Prior to Yelm city councilors voting 4-3 against the city purchasing the Tahoma Valley Golf Course from the South Sound YMCA on Tuesday, Oct. 22, several residents of the Nisqually Valley community spoke against the YMCA taking over the golf course.
Currently, the South Sound YMCA still holds the contract to purchase Tahoma Valley Golf Course and could ultimately still buy it. The City Council voted against purchasing the property from the YMCA and taking control of the 18-hole golf course.
Thomas Sprouffske, a sophomore at Rainier High School and member of the golf team, spoke of the importance of having a golf course in close proximity to the high schools in Rainier, Yelm and Tenino, which all have teams that practice at Tahoma Valley Golf Course.
“When Rainier first started its golf team last year, I was excited that Tahoma Valley would be our home course because it’s close, and lots of times students would have to arrange their own rides, and I can’t drive until January,” Sprouffske said during the Yelm City Council meeting on Oct. 22. “Over this past year, I’ve been fortunate to golf at Tahoma Valley over 70 times, including about an hour ago.”
Sprouffske said he’s also met many of the community’s frequent golfers and hold conversations about their lives, golf and the history of the course itself.
“I believe the course plays an important role in our community for our community and our students. There aren’t many places that kids can go and golf at an affordable rate,” Sprouffske said. “I would ask you to keep it an 18-hole course.”
Bill DeVore, owner of 507 Taproom in Yelm, was vocally against the YMCA’s acquisition of the Tahoma Valley Golf Course, although the YMCA still has the contract to make the purchase. After reading Mayor Joe DePinto’s online statement in relation to the acquisition attempt, which can be found on the Mayor’s Facebook page, DeVore said he called and requested information regarding golf courses throughout Thurston County.
According to DeVore, the Tahoma Valley Golf Course serves approximately 15,000 patrons each year and brings in a revenue of approximately $550,000. He compared that with Capital City Golf Course in Olympia, which serves 55,000 customers each year and sees a profitability of “just under” $2 million. DeVore added that Tumwater Valley, without providing any numbers, told him that 2024 has been its most profitable year to date.
“The current ownership of Tahoma Valley has no desire to put any money in the course or to help make it grow to maintain its current clientele. If you own a business, you know that you get out of it what you put into it,” DeVore said. “Currently, the course is losing money with a lack of carts — 20 operational at this time — a lack of beverage carts on the course and no upgrades of any kind to the restaurant or the buildings. With the course lacking in upgrades and not sustaining current equipment, it means less people will show up to play.”
Like Sprouffske, DeVore also knows the importance that Tahoma Valley Golf Course has on local high school golf teams. His daughter, McKenzie DeVore, is the YHS head girls golf coach and sent three golfers to the WIAA’s 3A girls state golf championship earlier this year.
“Currently, the Tahoma Valley Golf Course plays host to Yelm, Rainier and Tenino golf. They hold their matches there, along with practice. I heard some state that a nine-hole course could still be used for the schools, which is inaccurate,” DeVore said. “When the boys are playing, the girls are practicing and vice versa. When you have schools using the same course, you need 18 holes to be able to play matches and practice on a daily basis.”
Dustin Stephan, owner of Yelm’s YARD, also took to the podium with his wife, Michelle. He also opposed the YMCA’s acquisition of the Tahoma Valley Golf Course. Stephan said he doesn’t know much about water rights, in reference to DePinto’s Facebook post, which explained the city would have assumed the course’s water rights had it agreed to the purchase from the YMCA.
“I understand that in order for the city to rapidly grow, as it has been, it probably needs to secure those resources,” he said. “If the city was looking at this project to purchase it and maintain the golf course as is, I don’t think most of us would be here in this capacity.”
Stephan’s biggest concern, he said, is that a “large outside entity” is being proposed to come into Yelm to compete with organizations and small businesses that already serve the local community, including YARD.
“YARD is locally owned. We are connected to the community. We know the pulse of the community, and we have the heartbeat. We have successful programs, already in place, similar to what YMCA already offers,” he said. “The current proposal, in question tonight, would lead you to believe that you have to choose between an 18-hole golf course or the facilities and programs mentioned. I’m here to tell you there’s an alternative. The city definitely needs an 18-hole golf course, as displayed today. It also needs the services that we talked about, and that YARD already offers and plans to expand upon.”
YARD’s programs include early skills and development classes, academic tutoring, life skills classes like cooking, resume building, CPR and finances and a sports training program focused on strength and conditioning.
Stephan added that YARD has a viable plan to expand its current operation to a “community campus,” which would include a teen center, social service access for local families, an expanded strength and conditioning area, an athletes “recovery center” and an expanded life skills center to “better serve” the community. Stephan noted that YARD would also consider expanding on the batting cages it already runs and adding basketball gyms.
“We’ve had these conversations with community members and community organizations already. The details of this location have not been disclosed but know these conversations are being had,” Stephan said. “Council, I would ask for your continued support of small business in a small community and allow YARD to grow and continue to serve Yelm, while preserving the 18-hole golf course.”
