the driver with abandon, but sprawling (if shallow) bunkers, thick native grasses and towering firs punish careless shots.

In Golfweek, Salish Cliffs was ranked as the nation’s top casino course to open in 2011, and No. 11 overall, in the magazine’s “Best: Casino Courses 2011” ranking of the Top-50 casino layouts.

Salish Cliffs was chosen by Golfweek’s nationwide team of course raters. Not only was Salish Cliffs the top-ranked casino layout to open in 2011, but it was one of just two Pacific Northwest casino courses on the list.

The Golf Magazine and Golfweek honors come on the heels of Salish Cliffs being ranked No. 8 in “Golfweek’s Best 2011: Best New Courses” list, which was released in October. On that list, Salish Cliffs is the highest-ranked course that opened for play in 2011. Salish Cliffs has also received praise for its reasonable rates and was included on Forbes.com’s list of the “12 Best Value Courses in the U.S.”