White Horse Blues

White Horse, a Kingston, Wash., development with an award-winning golf course, is hurting. Owner and developer Bob Screen tells the Kitsap Sun that his bank intends to foreclose on 159 undeveloped lots and his 18-hole golf course. He acknowledges being in default on $5.7 million in loans.

The course, the first design by Cynthia Dye McGarey (niece of Pete Dye), was among Golf Digest's Best New Public Courses of 2007. My colleague, architecture editor Ron Whitten, played it last year. He describes it as "a beautiful location" on the Bainbridge Peninsula, accessible by ferry from Seattle. The course "is typical 'Dye' in that it has lots of action going on in front of and the around greens, so you have to hit aerial darts into the greens," Whitten adds.

Along with the lots, the course is scheduled to go on the auction block Aug. 19.

Screen says the course itself is profitable, having earned "several hundred thousand dollars" in 2008. The development's problem -- no surprise here --  seems to be sluggish real estate sales. The newspaper says about 40 homes have been built or are under construction in the community.

--P.F.