Fall 2017
It’s been a great November 2017 as Brenda and I were invited by some friends, John and Patty C., to join them in Kiawah Island to play some golf. We were in Kiawah for five days, and I played four rounds and Brenda three. We were scheduled for the fabulous Ocean Course on a Thursday but were rained out! Bummer! As I’ve blogged before, Kiawah is one of my favorite destinations in the world. It is a gorgeous South Carolina island with gorgeous golf courses. On this trip, we played three of the mainstays there – Cougar Point, Osprey, and Turtle Point. It doesn’t get much better than to travel to Kiawah to play those three tracks and also the Ocean Course.
This was my seventh trip to Kiawah – three with my friend, John C., and the others with buddies.
The four courses mentioned are open to the public, although I believe most who come to play either
come to visit friends who have a place on the island, or, even more likely, come on a “stay and play” package.
Staying with John was a total bonus as we got to mooch free housing – plus he has a limited membership at
the Kiawah courses which allows guests some very favorable greens fees. Brenda played with John and me
on Wednesday and Friday. Then on Saturday two other buddies of ours arrived, Dan L. and Pat M., and we
played a threesome and twosome at Turtle Point. (All these fellows are part of my long-time Saturday morning
group at the Wilmette Golf Club in Illinois.) Half Moon Bay -- 18th Old Course
As an aside, I came up with a game for us to play which turned out kind of cool. Brenda and I played our
“best ball – scratch”, against the best ball of the three fellows – also gross – no strokes involved. It was a $3 buck Nassau. I just took a “wild guess” at creating a game, and it turned out quite fun and quite competitive. Brenda and I were a 12 handicap and a 7 handicap, respectively, and John, Dan and Pat were a 17, an 11, and a 12, respectively. It ended up both teams shot 1-over on their best ball on the front nine, and three-over on the back nine – a Dead Even Tie. Yikes. (I had about a 5- or 6- footer for par on the 18th hole for a win, but missed it by a mile. Darn!)
As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post on this website, the Pete Dye-designed Ocean Course is one of my favorites anywhere. Of course it is famous for hosting the 1991 Ryder Cup, as well as the 2007 PGA Senior and the 2012 PGA Championship. It is scheduled to host the PGA Championship again in 2021.
While the other three aren’t in the same league as the Ocean Course, they are superb courses in their own right, with great layouts, great conditions, and tremendous challenges. Plus the practice facilities and the clubhouses are all great as well. The architects of the other three are also pretty well known – Jack Nicklaus at Turtle Point, Tom Fazio at Osprey, and Gary Player at Cougar.
*********
The fun continued a few days later as we headed to San Francisco for our annual trek out there to visit two of our kids who live there. We had hoped to play more, but over 12 days we got in three great rounds at three great courses – the Stanford U. golf course (Tiger’s college course), Wente Vineyards in Livermore, and another “Ocean Course”, this one the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay.
I had played the Stanford Course some 15 years ago when my daughter was an undergrad there, but I remembered very little of it. I did remember the opening tee shot which features an elevated tee and requires the shot to go over a fairly busy road about 50 to 80 yards ahead and below you. That is pretty crazy, even for a low handicapper. Even Brenda was a little scared to pull the trigger on that one. Other than that first hole, I did not remember much. But I found the front nine very playable and very scenic, and I managed even par. But the back nine put me into shock. I was playing the course at about 6200 yards, and I found the back nine at Stanford to be one of the hardest sets of nine holes I have ever encountered. First off, the greens, which were plenty tough on the front, became extremely tough. I think they were fair, but they were tricky as hell. Some seemed influenced by the mountains to the west, and others seemed counter-sunk to break towards the mountains. And I could not read them at all (Flatlander disease??!). Then there was the 12th hole. It was a 446 yard monster of a par 4, with three large trees filling up the middle of the fairway. I think the play was to go either left or right of those trees, but neither way seemed very inviting. I chose left, but faded it a bit, so I had about 60 yards to the first fairway tree, which I would guess was 35 to 40 feet tall and right on my line to the pin. I had about 215 left to the green. I got a bit greedy and decided to try to lift a 3-wood over that tree, but I clipped the top and dropped down, which left me behind the other two trees. I punched below those and then took a wedge shot and three putts to get up and down for a triple bogey. I felt like I had been pantsed by the course designer, William Bell.
The main problem the rest of the way was the very tricky and mostly very large greens. I think I three-jacked it four times on the back nine. Shot 47 to go with my even-par front nine. (Yikes/damn/darn).
When I asked one of the PGA assistant pros at the course, Terry Gingell, if many people complained about the high difficulty of the back nine (or if I had just lost my mind), he at first commented that he thought it was “just a little bit harder than the front nine”, but upon my prodding, finally agreed it was quite a bit tougher for a lot of folks.
Nonetheless, I can’t wait to go back there and try again. Excellent golf course. One problem for our readers here, the Stanford Golf Course is not open to the public. You have to either be a student, faculty, or an alum to get access (or sponsored by one of those types of people). The other problem is it is not cheap. We paid $135 for greens fees each, plus cart fees. And despite those fees, you still had to buy range balls, so we were out about $300 bucks before teeing off. Let me tell you as a Stanford parent of two kids who attended, the tuition to the joint was pretty high, too!
Terry clarified for me that you pretty much have to know someone to get on the Stanford Course. Either a faculty member, or an alum, or perhaps even a current student there. So you may have to work on that a bit.
*********************
The very next day Brenda and I had a morning tee-time at Wente Vineyards Golf Club with another of my Wilmette Golf Club buddies, attorney Tim Riordan and his son, John Riordan, who lives in San Franciso. I’ve also blogged about this course before as this Greg Norman designed club is one of my favorites in California. We try to play it every year. Wente is fairly unique in that it is laid out amidst some California foothills that don’t seem to have a name, although they seem to be related to the Diablo Range to the south, and also the Santa Cruz Mountains aren’t too far to the west towards the Pacific Ocean. The course is just south of the city of Livermore. Plus, as it is owned by the Wente Family Vineyards, the course is lined with fields of grapevines, which, quite frankly, blows my mind when I visit! In addition, the course has at least 10 or 11 or 12 elevated tees, which provide constant vistas of the California landscape, along with awe-inspiring tee shots. Plus this is a public access golf course and sometimes you can catch a nice greens fee on GolfNow or similar websites – or even the Wente course website. Generally, the rack rate greens fees are about $119 during the week and $149 on the weekends.
While the greens at Wente are not as tricky as those at Stanford, they are tricky enough. One tip for your visit (that I always remember too late) is that the greens at the beginning of the round don’t have a ton of slope for the most part, but then mid-round they get a bit more sloped, then at the end of the round they flatten out a bit more again. I always end up on the last three holes playing three feet of break on lag putts that actually have three inches of break (Doggone it!)
Another superb thing about Wente is the 19th hole. The clubhouse has an outdoor seating area that is great, and they serve, among other things, the wines of Wente Vineyards. (We had a couple of excellent glasses of Wente cabernet sauv, plus Tim picked up the tab--Perfection!) And then, if you like, you can walk a few hundred yards through the parking lot to the Wente wine-tasting room, and spend another hour or so tasting excellent wines for a very modest fee. We couldn't drink more vino, but we bought a couple more bottles to bring to dinner later that night.
***********************
Our final round of the California trip was to Half Moon Bay, just under an hour south of San Francisco on the Pacific Coast. There are two golf courses there, the Ocean Course, built in 1997, and the Old Course, built in 1973. As Brenda is a great admirer of large bodies of water, she definitely wanted to play the Ocean Course. So we did on a 58 degree day with lots of sunshine. Most of the day we just wore Under Armour, long-sleeve, cold-weather shirts and a golf shirt over that.
We made a minor mistake is setting up our tee time. I usually ask the pro staff when I first call in if there is anything unusual going on at the course, for example, have the greens just been “punched.” I forgot to ask that question this time, and the Ocean Course greens had indeed been punched about 2 and one-half weeks prior. They were doing better, but still healing, so they were a bit bumpy and only rolling about 8 on the Stimpmeter (my estimate) so they were a bit slow and not holding the line great.
Nonetheless, we had a great time on this links layout. I would point out that I found many of the holes to be a bit similar in layout and topography, so a slight negative, but the positives of ocean views from almost every hole plus the final three holes right along the ocean far outweighed the negatives. The pro staff told us the greens usually run about 11-12 on the Stimp, and the course would undoubtedly be a total joy to play with those kinds of green speeds.
On the short Par 3 17th, along the water, we thought Brenda had maybe knocked in an Ace as her tee shot hit about 5 feet in front of the pin and then bounced right next to the hole, but it shot past leaving her a 6 foot birdie putt that she made. On the longer, 527 Par 5, 18th, I hit my 7-iron, third shot left of the very back pin into a stiffening wind. I really couldn’t tell where it ended up as the green was elevated and the shot a bit blind. I thought maybe I had gone long. But upon arrival near the hole, there it was two feet from the pin. Another birdie. We felt pretty good about our finish.
We did not get to play the “Old Course," of course, on this trip. But I had heard that the 18th Hole of the Old Course was quite spectacular., so as we finished 18 on the Ocean Course, we walked about 200 feet around the Oceanside of the Ritz Carlton Hotel there, and looked down on # 18 of the Old Course (see the phenomenal photo above on this page). It was a spectacular-looking hole. I would say easily rivaling the 18th at Pebble Beach as a great Oceanside finishing hole. Can’t wait to play it next time.
Incidentally, you can also catch some decent greens fees on the Half Moon Bay courses on the club’s website. They were offering $75 per person on the day we played after Noon. However, keep in mind it was late November and sunset was around 5 PM, so you better start by 12:30 PM at that time of the year or you likely will not finish. We did get around the course in about 4 hours, and the pro staff said that was fairly typical. About the only things that slowed us down were taking pictures on 16, 17, and 18!
Assistant pro Johnny O’Leary filled us in on the rack rates for greens fees at Half Moon Bay, running roughly $140 to $200, depending on the day of the week and time of year, with some good deals on twilight rates as well. Johnny also mentioned that Half Moon has a “Legends Club” loyalty program which is more directed at locals or frequent visitors. For a $250 buck annual fee you can get up to 50% off greens fees, golf shop gear and the like if that is a deal that works for you.
*******************
Now it is December and we are back in Chicago! I’m watching the Hero World Challenge, Day Two, in the Bahamas. This is Tiger Woods tournament, which he hosts, and which at the moment, he is in the lead. This is Friday, December 1st. I just sent an email to my son and a couple of his friends who are all kind of “hacker” golfers, although they are great athletes in great physical shape. However, I think my email sums up what I am seeing on TV!!
“You boys should take a look at the golf tournament on TV this weekend.....the Hero World Challenge.
It is at this unbelievable location in the Bahamas, and Tiger Woods is making his comeback after 300 days + off the pro tour with his various back injuries ( and mental injuries).
Tiger is so unbelievably buff he makes you guys look like a bunch of Medicare recipients (like me). Despite his multiple back surgeries, he is swinging the golf club with unreal fluidity. He was just on a Par 5 where he hit a driver 330 yards, then hit is 3-wood 271 yards to 15 feet from the hole. He made the 15-footer for Eagle!! You should take a look if you want to see what a perfect golf swing looks like. A year ago the guy couldn't even swing a golf club.
I was watching this last night and I thought maybe Brenda and I should try to go to this location in the Bahamas as the golf course (Albany Country Club) looked particularly beautiful. Online, I find out that the minimum cost of renting housing is $2500 a night!!!!! That doesn't even include greens fees. It's five times more expensive than Pebble Beach...at least... what the f....*ck....
Anyway, you should watch Tiger. He's 42 and swinging like a 20 year old.....and he's in the about the best shape of any male human I've ever seen.***
It will be on NBC TV this weekend....
GSB
*** don't beat yourselves up if you can't be in the shape he's in....he probably spends $half a million a year on physical trainers!!!!!
He's definitely motivating me. I have dedicated myself to doing 20 sit-ups tomorrow morning!!!!!!!”
***
***
***
***
***