BROOKINGS — I first set foot on the land that is now Salmon Run Golf Course some 15 years ago, back before I became Sports Editor at The World.

Brookings resident Jim Cole, an avid golfer with a putting green in his back yard, took me out to the site where he envisioned Jack Creek Golf Course for the city’s residents, so they wouldn’t have to travel south across the border or north of Gold Beach to play.

The land had been donated to the city of Brookings by the SouthCoast Lumber Company for the purpose of building a golf course.

We didn’t then know it would be several years before the course became reality — it opened in 1999 — or that it would have a different name. All I knew was that Jim was excited.

He took me through the valley, showed me Jack Creek, filled me with visions of potential designs and then brought me to the far east end of the property.

There, he described his signature hole for the course, a downhill par 3 over the creek.

I don’t know how many of Jim’s ideas were incorporated in the final design for the course, but that one lives on, as the 15th hole at Salmon Run.

Meanwhile, the designers of the course made the rest of it every bit as exciting and beautiful as Jim had envisioned.

That’s why I return whenever I get a chance.

The course isn’t terribly long, but it is tight, and rewards ball control. The greens aren’t fast, which allows you to be aggressive on your putts, but they’re not easy, either, and most are surrounded by little mounds that can lead to delicate chip shots.

Ed Murdock, the general manager at Salmon Run, said the workers keep the greens slow to compensate for the narrow fairways.

“It’s so tight, we’re trying to keep the greens fair,”he said, adding that they also are consistent.

“They’re very true,”he said.

I feasted on the greens during our visit last week, making more 8- and 10-foot putts than in the previous month’s rounds combined. That’s the only way I can explain shooting a 99 while taking nine penalty strokes. That number would have been 10, but my dad found the drive I pushed to the right on No. 16.

I lost some balls that deserved losing, like the direct pull on No. 14 that took a straight line for trouble, rather than my usual fade. Ron and I both hit the green when we teed up balls from the top of the hill on No. 4, the island green that is considered the course’s signature hole. But when we moved down to the lower tees we were playing, I pulled my 9 iron into the trees far left of the green.

But I lost two other balls for hitting my tee shots too well, going through the fairway.

Despite those aggravating penalty strokes, we had a great round.

And as we drove over the hills and through the valleys that make up the routing (long treks between greens and tees on several holes make walking the course extremely difficult), the original name of the golf course rang true.

Salmon Run Golf and Wilderness Preserve referred mostly to the spawning salmon in Jack Creek, and the fact that the creek includes setbacks in a number of spots to keep the golfers far from the water.

Murdock said the name was shortened because elk were causing too much damage and now fences keep those large mammals off the property.

The emphasis on salmon remains.

We didn’t see any fish. But even before we teed off, we spotted a deer grazing along the shore of the pond near the clubhouse, and we saw two cute fawns a couple of holes later.

There were several ground squirrels that ran right in front of the carts, as well as a few chipmunks. On the tee for No. 10, a family of quail — the chicks not more than a few weeks old — feasted on some of grass seed. And while we waited for a group to clear the 17th green, I spotted a bunny on the hillside.

Murdock said bear, bobcats and cougars also frequent the property, though they stay far away from golfers.

Salmon Run is far enough from civilization that the valley is preserved from development, save for the few buildings related to the golf course.

It’s a perfect place for wildlife — and a beautiful spot for golf.