Fun By Sea and Land Way Down South

by Vic Williams | posted October 7, 2009

Well maybe not “way” down. We’re talking a few miles down the peninsula from San Francisco and its most famous public course — that would be Harding Park, site of this week’s Presidents Cup — where some of the Bay Area’s best golf attracts hundreds of thousands of players each year. We won’t make it all the way down to Monterey and Pebble Beach, they’re a bit out of our self-imposed driving radius and get enough FG press as it is. Instead we’ll start just a quick jaunt down Highway 1 from the city, then jump even further down the coast before heading inland to the Silicon Valley for today’s triple-dose of golf “medicine.”

Make a tee time and call us in the morning. You’ll find us hanging out with Tiger and Phil.

First up is Half Moon Bay, a lovely seaside golf outpost a half hour’s drive south of San Francisco. The Ritz-Carlton hotel is the big draw for romantically inclined couples or well-heeled hackers, but we’re here for the good stuff, spread over 36 holes that are as different from each other in design and setting as Vijay Singh is from Anthony Kim in personality.

Most tourists prefer to take on the newer Ocean Course for just that reason — it’s right on the Pacific, its links-style holes criss-crossing a bluff just south of the regal hotel building. Architect Arthur Hills made the most of a fairly tight space, delineating driving corridors with plenty of pot bunkers and giving players large targets on the greens, St. Andrews style. When the fog rolls in, the course gains a more authentic look and feel as holes stand on their own; it’s a thrill belting a tee shot into the mist and hoping for the best. But you definitely want the gray stuff to life in time for the final run of holes that head north, toward the hotel. The final drive over a barranca is impossible to forget.

Still, the Old Course — built in the early 1970s by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay — is the better test hole-to-hole, most of them tucked back away from the sea among dense stands of coastal pines and along a string of wooded lakes before emerging, like magic, onto the bluffs for the final stanza. The recently reworked final hole, its fairway cleaved by a deep slash in the sandy earth, plays hard against the beach, ending right next to the hotel’s firepit-warmed patio. This is pristine parkland golf with a few heathland chromosomes stirred in for good measure.

www.halfmoonbaygolf.com

Another 30 miles or so down the coast brings us to Santa Cruz, a beach town known for its boardwalk, surfers — and as the final residence of immortal golf architect Alister MacKenzie. The creator of Cypress Point and Augusta National also laid out Pasatiempo, easily one of the top 10 courses in Northern California if not the entire state, and made his home on the straightaway par-4 No. 6 fairway. Built through hills and canyons overlooking Monterey Bay, Pasatiempo boasts all the hallmarks of MacKenzie’s best work  — intricate, beautiful bunkers that are often “camouflaged” into the terrain when you look back from the green; triple- and four-decked putting surfaces that enthrall even as they drive you crazy (check out the amazing contours on No. 3, a one-shotter for the ages); and an overall strategy-driven design philosophy that makes playing the game much more than “passing time.” MacKenzie called No. 16 one his best 4-pars, with a blind tee shot to the top of a hill followed by a wicked approach over a ravine to a raised, perfectly angled green. There are so many good holes out here it nearly brings a discerning golfer to tears, and with his loving rejuvenation work of a couple years ago, modern master Tom Doak brought “Pasa” back to full power, and full circle.

www.pasatiempo.com

Finally we’ve to end this three-day jag at Cordevalle, which technically isn’t open to the public, though a round, with or without caddie (we recommend the latter) is yours for the playing if you stay one the elegant, secluded Rosewood Resort bungalows strung like jewels above the No. 9 fairway. Built of for dotcom millionaires in the late ’90s and tucked into its own valley a few miles off Highway 101, the course marks a high mark in architect Robert Trent Jones II’s illustrious career. In essence he finds a way to pay tribute to his own most admired designers — his own father’s green complex here, a MacKenzie bunker there — and does it all within a fairly strict environmental envelope. He wastes little time turning up the heat; No. 3 is a strategic marvel of a 5-par, and there’s little let-up from there. The far end of the golf course, at holes 6 and 7, offer tantalizing views of the property’s private winery, while the back nine carries you into gorgeous oak-studded hills and back down to the wetland-rich valley for a rousing and very tough finale. No. 17 is a well-bunkered beast and No. 18 isn’t much easier. Good thing they’re part of a beautiful Trent symphony — the golfing coda before a great gourmet meal in the resort’s restaurant, or perhaps a room service feast to remember. This qualifies as a once-in-a-lifetime stop for most folks, a true splurge. But if you want to feel truly “Presidential,” this is the place to make it happen.

www.cordevalle.com

Vic Williams is editor and publishing partner of Fairways + Greens, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to golf, travel and lifestyle for the West and beyond. He has written thousands of stories on golf and will cover every facet of the game right here, primarily travel but also the major tours, equipment, personalities and more. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it