Gamble Sands becomes full destination resort
The most exciting season ever has arrived at Gamble Sands, perched above the mighty Columbia River, and located in Brewster, Wash. within driving distance of Seattle and Spokane. Golf travelers are already experiencing the best rates of the year on the original, award-winning Gamble Sands course and the 14-hole QuickSands, David McLay Kidd’s creative 14-hole short course.
And there’s so much more on the horizon. In addition to the river view accommodations built along the Cascade Putting Course, the Inn at Gamble Sands this summer will open 40 new double-king rooms overlooking DMK Design’s highly anticipated Scarecrow course. With 50 holes of golf, 77 rooms on property and two diverse restaurant options, golf’s newest multi-course destination welcomes golfers from the Pacific Northwest and beyond who seek unforgettable, immersive experiences in an extraordinary location.
Scarecrow opens August 1 and promises to start a “Which is your favorite?” conversation among visitors, especially longtime fans of the original Gamble Sands course. DMK Design’s newest 18 holes lay across old cornfields on what some consider to be the best land in these rolling acres of high-desert terrain. But Scarecrow has a personality all its own.
“We wanted to make sure that the DNA of things that are loved about the first course transferred to the new course — the simplicity of it falling across the landscape, the ease of getting off the tee (you might not be in a scoring lane, but you can get it in play),” Kidd says. “But lots of other things — green shaping, the size of things, the aggressiveness of the bunkering, the contouring of the fairways — that’s all different. There’s a DNA transfer, but it’s a bit like having kids — you can have two kids who are very different but they share a bunch of DNA. And that was our intention. How do we make that happen, create that internal design tension to make sure these two courses are siblings but not twins.”
Much of Scarecrow’s design is dictated by the dramatic terrain with expansive views of the river, orchards and surrounding scenery.
“This part of the property has higher, peakier spots that were more akin to classic sand dune, sandhills-type blowouts — and we exposed some of those, we preserved some of those,” DMK Design Associate Nick Schaan says. “Scarecrow sits on about 300 acres, so it’s a lot more compact, things are a bit closer together. But the fairways are still wide — in some cases, they are even wider. The whole golf course kind of climbs over this knob, through a saddle, up another nob, through a valley — you see a lot more of the river, hole after hole. And you see a lot more golf that you’re not playing across the site.”
Now is the time to book early-season best rates of the year on Gamble Sands and QuickSands. And reservations are currently being accepted for Scarecrow, but demand is high for August 1 through mid-October — so high that Gamble Sands already has opened the 2026 tee sheets for Stay & Play pre-bookings.
Explore the newly redesigned website at GambleSands.com.
