Birch Ridge Golf Course opened in Soldotna on May 21, 1973, as a nine-hole course designed by Tom Smith. Each hole has separate tee boxes for the front and back nines, so an 18-hole round plays the course twice from different tees. The Cowan family became partners in the course in 1988 and bought it in 1993, and a younger generation of the family has since taken it over.