Jermaine Kearse, left, and Greg Bodine, are founders of Evergreen Golf Club.
The operators of Evergreen Golf Club, an indoor golf-training facility in Redmond for everyone from beginners to professionals, are expanding to the Sound Sound, where they plan to open a 24,000-square-foot facility they believe will be the country’s largest indoor facility dedicated to golf.
Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma, which will include 13 Trackman bays, an 8,000-square-foot chipping and putting green, real sand trap, and more, is expected to open in September. It will occupy the former Skateworld and Rollin’ 253 location at 2101 Mildred St. W., in Fircrest.
Evergreen Tacoma will be a supersized version of the Redmond facility, according to Greg Bodine, one of the partners in the company.
Work continues on the Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma facility, which spans 24,000 square feet.
Bodine is the caddie for Bryson DeChambeau, a LIV Golf player on a tear in this year’s majors. Recent accomplishments include winning last month’s U.S. Open, finishing second at the PGA Championship, and tying for sixth at the Masters. Bodine and former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse partnered to open Evergreen Golf Club in Redmond in December 2022.
Joining them to invest in the new Tacoma facility are Andrew Putnam, a PGA Tour player from University Place who was featured in South Sound magazine in January, and Lakewood resident Bryan Weeks, CEO of Earth Finance Inc. and a former executive with Russell Investments and Silver Creek Capital Management.
Evergreen Tacoma will cost between $1.8 million and $2 million for building renovations and equipment, Bodine said last week, before heading to Spain to carry the bag for DeChambeau at a LIV Golf event this week and then the British Open in Scotland next week.
The Evergreen Golf Club in Redmond includes a real sand trap, large undulating pitching and putting green, Trackmans, and more. The new Tacoma facility will be a supersized version.
South Sound residents and former PGA Tour players Andres Gonzales and Michael Putnam, older brother of Andrew, will help with the junior program at Evergreen Tacoma, including part-time teaching. The two also grew up playing junior golf together, according to the PGA Tour’s website.
“It’s just going to be awesome to have guys like that speaking to the kids that we have down there,” said Bodine, who lives in Kirkland, grew up in Lakewood, and is a cousin of the Putnam brothers. Bodine caddied for Andrew Putnam early in Putnam’s career, then caddied for Tony Finau before joining DeChambeau.
Asked his motivations for investing in the Tacoma facility, Weeks praised Evergreen’s product and people.
A look inside one section of the Evergreen Golf Club in Redmond.
“The catalyst was that Evergreen Golf Club, they do such an amazing job with their junior programs, and the idea of bringing a super world-class facility here in Tacoma, I just think it’s incredible,” Weeks said. “I think it’s incredible for adult golfers, but (I’m) just super enthused for the junior golfers to have a chance to work indoors and play golf all year around, it’s just going to be amazing. And they have proven their model up in Redmond; they’ve got a great business model, great leadership, and so to bring it down here to the south end, I just think is a wonderful opportunity for us.”
Weeks said the Tacoma facility will be as good as anything in the world.
“And then back to the leadership with Greg and Jermaine, these are folks that are professionals in the industry and they know what they’re doing,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have the group come down here and build this out in South Sound. I’m obviously super excited for them and super excited for the South Sound.”
Bryan Weeks
Additionally, Golfletica, a sports-fitness, training, and rehabilitation clinic specializing in golf-related training and care, will have an office in Evergreen Tacoma, Bodine said.
“They partnered with us up here in Redmond and they run their practice out of our Redmond facility, and then they’re also going to do the same thing down in Tacoma,” Bodine said.
Bodine met Harry Sese, Golfletica’s co-owner, and health and performance director, while caddying on the PGA Tour, noting that Sese works with several touring pros.
Some iconic South Sound images are part of the new Evergreen Golf Club Tacoma.
“It’s fun to have a guy that I got to know through professional golf helping out when it comes to the physical side, because we’re a golf company and we want to provide a top-of-the-line indoor golf experience when the weather’s bad and Harry knows a lot more than us when it comes to physical training and all that,” Bodine said.
Sese — who has numerous LIV, PGA, and PGA Tour Champions clients, including Jon Rahm, Wyndham Clark, and Cameron Davis — said Golfletica, which has had an office in Bellevue for 15 years, has been operating a satellite office at Evergreen Redmond since it opened 1½ years ago, including a treatment room and gym. Golfletica’s full staff of seven, including three chiropractors, four strength coaches, and a massage therapist, will be moving fully into a larger space with five treatments rooms, in addition to its gym, at Evergreen Redmond by the end of the month before expanding to Tacoma.
About 90% of Golfletica’s clients are golfers, but it sees athletes from myriad sports, according to Sese, who’s a board-certified chiropractic sports physician, registered massage therapist, and mobility specialist. His wife, Shawn, is Golfletica co-owner and head strength coach, who’s also in charge of junior development.
Harry Sese of Golfletica
The Tacoma facility will have a full-time strength coach to start, focusing on golf conditioning, then add care and rehabilitation services later. It also will have a gym.
“They’ve been an incredible partner for us,” Shawn Sese said, excited by the Redmond and Tacoma expansions.
“The Tacoma location looks amazing and enormous; it’s going to be golfer’s heaven down there,” added Shawn, who played golf at Eastern Washington University from 2000-04 and has competed as a mid-amateur.
Shawn Sese of Golfletica
On a related note, Kearse and Andrew Putnam also are advancing the Future Fairways Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing the joy of golf to junior golfers and communities that might not have the opportunity to experience it.
Bodine said once Evergreen Redmond got established, Kearse wanted to do something to give back to kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to play. Putnam, also wanting to give back to youth golfers, joined the effort. A December fundraiser at Evergreen raised $135,000 to launch the foundation.
Noting the foundation’s genesis, Bodine said the cost of getting into the sport can be prohibitive for many youth with the cost for clubs, greens fees, time, and travel and lodging, and entry fees for those who seek to advance competitively and play tournaments. According to Bodine, Kearse likes to say, “‘The further you get into this game, the more competitive you try to get, the more expensive it gets.’”
Greg Bodine, right, holds the caddie trophy he received when Bryson DeChambeau, for whom Bodine caddies, won the U.S. Open last month. At left is Jack Stearns, holding the flag from the 18th green at Pinehurst No. 2 in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where DeChambeau won. Stearns was among attendees at a talk Bodine gave recently at Evergreen Golf Club in Redmond to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the tournament and DeChambeau. The silhouette on the flag is of the late Payne Stewart, who won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in 1999.
What Kearse and Putnam are doing is “pretty cool,” Bodine said of the foundation. “It’s just dedicated to giving those kids that want to play at a higher competitive level and otherwise wouldn’t be able to — it’s just going to open that door for them.”
As for Evergreen Tacoma, Bodine hopes DeChambeau can make a guest appearance sometime after it opens.
“I’ve talked to him about it and he said he’d love to come up,” Bodine said.
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