W. Richland golf course plans clubhouse comeback

WEST RICHLAND -- Mike Coffey hadn't teed off at the West Richland Municipal Golf Course since last summer when he pulled up to the course last week ready to break in his new irons.

"What happened?" the Richland resident asked course owner Michelle Marcum as they looked at a temporary building and small pile of rubble next to it that used to be the course's clubhouse.

"It burned," Marcum replied.

"That's a bummer," said Coffey, who said the West Richland course is one of his favorites in the Tri-Cities.

A bummer indeed, but no need to tell that to Marcum, who has been operating out of a trailer since the clubhouse burned to the ground Dec. 30 in a fire caused by an electrical problem.

Marcum now hopes to open a temporary building that will house a restaurant, bar and pro shop as early as this weekend.

"I'm hoping it's soon because the sooner the better," she said. "It's better than the trailer."

And once the temporary clubhouse is up and running, she hopes to jump into building a new clubhouse.

"Within six months I want to have the new building built," Marcum said.

The community has reached out to Marcum since the fire, offering donations, supplies and replacement appliances. She plans to have a fundraiser tournament after the temporary clubhouse opens.

"For all the extra stuff I have to buy that I wasn't planning to buy," she explained.

"It's everything you don't realize that you had until it's gone. We're talking staplers, tape rollers. I don't even have paper clips," Marcum added, listing items like silverware, cups and liquor spouts that all need to be replaced.

"We'd been in this building 20 years almost. You don't realize when you have to buy it all at once it's not the same."

But it's the loss of personal items such as her late husband's trophies, family heirlooms and photos that hit Marcum hardest.

"They're all memories. Those are the things that you can never really replace," she said. "We're going to have to make new memories."

While weeding through the fire's rubble, Marcum salvaged a few items from the old clubhouse, including a couple of almost 20-year-old Herald articles that were saved by their plastic wrappings and an old bar plaque.

She also found a 1988 player of the year award that her late husband, Rod Marcum, received.

"That made it through the fire. It was in the rubble," Marcum said. She said the items will hang in the new clubhouse among other items she'll surely add to a new collection of memories.

"This was the place that everybody would come and have a good time," she said. "We just want to get open."