If all goes as planned, 2013 is going to be one of our best years to date as far as marking private courses off The Quest. We played Michelbook in McMinnville recently. Riverside Country Club in Portland is scheduled soon. Crosswater at Sunriver will be played during August's Golf Week, as will the Prineville Country Club (plus hopefully another Central Oregon private course or two).

Some really big news for us was recently stumbling into an introduction to a member at the Waverly Country Club in Portland, one of the state's premier private courses. Don and Pete will be at Waverly in late August! That will be a big day for sure.

When we started The Quest in 2007, we were just going to try and play every public course. But Golf Week 2009 in Eastern Oregon really spurred us to change that to every course, period. That trip was when we learned that "private" has different meanings at different places. The private Pendleton Country Club's sign at their main entrance, for example, says "Public Welcome" in very large letters. Turns out membership in the Pendleton Country Club is only required if you live in Umatilla County — out-of-town players are always welcome. The same circumstances prevail at the La Grande Country Club as well.

So how do we get on the true private courses? Hinting, cajoling and begging all come to mind. We have friends who are members at Michelbook and Riverside, so those two were easy. A Forest Grove High alum in the class behind Don's recently moved to Sunriver and joined Crosswater, hence that upcoming round. A friend of a work colleague saw our Facebook page and offered to take us out on Witch Hollow at Pumpkin Ridge. The chance meeting with a Waverly member mentioned above. Shoot, we even won a round at the Oregon Golf Club last year by finishing second in a scramble in a tournament at another course. Better lucky than good, as they say.

There will be some tough ones, for sure. The Fazio Course at Pronghorn in Bend is, we've heard, perhaps the hardest private course to get on. If we get down to that being the last one, we'll resort to begging. If that doesn't work, perhaps we'll camp out at their entrance with a cardboard sign and try to embarrass them into letting us on! We'll leave no stone unturned.

It goes without saying, if you're reading this and you're a private club member, we'd love to hear from you! You'll certainly get a public thank you right here on Don and Pete's website — what greater prize could there be?