Greg Bodine, left, and Jermaine Kearse stand on the mezzanine overlooking the newly opened Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma. The chipping and putting area is clear-span, meaning no beams to deflect balls. Additionally, a high ceiling allows for reasonably lofted shots.
A massive new home for indoor golf instruction, practice, performance training, and fun officially opened its doors Tuesday in Fircrest.
Evergreen Golf Club — at 2101 Mildred St. W., near Tacoma Community College — is a 24,000-square-foot facility, which its operators believe is the largest of its kind in the country. It boasts real sand traps, nearly 10,000 square feet of artificial turf for chipping and putting, 13 bays with Trackman golf simulators, instructors, and a gym for golf-specific training and rehabilitation. The latter is overseen by Redmond-based Golfletica, a sports-fitness, training, and rehabilitation clinic specializing in golf-related training and care.
Former PGA Tour pros are on staff to help aspiring young golfers elevate their game. Owners include a current PGA Tour player, a caddie for a major golf champion, a former Seattle Seahawk, and a local executive.
“We designed this place to be a spot where you can come spend a lot of time,” Greg Bodine, one of the owners, said Monday during a tour.
Evergreen Golf Club in Fircrest is located in the former site of Skateworld and Rollin’ 253, in a strip center at 2101 Mildred St. W.
Evergreen Tacoma is the second facility Bodine has opened with former Seahawk Jermaine Kearse and other backers. Their other club is in Redmond and is about half the size of the Tacoma site. Tacoma investors also include PGA Tour pro Andrew Putnam of University Place, and Lakewood resident Bryan Weeks, who is the CEO of Earth Finance Inc. and a former executive with Russell Investments and Silver Creek Capital Management.
Bodine also is the caddie for LIV Golf player Bryson DeChambeau, this year’s U.S. Open champion, whose season also included runner-up at the PGA Championship, and a tie for sixth at the Masters.
Greg Bodine, left, and Jermaine Kearse are seen in front of the large mural inside Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma. The mural was done by Seattle Mural Art.
Bodine sees Evergreen Tacoma as a place to develop community among members.
“We have well over 200 up in Redmond now; this place could hold probably closer to 400 or 450,” Bodine said. “We just see this as a spot after work, or after school, or during the weekends, you come in here … the game’s on (a 30-foot-diagonal screen for showing sporting events), we’ll have music going … and then people working out. And you’ll have kids that are 6, 7 years old, and then you’ll have older retired couples that are here. And it’s kind of the cool thing about golf is it brings all those people together and it’s a club and a community based in one sport.”
Evergreen Tacoma includes a large screen, left, that measures 30 feet diagonally and will feature sporting events and other showings to entertain members.
While Evergreen is a membership club, it will offer lessons for nonmembers, plus host corporate events or parties, Bodine said. Member perks will eventually include 24/7 access to the facility beyond the posted 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily hours.
New Evergreen Tacoma members Danny Cox and Steve Franklin were having fun and working on their game on a Trackman simulator Monday during the facility’s soft opening.
Asked what attracted them to the club, Cox responded, “What doesn’t attract you to the place?”
North Tacoma resident Danny Cox practices on the Trackman on Monday at Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma.
He rattled off the building’s size, its large chipping and putting area, practice bunkers, Trackman bays, and more.
“It’s a great place to improve your golf game, plus the Golfletica over here, I mean, I was sold just on the concept before I even walked in and then we walked in, it’s incredible — looking forward to spending a lot of time here,” Cox said.
North Tacoma resident Steve Franklin practices on one of 13 Trackman golf simulators in Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma.
Added Franklin, “I would say just meeting other golfers … being a community of golf members here, and also, of course, get my handicap score down,” he said with a laugh.
Instructors at Evergreen Tacoma include Brian Wilbor, director of instruction, and former PGA Tour players and South Sound residents Andres Gonzales and Michael Putnam (Andrew’s older brother), who also will teach as part-time staff members, Bodine said.
An area inside Evergreen Tacoma includes four Trackman bays with simulators and has been dubbed The Quad, not necessarily a favorable word in golf for its meaning of four-over-par on a hole, joked owner Greg Bodine, but with more furniture on the way and its location just off the main floor, he expects it to be attractive for group events.
“They’re actually going to be the main help with our junior programs,” he said, listing three levels of junior programming.
The first level is introducing the game to kids, how to stand, grip the club, and other basics; the next level is intermediate, and the third level is for middle and high school kids looking to play college golf, which is where Putnam and Gonzales will contribute a lot, Bodine said.
The mezzanine overlooking the club is expected to be popular for parents waiting while their kids take golf lessons, and for others who might need to get some work done in-between swings.
“It’s just very unique to have two guys that played on the PGA Tour for years willing to help with a junior program and kind of pour into the kids in this area,” Bodine said.
Longer term, Evergreen partners have their eyes on expanding to Spokane or Vancouver, B.C., next, Bodine said, hoping to have five or six clubs within driving distance. From there, Evergreen could possibly expand more broadly by franchising.
Evergreen Tacoma includes undulating greens for putting and chipping work. Real sand traps also are available for bunker practice.
“We’ve had a lot of people that are interested in franchising, and so we’ll kind of let go of the reins when that time comes and see if our model is continuing to work and if it keeps doing what it’s doing, maybe we’ll have a whole lot of these around the country at some point,” he said.
While the Tacoma facility is largely funded by Bodine, Kearse, Weeks, and Andrew Putnam, former Seahawks Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor also have been supporters of Evergreen since early on and are among about six other backers, Bodine said. Evergreen Redmond opened in December 2022.
Equipment is still being added to Evergreen Tacoma’s gym.
Additional details on Evergreen Tacoma and its backers can be found in a July story in South Sound Business as the project was beginning to take shape.
Additionally, Andrew Putnam, who is Bodine’s cousin, was featured in January in South Sound Business’s sister magazine, South Sound.
