Q & A spotlight: Pam Foster, owner-operator, Dakota Creek Golf Course
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Q: How did you get in the golf business?
A: With a hoe and a shovel. I was in the landscaping business and my business partner and I started doing work on Lake Padden Golf Course. I had gotten remarried and had this property and I said, "I think I'll build a golf course."
Q: Did you design the course?
A: Yes. I would draw pictures of holes, then throw them in the fireplace. About every 200 throws, I would come up with something I liked. I showed my ideas to John Yacabellius, the pro at Lake Padden, and he was helpful. He would say things like, "No, you can't follow a par-3 with another par-3." I tried to get golf-design books, but there weren't any available. I just tell people that God designed the course.
Q: When did you open?
A: The first nine opened in 1989. Prematurely. But at least people said, "When this matures, it's going to be gorgeous." It became obvious after a while that we needed to become an 18-hole course if we were going to make it financially. I designed the back nine and we opened that in 1999. Again prematurely, but it sure is nice now. One thing that helped on the back nine was that timber prices were high and money from the timber we cleared helped pay for excavation. What hasn't helped is the lifting of the moratorium on course construction across the border in British Columbia and the weakened Canadian dollar.
Q: Tell us about the course.
A: It's par-71 and shorter (5,185 yards) than most 18-hole courses. People say they like it because it's pretty, there are no homes and they can play it in four hours or less.
Q: What kind of hours do you work?
A: During golf season, from 14 to 16 most days. I took four hours off today and went on a picnic with grandkids from Alaska. This business is a lot like farming - you're always looking at the weather. I can talk to you now because it's raining and the course isn't busy.
Q: Is there anything you don't do around the course?
A: For one thing, I don't play. I'm not a golfer. I also don't mow greens. My greenskeeper says I mow them too fast. I do about everything else and we have good workers, too. I enjoy meeting people and I love the smell of grass. My favorite job is counting the money. I just wish there was more of it. The problem is that there are so many courses in the Bellingham area and we aren't as busy as I wish we were. It's fine on weekends, but we need at least three other good days a week.
Q: Do you get away in the winter?
A: I always go help at an orphanage in Morelia, Mexico. It's one of the biggest delights of my life. We try to send them some money all the time from the course and we're having a special tournament for the orphanage June 20. Just before I go to Mexico, golfers slip me money, some even give $100 bills, and say, "This is for the kids." Last year, we used some of that money to take 20 kids to a shoe store. It was a thrill for orphans to pick out something new, not just get hand-me-downs.