Inglewood Golf Club
Designed by A. V. Macan
History
In the years just after the Great War, a group of Seattle-area golfers looked north toward the shores of Lake Washington and decided the region needed another proper home for the game. Inglewood Golf Club opened for play in 1919, founded as a private club at a moment when the sport was taking firm root in the Pacific Northwest and the growing city needed grounds worthy of its ambitions. Kenmore, then a quiet outpost beyond Seattle’s edge, offered the space and setting the founders were after.
The club turned to A. V. Macan, the Irish-born architect who had settled in Victoria, British Columbia, and who would go on to shape dozens of courses throughout the region. Macan brought a background in law and a wounded veteran’s discipline to his design work, along with an architect’s eye trained on the natural contours of a site rather than imposed geometry. At Inglewood, he was given a piece of ground shaped by glacial terrain near the lake, and his routing reflected the same instincts he applied elsewhere in the Northwest — a preference for working with what the land offered rather than reshaping it wholesale.
Over the following century, Inglewood has remained in private hands and has hosted regional amateur and club competitions that reflect its standing among Washington’s older courses. It endures as one of the earliest Macan designs still in operation in the greater Seattle area, a living record of the club-building era that took hold in the Pacific Northwest in the years following the First World War.
Playing Notes
Expect a workout for your legs as much as your swing — the terrain rolls and shifts through the Sammamish River valley, and low-lying sections can get soft and slow in Kenmore's wetter months, so check conditions before you assume the ball will run out on drives. Tree-lined corridors keep the layout tight in stretches, putting a premium on keeping tee shots in play rather than reaching for driver on every hole; players who shape shots both ways will have an easier time navigating doglegs than those who rely on one ball flight. Walking is feasible for those in decent shape, though carts are available and plenty of members use them given the hills. Bring extra balls if you're prone to missing fairways, layer up for morning rounds given the Pacific Northwest damp, and expect greens that can run true but slow up quickly if the maintenance crew has watered recently — best to get a feel for pace on the practice green before heading to the first tee.