Washington's championship experiment was Chambers Bay, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. course built on a former gravel pit above Puget Sound, walking-only and sandy, which hosted the 2015 U.S. Open. The week was controversial on television and beloved by people who like fescue, wind, and a muni that dared to be a major. Sahalee Country Club east of Seattle hosted the 1998 PGA Championship in a cathedral of trees. Gamble Sands in the Columbia Basin, Wine Valley, Palouse Ridge in Pullman, and a growing eastern-Washington sand-and-wine corridor have shifted some of the state's golf energy out of the rain shadow's wet side.
Seattle's public and private scene plays through drizzle and poa; summer is a brief, perfect window. Culture is outdoor and tech-adjacent—charity weeks, packed munis, and a population that will play in weather other regions call off. There is no current PGA Tour regular stop; the U.S. Open and PGA memories do the national work. PGA Tour Champions has visited Snoqualmie Ridge.
Washington's signature is Chambers Bay's Sound-side dunes and a Sahalee tree tunnel, plus Gamble Sands' inland firm-and-fast that feels more like Oregon's new gospel than Seattle's old parkland. Locals own rain gear and a stubborn season. Visiting golfers who only come in July miss the point and also have the best week of the year. Both things are true.