Four lifelong local men from the Tri-Cities area of the southeast region of Washington, who had spent the summer days of their youth camping and fishing at Levey Park and boating on the adjacent Snake River, wanted to take the 300 acres that border that now-closed park and make it their dream.

And the idea of building River Ranch Golf Resort came into being.

The site was once home to a winery and hundreds of acres of vineyards. After the winery closed in 2020 and the land was no longer productive, the four men formed a partnership and purchased the property.

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All four men bring their own strengths to the table in making this happen. Keith and Jordan Tiegs are of the Tiegs family that owns one of the largest agricultural operations in the region, farming over 150,000 acres. Brad Beauchamp sits on the Kennewick city council, and he and Ben Harris are partners in a land development business who build residential communities.

“I remember standing on the property in 2010 and thinking, ‘I’m going to own this land one day,’” Harris said.

After the winery closed its doors and the land became available, Harris and Beauchamp put a bid on it, but it was unsuccessful. Keith Tiegs was attempting to purchase the property adjacent to it, so Harris approached Keith about putting their bids together to purchase the entire combined property. It became a done deal in August 2024.

The partners in this new venture felt the setting of the land, which includes nearly a mile of Snake River shoreline, was too good for potatoes and houses, especially considering their own emotional and youthful ties to the property. They wanted to showcase the beauty of the region, and to create something that everyone can enjoy.

“We were looking at all options, and the idea of a golf course kept coming up,” said Harris.

Being avid golfers themselves, playing mostly at Columbia Point Golf Course just up the Columbia River in nearby Richland, they thought a golf course might be just right. Beauchamp reached out to golf course architect David McLay Kidd, leaving a voice message on his office phone.

Kidd, a native Scotsman who since the late 1990s has made Central Oregon his home and headquarters, made his name by designing the original course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and would go on to design other notable Northwest layouts such as Tetherow in Bend, Ore. and the two courses at Gamble Sands in Brewster, Wash., among many others around the world.

“I get a lot of calls from people with project ideas; some are okay, but many are not realistic,” Kidd said. “When Brad first called me, I had two or three other projects going at the same time and was hardly ever in the office or available to talk.”

It was three months after Beauchamp’s initial call to Kidd’s office before the two finally had their first conversation and he was able to explain to Kidd what he and his partners had in mind.

“When I finally met with them and visited the property, and saw the vistas, the sandy soil, the cliffs overlooking the river, I said, ‘Why didn’t I come out here sooner!’”

Kidd’s natural affinity for fescue links-style courses built on sand has found an unlikely home on inland property far from any ocean.

“I’m at a point in my career, and my life, where I know I have more projects behind me than in front of me, so how I spend my time is becoming really important to me,” Kidd mused. “I only want to work on projects that really appeal to me and what I want to accomplish with the energy I have left in me. I call them ‘unicorn’ projects – I want them to be special. And this place is special.”

Kidd is a hands-on architect. He has a strong right-hand man in design partner Nick Schaan, but Kidd himself will spend more than 100 days on site in creating the River Ranch project.

“The great thing about working with these owners is that they have a lot of experience in working with the land,” Kidd said. “They already know everything about the permitting process, about irrigation needs, about infrastructure needs, about equipment needs, and weather, and timelines. They are hands-on owners in the best possible way – their attitude is ‘go, go, go,’ and they have pretty much cleared the path for me and my crew, and all we see is a straight line to completion.”

Kidd’s team, including Schaan, has worked through the winter to begin shaping on five holes. They broke ground in November 2025, and are hoping to start grassing some of the fairways by late April 2026 and continue doing so through the summer and into the fall. The early projection is that the course will be open for play by late summer of 2027.

It was Kidd who recommended to the owners that they bring on KemperSports – which manages Bandon Dunes, Chambers Bay, among many other top-100 destinations – to manage River Ranch.

“My crew can build a great golf course, but if the course is not managed properly or if the golfer’s experience is not what it should be, none of our work really matters,” Kidd says. “I’ve got so many friends at KemperSports. I’ve known Josh Lesnik, who was the first general manager at Bandon Dunes and is in upper management at KemperSports, for 30 years. We are the same age, and we’ve been like brothers our entire adult life. So, there’s a very strong bond there, and a great deal of trust.”

Kidd explained that the countryside around Pasco was once the wintering grounds for tribes of Native Americans. Winters are milder there, and golf will be possible year-round.

River Ranch will be a resort, with the golf course being open to the public, and with plans for four-bedroom cottages in the beginning with the possibility of more to follow. The resort’s owners have a lot of land available, if they want to eventually expand beyond just the one golf course.