Southern California – Some Greats and a Couple of Not So Greats

Southern California had a lot to live up to after seven outstanding courses in Arizona and Las Vegas.  We began this part of our trip near Santa Barbara at a public daily fee course called Sandpiper (#93 Last Ranked in 2015).  Sandpiper has a lovely location sitting on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean and we were anticipating another outstanding design.  This William Bell course was built in 1972 and was not rated in the Top 100 until 2015.  After playing Sandpiper, I am wondering how it ever was rated in the Top 100.  The conditioning was not good to say the least.  The rough was unkept in some areas, dirt in some areas and just weeds in another.  The greens were spotty and bumpy.  As far as the course design, the front nine was quite disappointing as it was pretty much straight away holes with few features that added any interest.  Once we made it to the back nine, it seemed like holes 10 thru 13 were designed by a completely different person.  They were very interesting and the balance of the back nine was a welcome upgrade from the first nine holes although the conditioning was still a disappointment.  The clubhouse and facilities were clean and functional but in need of an upgrade.  The staff was terrific and made you feel very welcome.  What is most aggravating about this situation is that Sandpiper is owned by Ty Warner, a billionaire that owns the Ty Toy Company. (Think Beanie Babies)  It is a shame that he does not give this golf course the resources it needs to bring it up to the standards that it deserves.

After a somewhat disappointing start to the Southern California leg of our latest trip, we arrived at Pelican Hill hoping to experience two courses worthy of their current Top 100 ranking.  We first played the Pelican Hill Ocean South (#77 on Current Rankings) course and after nine holes I was wondering once again why this course was ranked #77.  The front nine has a couple of holes that are quite interesting but the remaining holes were good but not necessarily outstanding.  After hole 10, we turned to the ocean and Tom Fazio turned this very nice course to a memorable design.  Fazio created three very interesting and beautiful holes along the beach and then added five finishing holes that were unique, stunning and challenging.  Sixteen is a beautiful par three and seventeen is a very stout uphill par five that requires three good shots to have any chance at birdie.  Number 18 is a gorgeous and strategic finishing hole that will test your game and nerve if you want to end this round on a positive note.  This is a high end resort that caters to the well-to-do but we were treated very well even though we were not overnight guests of the resort.  We had the opportunity to stay in our own two bedroom ocean front bungalow at Pelican Hill but I thought that $1,500 per night was just a little much.  A Hampton Inn a few miles away did the trick.  They did offer a twilight rate that we took advantage of on our first day.  By teeing off at 3:00 PM, we paid a rate of $190 instead of $295.  The $210 savings for the two of us took care of one night of our hotel.  We were also surprised to find that Pelican Hill did away with their mandatory forecaddie program which saved us another $100 per round and that $200 covered our hotel cost for another night.  There are several courses that I feel a forecaddie is a must to truly enjoy your round, but Pelican Hill is not one of those courses.  Each hole lies in front of you and you should be able to work your way around without too much difficulty.  After enjoying this round, we were looking forward to playing the North course the next day.

Back at Pelican Hill the following day, we played the Pelican Hill Ocean North (#98 on Current Rankings).  The North Course is also a Tom Fazio design and I think it was more of a brute than the 127 slope designation.  I liked the course but even though Fazio gives you wide fairways with very little rough, it is not a course that I would enjoy playing on a regular basis.  It has some stunning holes, great views of the ocean and good hole variety.  The condition of the course was very good but not quite up to the standards of some of the earlier courses we played.  So what is it that I do not like?  The never ending uneven lies.  Sidehill, downhill and uphill lies on almost every shot created a challenge that most golfers prefer to see only a few times a round.  To add to the difficulty, almost all greens were elevated, some significantly, which greatly added to the measured length.  There were several holes that had blind spots and without cart locators on the GPS, it was impossible to determine when it was safe to hit your tee shot.  Another characteristic that added to the difficulty and the frustration were the many runoffs that took what you thought was a well played shot into a bunker or it would roll 20 to 40 yards below the green.  Fazio did a wonderful job of crafting 18 holes from this piece of property, but it just did not have that fun factor that I look for in a great course.  That does not mean it has to be easy to be fun.  There are plenty of courses rated more difficult than Pelican Hill Ocean North that I enjoyed playing.  The hole after hole difficulty of this course was just too relentless.  Pelican Hill Ocean North is not a Top 100 course for me.

Okay, let me get something out of the way before I discuss the Trump National LA (#90 Last Ranked in 2015). Before playing this course, I tried very hard not to let my disdain for the owner of this course to influence the way I felt about this Pete Dye design in Rancho Palo Verdes, California. It sits above the Pacific Ocean on a steep hillside and they like to boast that you can see the ocean from every tee box. That may be true, but because they wedged in 18 holes where there should have been nine, you may be able to see the ocean from the tee box but at times you feel that you cannot see the fairway. The fairways are very narrow and in addition to that, Pete outdid himself on the number of sand bunkers he used on this course. Oh yes, the greens are very severe. When you finish playing a new course, you either cannot wait to come back, or you cross it off your list. This is one to cross off your list before you play it. The course is in immaculate condition and it does have beautiful views but the golf is painful, especially when you consider how much you just paid in green fees. I have liked most of the Pete Dye designs that I have played but this is not one of them.

After being somewhat disappointed in the first four SoCal courses, we headed to Poway, which is near San Diego, to see what Maderas (#92 Last Ranked in 2015) had in store for us.  What we found was a first class golf course, a first class facility and first class service.  On top of that, the fee was the lowest of the 12 courses we have played to date on this trip which makes it a great value as well.  Maderas is a Johnny Miller and Robert Muir Graves design and they accomplished what most golfers desire in a course.  Fairways were wide enough to offer a little forgiveness, bunkering was strategically placed but not so many that they dominated your view of the hole, great variety in both hole designs and their yardages and a lot of beauty along the way.  The conditioning was very good and I liked the little things they do to add to the experience.  Some examples would be the neatly installed stone along the curves of the cart paths, using engraved stone markers in the fairway to show you where to exit and very nice, clean restrooms on the course.  The front nine flows seamlessly from one hole to the next and you constantly need to be aware of what side of the fairway to attack each green.  The back nine was quite engaging as the elevation changes were a little more intense and the closing stretch of holes are as good as you could possibly want.  The architects incorporated some of the natural canyons and chasms that add to the charm but they are not so punishing that you feel you need to hit a heroic shot just to carry the trouble.  After the round we enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch on their outdoor patio.  In my opinion, Maderas should still be rated in  the Golf Digest Top 100 Public courses.  I feel that it is a better overall golf experience than both courses at Pelican Hill and those courses are currently in the Top 100 and are much more expensive to play. I love Maderas and it will certainly find a place in my Top 50 most enjoyable courses that I have played.

The next course on our journey through southern California is the most famous of the eight we are playing, Torrey Pines South (#33 on Current Rankings).  Since Torrey Pines South has hosted a regular PGA Tour event for years and has also hosted the U. S. Open twice with another scheduled in 2021, many people are familiar with this William F. Bell 1957 design.  Rees Jones was brought in to make some changes in 2001 before the first U. S. Open Championship.  Torrey Pines South is an example of a difficult golf course that is still fun to play for the average golfer.  The fairways are ample width and even if you do miss, all is not lost like many of the courses we have played.  Since most of the fairways run parallel to one another, you can find your ball in the rough or the adjacent fairway which gives you an opportunity to save the hole.  It is not overly bunkered but they are deep and challenging.  If you miss the greens in the wrong spot, it is very difficult to get up and down to save your par.  The pull of the ocean definitely has an effect on your putts so it sometimes looks as if they are breaking up hill.  The familiar pond in front of the 18th green is the only water hazard on the course and it is amazing how much different the course looks without the grandstands surrounding the holes. The condition of the course is good but not pristine and they could use a few more forward tees as they play very long at 5,500 yards.  With the number of ladies that play this course, 5,100 yards would make it a more enjoyable round for them.   One of the neat things about this famous course is that despite being a U.S. Open Course, it is owned by the county and is full of local golfers and most of them are walking the course.  The facilities also have a very obvious “muni” look to them and is very unpretentious.  There is quite a difference in cost to play for the locals as well, in that the county residents play $50 and guests pay $205.  I think this is the first time that I paid my green fees through a window like I was buying a ticket to a movie.  It looks like the restroom facilities on the course have not been updated since 1957.  This is surprising as you would think with the money earned from the tournaments, this is one project that could be undertaken. Facilities aside, Torrey Pines South is an outstanding golf course and a challenge for all levels of players.  As an overall golf experience, I would include it in my personal Top 100 but I would have it a little further down the list than the Golf Digest #33.

Our last destination on this trip was La Quinta which sits very near Palm Springs.  La Quinta is a beautiful and quiet area and the surrounding give you a relaxed feel before you even reach the golf course.  Our first course was La Quinta Mountain (#87 Last Ranked in 2007).  This was another Pete Dye design but much more enjoyable than his Trump LA course.  The clubhouse is outstanding and provided a nice setting for our lunch.  The staff were all quite helpful and friendly.  The Mountain Course is nestled against the Santa Rosa Mountains and it appears that some of the holes have melted right out of the rocky hillside and turned into lush fairways and greens.  The front nine is more open than the back and several of the holes play through some lovely homes and condos.  Once you reach the back nine, you move from the homes and close to the mountains.  Dye presents the golfer interesting holes as usual and there is a great deal of variety in this design.  He incorporated strategically placed bunkers and a few water hazards, but the course did not feel too penal.  Because of the setting, it just comes across as a relaxing round of golf.  The conditioning was very good and the greens rolled fast and smooth.  I liked La Quinta Mountain a lot and it is the type of course that you would enjoy playing on a regular basis.  It is used each year for the PGA Tour stop but unlike some other courses used on tour, this one is enjoyable for the average golfer.

PGA West Stadium (#47 on Current Rankings) was the second stop at La Quinta and the last of our 15 courses in the 16 day trip.  PGA West is a Pete Dye design as well and is also used for the PGA Tour Career Builder tournament each year and is more of a brute than the Mountain course.  This course was built primarily for tournament golf so for the average golfer, it can be a stiff challenge.  Pete was asked to build a challenging course and that he did.  You do not feel constricted or overwhelmed by the difficulty like you do at his Trump LA course, but you do not want to miss in the wrong place on any hole or you are fighting hard for par or even a bogey.  He makes generous use of  moguls, mounds, hills, swales, gumdrops or whatever else you may want to call them both in the rough and the fairways.  The course is heavily bunkered and many of these are extremely deep and severe.  Hole 16 is the home of the infamous deep bunker just left of the green where it may not only be impossible to get the ball to the green, you may have trouble getting yourself out as well.  There are many water hazards in addition to the bunkers which is unusual for a desert course. So as you can see, not only is there variety, there are challenges awaiting you on every hole.  Number 17 is the famous island green similar to the original at TPC Sawgrass except this one is not only surrounded by water, it is also bordered by huge rocks as well.  PGA West Stadium is in wonderful condition and despite the difficulty, fun to play.  It is not a course I would want to play on a regular basis but one that I would enjoy once or twice a year.  I can see why it is considered a Golf  Digest Top 100 Public course but I would not put it in my Top 50 Most Enjoyable courses that I have played.  I played this course on my birthday so you would have thought I might have been treated to a fairly good round, but unfortunately, with an 86, I had my second highest score of the trip.  Still, I was able to play a terrific  course with my wife Marilyn and our friends Daryl and Kathy Steiner.  All in all, a wonderful day and an awesome trip.