In the Puget Sound area, the name Oki Golf is synonymous with outstanding golf properties. The company owns and operates 10 18-hole courses — eight public — in Snohomish, King, Thurston and Kitsap counties that are among the region’s best.
The most recent addition to the Oki Golf portfolio is Mukilteo’s Harbour Pointe Golf Course, which was purchased in December. Harbour Pointe offers a quality layout and operation that fits well with its new Oki siblings.
So much so, in fact, that Oki officials have made very few changes in the months after the sale.
“They were very up front about that through the early-on conversations,” said Harbour Pointe general manager and head pro Mark Rashell. “They said, ‘We’re purchasing you for a reason, and that reason is we love what you do. Hopefully we can help you maybe in some ways you haven’t been helped before, but in the day-to-day stuff you guys keep going, keep doing what you do best up there, we love it.’ And so far it’s just been great.”
Regular players have noticed only subtle changes since the sale. For one, staff members now wear ties around the pro shop. For another, new bunker sand is arriving in phases and will be fully in place by the end of the month, which is earlier in the season than in previous years. Also, a fleet of new golf carts is due by mid-June.
“But as far as the people, as far as the product when you go out on the golf course, and as far as the amenities, all of that is exactly the same,” Rashell said.
“As far as for golf, I think (the transition) has been pretty smooth,” said Brian Conn, the Harbour Pointe Men’s Club president, a club with 400-500 members.
Initially, Conn added, “there were a lot of people who were not sure what it was going to do to the men’s club, and there was some nervousness … but I think overall that’s been pretty much smoothed out.”
Scott Oki, the founder and chairman of Oki Golf was unavailable for comment this week, but CEO and president Nancy Cho said the company had long been interested in Harbour Pointe.
“It has a great layout and a great location,” she said, “and we’ve always recognized that it’s had one of the best men’s clubs in the state. … It’s just a great little property. We’re very pleased with Harbour Pointe and how it fits into our portfolio.”
Oki Golf will continue to evaluate “some of the other facets of the business,” Cho said, but to date the transition “has gone really well.”
Another more recent change was the recent retirement of Mark Rhodes, who was Harbour Pointe’s longtime head pro and later the general manager. Rhodes, who was also a former part-owner, left on April 14 and now lives in eastern Washington.
When Rhodes left, Rashell added the general manager title to his previous duties as head pro.
“All along we knew (Rhodes) was going to eastern Washington,” Cho said. “But we’re so excited to have Mark Rashell as the general manager. He’s really just jumped right in, and it’s been an easy transition all around.”
Other holdovers include assistant pro and longtime superintendent Keith Coleman as well as many on the pro shop staff. It is, Cho said, “a really good team.”
Talks between Oki Golf and Harbour Pointe’s previous owners — the course was owned jointly by Golf Northwest Inc., and Harbour Pointe Golf Associates, L.P., with former Everett mayor Ed Hanson the president of the former and general partner of the latter — go back a half-dozen years. Those negotiations led to an apparent deal between the parties in the spring of 2006, but those talks stalled over the inclusion of a small piece of property adjacent to the main parking lot used for auxiliary parking.
Oki thought the parcel was to be included in the sale, but it was owned by a third party. That glitch kept the sale in limbo for roughly 18 months, but it was finally completed on Dec. 6.
The other courses owned by Oki Golf include the Golf Club at Echo Falls in Snohomish, the Golf Club at Newcastle (China Creek and Coal Creek courses), Auburn’s Washington National Golf Club, Port Orchard’s Trophy Lake Golf and Casting, the Golf Club at Hawks Prairie (Links and Woodlands courses) in Lacey, the Plateau Club in Sammamish, and Olympia’s Indian Summer Golf Club. All are public except the Plateau Club and Indian Summer.
Even with 10 courses in the fold, Oki Golf is “always looking to grow,” Cho said. Any future acquisitions are “really about finding the right property at the right price and location, and something that fits into our portfolio. But we tend to stay in contact with those courses that we feel potentially will be a good fit.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
