Canyon Lakes has been a fixture of the Tri-Cities golf scene since opening in 1981, designed by John Steidel and built to take advantage of the dramatic basalt canyon terrain that defines the landscape around Kennewick. The course plays through and around a genuine canyon system, with elevation changes, rock outcroppings, and water features that give it a character few layouts in the region can match. It consistently ranks among the more memorable public-access courses in eastern Washington.
The Tri-Cities area — Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco — sits at the confluence of the Columbia, Snake, and Yakima rivers, and the surrounding high desert gives Canyon Lakes its distinctive look: scrubby sagebrush framing fairways, open skies, and the kind of wind that rolls off the Columbia Basin and complicates every club selection you thought you had figured out.
For a public course, it plays with real ambition. The canyon setting demands shot-making, not just distance, and the routing forces players to think their way around rather than overpower it.
