River Ranch Is Kidd’s Backyard, ‘Unicorn’ Destination Golf Project

David McLay Kidd has spent the past few years crisscrossing the country working on marquee golf properties such as GrayBull (Nebraska), Loraloma (Texas), and the newest course at Streamsong Resort (Florida). For his newest course design, he gets a property close to home – and one he calls a true “unicorn.”

The forthcoming River Ranch – a public golf project in Pasco, Washington — is a hop over the mountains from Kidd’s home base in Bend, Oregon, and it has the potential to be the next great multicourse destination in the Pacific Northwest.

Situated about three hours south of Gamble Sands in Eastern Washington, the resort where Kidd built three courses (including the recent Scarecrow), River Ranch is on the edge of a growing metropolitan area and dramatically overlooks the spot where the Columbia and Snake rivers meet. The land was a former family vineyard and cherry tree orchard — an elevated site draped along a bend of high ridges and exposed bluffs that fall toward the water. The location is only about 20 minutes from the growing Tri-Cities airport, which is the third largest in the state, had almost a half-million travelers in 2025, and has direct flights to major cities such as Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle.

“I’ve been lucky enough to do some great destinations, but they’re always really remote,” Kidd said. “To be able to work somewhere near my backyard, this close to a major airport, easy to drive to, and still have land of this quality, it’s kind of surreal.”

Golf wasn’t in the early plans for the property and the connection to Kidd was somewhat serendipitous.

And now the vision extends beyond a single course, the first of which should be ready for play in 2027. In addition to multiple courses, there will be guest cottages, an integrated real estate offering, and a clubhouse overlooking the Snake River.

The ownership group behind River Ranch includes four local guys – Ben Harris, Brad Beauchamp, and Jordan and Keith Tiegs – with successful business backgrounds in residential development and agriculture, respectively. They grew up boating in the area and shared a love for the land and the region. When the property became available in a bankruptcy sale, they opted to work together and combine their bids on three pieces of land that totaled about 300 acres.

Early plans focused on options like a concert venue or vacation rental properties, but it quickly became apparent the property potential extended well beyond “AirBnB’s and ‘barndominiums’ on the river, Harris said. The group didn’t know much at all about golf course development, turning to Google and ChatGPT to figure out the footprint of an average golf course, and kicking around ideas amongst themselves about who to call about design and architecture.

“We’re Northwest boys, so growing up, we love Fred Couples. So, (we searched) ‘Does Freddy Couples build golf courses?” said Beauchamp. “At one point, Ben said to me, ‘You’re into golf a little more, who would you turn to?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, how about the guy who built Bandon Dunes? I never played it, but everybody raves about that and Gamble Sands.’ So, we’re like, `Well, write that down.’”

Kidd Connection

In late 2024, Kidd and his team were juggling a handful of projects. His life was continually on the road, and he might happen to be in the office one day every few weeks or so. On the day Beauchamp called, Kidd just happened to be there. Not surprisingly, Kidd gets quite a few cold calls. Usually, it’s a passionate person with a “cool idea,” but no land, no permits and no money. But with the Pasco project, Kidd realized quickly that many of the prerequisites were checked: land on the riverfront in hand and a local ownership group well versed in development and agriculture that knew what it took to get permits, and what it costs to build.

Even so, Kidd was so busy he pushed off visiting for several months before he had an opportunity to fly in and visit.

“I jumped in Brad’s truck, we drive out to the site, we stopped right in the middle of the river frontage, and I thought, ‘Hell, why didn’t I get here way earlier?’” Kidd said.

For Kidd to commit to anything at this stage, he said the property and situation had to be a true “unicorn,” with exceptional land, an ownership group that understands development and permitting realities, a clear financial and operational plan, and a vision centered on golf that could yield a legacy project.

“Right now, the golf business is pretty hot,” said Kidd. “There are lots of ‘donkeys’ out there. You can stay busy and build donkeys. I’m not going to waste time seeing that donkey. I’m trying to find that great site, great ownership that can get the permits, that have the water, that know what it calls to build these things. To get all of that to happen, that’s not common.

“The fact that (this is) public, it’s like making a great movie,” Kidd added. “Now the audience will get to see all of it, so that’s another extra thing that makes sense.”

Course Construction

Course construction started just after Thanksgiving in 2025, and a number of holes are in full development. Irrigation is scheduled to go in in February, with grassing of the course starting in late April and extending through the summer into fall. The grow-in period will extend through late summer of 2027.

The sandy soil profile allows for the use of fescue and firm, fast playing conditions. “I have always thought that if the ball doesn’t roll, it’s not really golf,” Kidd says.

The routing is essentially 90% locked, Kidd said, with a number of holes on the project being “very obvious.” Chief among them is the 15^th hole, which plays across a horseshoe rim along the Snake River and is reminiscent of the iconic 16^th hole at Cypress Point on California’s Monterey Peninsula.

“It’s a rocky outcropping and the green is on top of it,” said Kidd. “It will be, I’m sure, the most photographed of the holes on the property. It’s a breathtaking vista. I sort of pinch myself and realize the impostor syndrome comes right back because I’m likely to get a whole bunch of credit for something I had nothing to do with. You know, Mother Nature put that there. I just planted a flag.”

12-Month Playability

The “why” behind River Ranch isn’t simply that a group of local investors wanted a golf course but that they recognized a rare opportunity to create a destination property with both regional and national resonance.

The Tri-Cities area has long been a hub for agriculture, wine and outdoor recreation, an area along the Snake River and Columbia River gorge that native Americans called the wintering grounds because of its temperate climate. Kidd said he expects River Ranch to be playable all 12 months of the year, not unlike Bandon Dunes, with a key difference being that this region gets less than 10 inches of rain a year and no summer thunderstorms.

With the combination of riverfront land, sandy soils, a temperate, low-rainfall climate and easy access to great golf, Kidd said he could envision Pasco becoming the starting point for Pacific Northwest golf trips that might also include places like Gamble Sands, Wine Valley, Chambers Bay and the Coeur d’Alene area in Idaho.

And being positioned as a golf destination means multiple courses are already part of the long-range vision.

“When David first came up, he said, ‘This is great. Where is the next course going to be?’” said Beauchamp, adding that they’ve been told that one plus one doesn’t necessarily equal two in the world of destination golf. “So, is this three or four?”

Future Plans

The ownership group has a farm just across the river and around 1,000 acres of riverfront land suitable for additional golf. Thanks to a nearby bridge, it’s about a 25-minute drive. It’s only 1 ½ miles as the crow flies, and there are discussions about a possible boat shuttle from a marina on one side to another marina on the other.

From a big-picture standpoint, River Ranch is an exciting concept – a destination golf campus that supports both local daily-fee play and traveling golfers on two sides of a major river.

“Talk about a cool experience. You’ll be able see the courses on both sides,” said Harris. “You can stand on this ridge, see the guy playing on that ridge, and be like, `We’re there tomorrow.’”

For Pasco and the Tri-Cities region, River Ranch is an ambitious bet that great golf can be both a local amenity and a national draw. For the record pool of traveling U.S. golfers, the property provides a new reason to take a close look at the Pacific Northwest, and particularly one bend on a mighty river in southeastern Washington. And for Kidd, it’s the latest chapter in an accomplished body of work increasingly defined by selectivity and space – this one rewardingly close to home.