Golf in Des Moines

You and your golf pal will receive a wealth of feedback from Tacoma Firs' PGA- and LPGA-certified instructors over the course of each of your hour-long lessons. They tailor instruction to individual needs, so novices can learn the fundamentals of the game, and expert ball-swatters will season their swing, perfect golf posture, and hone alignment. The staff's careful instruction, observation, and friendly demeanor make it easy to make balls to soar more gracefully than an ultralight made of dreams.

Staffed by experienced professionals and computers who’ve sworn allegiance to the Three Laws of Golfing Robotics, GolfTec’s syndicate of golf training centers grooms games with a five-pronged approach enhanced by technological refinements. Score-shaving wisdom resonates within the walls of the indoor facilities, where certified personal coaches point out flaws and strengths while providing golfers with tips to permanently improve their game from tee to green. By utilizing video swing analysis and motion-measurement software, instructors can assess pupils’ abilities with objective data and a fact-based tact superior to traditional hearsay-oriented coaching strategies. To further enhance performance, GolfTec offers club-fitting services to match each swing profile with its ideal set of sticks.

At Redwood Golf Center, club-swinging cadets send range balls flying from personal mats housed within their cozy, covered stalls. After first selecting a bucket size – large buckets contain 85 balls while small buckets have 34 – golfers then set to practicing their 2-iron stingers, wedge game accuracy, and triple pump-fake drives off the tee. Frequent visitors can also take advantage of the per-bucket discounts found within the center’s punch cards, which are redeemable for 9, 25, or 50 buckets over the course of a year.

Lake Wilderness Golf Course is cleaved through tunnels of towering fir trees between Wilderness Lake and Lake Lucerne. Measuring 5,292 yards, the course is comprised of narrow fairways that make up for their lack of length with slender safe zones, causing many players to put their golf balls on a pre-round diet. Upon holing out on the last green, groups can saunter over to the 19th Hole Grill to pair appetizers and exaggerated hole-in-one stories with post-round drinks.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Total length of 5,292 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 66.6 from the back tees
• Course slope of 118 from the back tees

Tucked in the breezy shadows of towering douglas firs, golfers hunt birdies and pars across Lake Spanaway's 7,083-yard course. Fairways tunnel through communities of trees that convince errant golf balls that they are pinecones. Three of the course's holes earned honorable mention in the Seattle Times' Puget Sound Area's Dream 18 Holes, including the par 4 12th, where tee shots must trace the fairway as it curves left through a narrow tree line and toward a green shielded by an oasis of vast bunkers. 

A covered, lighted driving range sits beside the course, where golfers smooth out swings undisturbed by waning daylight, rain, or hail caused by skydivers eating sunflower seeds. The course's staff of golf pros also helps manage on-course techniques with a variety of instructional options, including complimentary 10-minute lessons. 

Course at a Glance: 

• 18-hole, par 71 course 
• Length of 7,083 yards from the farthest tees 
• Course rating of 73.5 from the farthest tees 
• Slope rating of 124 from the farthest tees 
• Four tee options 
• See the scorecard

Fort Steilacoom Golf Course covers a flat parcel of terrain with a nine-hole, par 34 layout that measures a modest 2,491 yards when played from the farther of two tee options. Open fairways sparsely lined with evergreens put beginners at ease while inviting more experienced golfers to shoot for low scores, as solid drives can set up potential eagle opportunities on two short par 4s and the 440-yard, par 5 fifth hole. The relatively level setting makes the course easy to walk, though Fort Steilacoom offers golf carts for those who haven’t taught their caddy the art of the piggyback ride. Fort Steilacoom complements its course with a practice area, a snack bar, and a full-service pro shop where golfers can rent clubs.

Course at a Glance:

• Nine-hole, par 34 course
• Length of 2,491 yards from the farther tees
• Course rating 62.1 from the farther tees (adjusted for a par score of 68)
• Slope rating of 96 from the farther tees
• Two tee options
• Scorecard