River Ranch is Kidd’s backyard, ‘Unicorn’ destination golf project

David McLay Kidd has spent the past few years crisscrossing the country working on major golf courses such as GrayBull (Nebraska), Loraloma (Texas) and the newest course at Streamsong Resort (Florida). For his latest course design, he gets a building close to home – and one that he calls a real ‘unicorn’.

The coming one River Ranch – a public golf project in Pasco, Washington – is a hop over the mountains from Kidd’s home base in Bend, Oregon, and has the potential to become the next great multi-course destination in the Pacific Northwest.

Located about three hours south of Gamble Sands in Eastern Washington, the resort where Kidd built three golf courses (including the recent Scarecrow), River Ranch sits on the edge of a growing metropolitan area and dramatically overlooks the site where the Columbia and Snake Rivers meet. The land was a former family vineyard and cherry orchard – an elevated site draped along a curve of high ridges and exposed cliffs falling towards the water. The location is just about 20 minutes from the growing Tri-Cities Airport, the third largest in the state, serving nearly half a million travelers in 2025 and offering 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 fortunate to visit some great destinations, but they’re always very remote,” says Kidd. “To be able to work somewhere near my backyard, so close to a major airport, easy to get to and yet have land of this quality, it’s quite surreal.”

Golf was not included in the initial plans for the property and the connection to Kidd was somewhat coincidental.

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 guesthouses, an integrated real estate offering and a clubhouse overlooking the Snake River.

The ownership group behind River Ranch consists of four local guys – Ben Harris, Brad Beauchamp and Jordan and Keith Tiegs – with successful business backgrounds in residential construction and agriculture, respectively. They grew up boating in the area and shared a love for the country and region. When the property became available through a foreclosure sale, they opted to team up and combine their bids on three parcels of land totaling approximately 300 acres.

Initial plans focused on options like a concert venue or vacation rentals, but it quickly became clear that the real estate potential extended far beyond “AirBnBs and riverside ‘barndominiums,'” Harris said. Not knowing much about golf course development at all, the group turned to Google and ChatGPT to figure out the footprint of an average golf course and bounce ideas off who to call about design and architecture.

“We’re Northwestern guys, so growing up we loved Fred Couples. So (we searched) ‘Does Freddy Couples build golf courses?’ Beauchamp said. ‘At one point Ben said to me: ‘You prefer golf, who would you like to go to?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, what about the guy who built Bandon Dunes? I’ve never played it, but everyone is raving about Gamble Sands and Gamble Sands.” So we say, ‘Write that down.’”

Kidd connection

By the end of 2024, Kidd and his team were working on a handful of projects. His life was constantly in flux, and he might find himself in the office once every few weeks. The day Beauchamp called, Kidd 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 quickly realized that many of the conditions were met: riverfront land in hand and a local ownership group well versed in development and agriculture, who knew what it took to get permits, and what it cost to build.

Still, Kidd was so busy that he postponed a visit for several months before he had a chance to fly in and visit.

“I jumped in Brad’s truck, we drove to the location, we stopped in the middle of the riverbank and I thought, ‘Why didn’t I get here a lot sooner?’” 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 the realities of development and permitting, a clear financial and operational plan, and a vision focused on golf that could deliver a legacy project.

“Right now, golf is pretty hot,” Kidd said. “There are a lot 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 location, great ownership that can get the permits, that has the water, that knows what it takes to build these things. To make all that happen, that’s not common.

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

Construction course

Construction of the course began just after Thanksgiving in 2025 and a number of holes are in full development. Irrigation is expected to occur in February, with the lawn beginning in late April and extending from summer to fall. The growing-in period runs until the late summer of 2027.

The sandy soil profile allows the use of fescue and firm, fast playing conditions. “I’ve 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 some holes in the project “very apparent.” Chief among them is the 15^e hole, which runs along a horseshoe ridge along the Snake River and is reminiscent of the iconic 16^e hole at Cypress Point on California’s Monterey Peninsula.

“It’s a rocky outcropping and the greenery is on top of it,” Kidd said. “It will be, I’m sure, the most photographed of the holes on the property. It’s a breathtaking view. I pinch myself a little and realize that the imposter syndrome comes right back, because I’m probably getting a lot of credit for something I had nothing to do with. You know, Mother Nature put that there. I just planted a flag.”

12 months of playability

The “why” behind River Ranch is not simply that a group of local investors wanted a golf course, but that they saw 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 wintering grounds because of its temperate climate. Kidd said he expects River Ranch to be playable year-round, similar to Bandon Dunes, with the key difference being that this region receives less than 10 inches of rain per year and no summer thunderstorms.

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

And because it is positioned as a golf destination, several golf courses are already part of the long-term vision.

“When David first brought it up, he said, ‘This is great. Where is the next course going to be?'” Beauchamp said, adding that they have 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 across the river and approximately 1,000 acres of riverfront land suitable for additional golf. Thanks to a nearby bridge, it is about a 25-minute drive. It’s only a mile as the crow flies, and there are discussions about a possible shuttle boat from a marina on one side to another marina on the other.

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

“Talk about a fun experience. You can see the courses on both sides,” Harris said. “You can stand on this ridge, see the man playing on that ridge, and say, ‘We’ll be 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 American golfers, the property offers a new reason to get up close and personal with the Pacific Northwest, especially a bend in a mighty river in southeastern Washington. And for Kidd, this is the latest chapter in a full-fledged oeuvre increasingly defined by selectivity and space – this time in a rewarding way close to home.