Seattle Washington Golf Course Review | Bellevue Municipal Golf Course

Seattle Public Golf | Bellevue Washington Municipal Golf Course

I had the pleasure of playing another of Seattle's area public golf courses the other day and thought I'd let you know about it in case you ever thought of playing Bellevue municipal golf course.

Bellevue municipal golf course, located at 5500 140th Ave NE Bellevue, WA, is a great little course, for a great price that anyone should play (particularly if they have a free afternoon during the week - it is much less crowded and the pace of play is much faster). Here is my Bellevue municipal golf course review.

First, unlike Jackson Park Golf Course and West Seattle Golf Course, Bellevue Municipal is not technically located in Seattle. It is a short jaunt across the 520 bridge, putting it about 15 minutes outside downtown Seattle (in good traffic). It is easy to get to and fairly easy to find (the turn into the course comes up quick so be careful).

Once at the course, you will immediately notice the club house is built for a municipal type experience. It isn't flashy, isn't big, doesn't intimidate, and isn't necessarily inviting to hang out in post round (although we did - it was necessary so we could count up all the dots and tallies on our scorecard). But it was serviceable enough for the course, and it certainly didn't detract from the experience.

If you are going to play golf in Seattle after mid-October, you better be ready for two things: (1) chilly starting temperatures; and (2) nearly a 100% of at least a little rain. The day we played Bellevue, these two rules didn't disappoint. On the first tee the temperature was a balmy 39 or 40 degrees (although it did warm all the way up to 45 by the time we were done!) and it spit rain at us throughout the day. I've found the best way to combat this is to walk (plus it is significantly cheaper). On this day we walked all 18 holes at a cost of $27.

The practice facilities are average at best. There is a natural grass range, a putting clock, and a short game area, though when I played the driving range was matts only (something I despise - being from Kansas, we could hit off the grass nearly year round). The putting green provided a pretty good indication of the actual speed of the greens.

The course condition was pretty good considering the time of year we played. Because it is constantly damp throughout the winter, it is nearly impossible for the course to heal the way it should. This means occasionally we ran into dead spots on greens and fairways, and the greens themselves were often looked like they had been through a lot of rounds. But, as you can see from the picture, the course generally is beautiful, with old growth forest and mountain views throughout. This is the first tee looking down the fairway.

As I said before, the greens were pretty beat up, from foot traffic and too much rain, but in spite of that they rolled decently. The greens were slower than I like, but provided a reasonable challenge considering the temperate circumstances. I distinctly remember dropping a couple of fairly long putts to win or push holes on this course. For this to happen the greens must be pretty forgiving!

Overall I'd give Bellevue Municipal golf course in Bellevue Washington a 7 out of ten. It was a very fun course to play, would be a great place to take someone who is still in the beginning stages of golf - there are very few trouble spots, particularly in the slicing zones. And it's cheap to boot. If you are ever in the Seattle area and want to play some fairly cheap vacation golf, look up Bellevue municipal golf course. You won't be disappointed.