Growing Gamble Part 4 – The Sands Course

It’s 2008, the recession is a harsh reality, golf is down, courses are closing and David McLay Kidd is taking time to reflect on the first half of his career. The Gebbers family, who are accomplished fruit farmers in Central Washington, were dabbling in golf development with the likes of Perry Dye, the son of Pete and Alice Dye. They were working on a tough piece of their land and Perry Dye isn’t Pete Dye. Which is when they turned to Orrin Vincent of OB Sports Golf Management, who called Kidd and asked him to look at a massive slab of sand-based land that the Gebbers used as a “heifer pasture,” which overlooks the Columbia River. Gamble Sands, the course and resort, and Kidd, the golf course architect, have been on a hot streak ever since. In Part 4 of this series on “Growing Gamble,” it’s all about business and professional pivots that paid off, then and now. This is the story of building what we commonly refer to now as Gamble Sands, No. 31 on Golf Digest’s ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Public Course.