Poppy Hills Thunders Back

Poppy Hills #17

One of the most successful course renovations in recent history was revealed last year at Poppy Hills, the home course of the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) on the Monterey Peninsula just a few minutes from Pebble Beach.  Robert Trent Jones, Jr., totally transformed his original 1986 design to make it better integrated with the natural landscape and more playable for golfers at all levels.  He didn't make it easier, just better.

Poppy Hills now features wider fairways with less artificial mounding and fewer out-of-place bunkers that previously punished seemingly perfect shots in the fairway. To keep it challenging, there's now very little grass rough to keep your off-line drives from rolling into the trees of the Del Monte Forest. That unfortunate roll also happens more frequently now, too, because the fairways were rebuilt to make them firm and fast. Hit it straight and you'll be happy.

You'll also see many new sandy waste areas, many of them in front of tees, that not only give Poppy Hills the scruffy, natural look favored today but greatly reduce the water and chemicals required to maintain essentially unused acreage. The look and playing conditions aren't far from the new Pinehurst #2.

Poppy Hills plays tougher than the yardage, so don't let elevated testosterone levels push you into a set of tees you'll regret.  Basically, you can add 300 yards to the numbers on the scorecard to dictate your optimum length. The three-poppy (white) tees at 6,299 yards (70.5 rating/126 slope) actually play more like 6,600 using that formula.  From the tips, it's 6,672. The shorter tees measure 5,215.  Par, by the way, is 71.

Extensive bunkering and ample elevation changes aren't the only things adding difficulty to Poppy Hills. The greens and approaches now play hard and fast just like the fairways. Unless you've got a wedge game that drops the ball with a parachute, it's best to land your approach in front of most greens and let it run on. That's true on the par threes, too. It's no fun playing from behind most of these devilish greens.

Like the Pebble Beach Resort courses, Poppy Hills is a daily-fee facility that gets heavy play. NCGA members get some preferential treatment, so make your tee times as early as possible. Carts are available as are pull-carts, but arrangements for caddies should be made in advance with a call to the pro shop.

Local knowledge helps greatly here, so consider playing Poppy Hills two or three times--you won't regret it.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Quail Lodge Rebuilds a Classic Course

Quail Lodge & Golf Club

There is a world of good golf fifteen minutes (and $400) away from Pebble Beach along Carmel Valley Road.  Quail Lodge, Rancho Canada, and Carmel Valley Ranch offer welcome respites from the sometimes pressure cooker rounds played nearer the ocean.  I sampled Quail Lodge and found it both relaxing and challenging--and a real value for the dollar, too.

The course measures 6,449 yards from the back tees, with a manageable 71.4 rating/129 slope. Two other sets of tees make it fun for everyone and the reasonable green's fees encourage newbies to tee it up.  There's also an excellent range, short game area, and practice green right next to Edgar's Grill, which is worth the trip itself.

Quail Lodge Golf Course, a classic Robert Muir Graves design, has recently undergone a major renovation that includes rerouting a couple of holes, redesigning and refreshing the bunkers, and rethinking the pond, lakes, and other water on the property--a timely effort given California's recent drought. Since the back nine was closed for construction during my stay, I played only the front, which was interesting enough to play twice.

The opener is a benign 540-yard par five, but the meat of the front side is the collection of three long par threes. At 203, 198, and 216 yards, you may need some big artillery to reach them.  The number one handicap hole is the uphill 403-yard fourth hole where you can't see the surface of the green on your approach. The green is big enough to warrant a quick look, though, since the pin location can easily dictate club choice. The hill is so steep you know you'll need at least one more club--depending on the pin, you might want to add one or even two more.

One of the most challenging features of Quail Lodge is the massive tree that sits smack in the middle of the ninth fairway about 100 yards from the tee. A well-hit drive on the 541-yard par five can clear it, but don't try going around. The fairway is surprisingly narrow and there's OB on the left if you try for a big fade and a punitive bunker complex on the right if you go for a looping draw and hit the dreaded straight ball instead.

It's a great temptation to visit Carmel and focus entirely on the ocean courses, but a day spent looking eastward will yield some excellent golf.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Pasatiempo Celebrates Classic Golf

11th Hole, Pasatiempo. Photo courtesy of Rob Babcock/Pasatiempo Golf Club

California has so many great golf destinations it's easy to overlook one of the best courses in the state--if not the nation--simply because there's no resort attached to it and the professional tours don't stop there. I'm talking about Pasatiempo, the classic Alister Mackenzie gem roughly midway between San Francisco and the Monterey Peninsula, home to one of his other famous designs, Cypress Point (not to mention Pebble Beach, Spyglass, et al). No matter where you're playing otherwise in Northern California, Pasatiempo is well worth the short side trip. It's a must-play for serious golfers not to mention students of golf architecture. How good is Pasatiempo? When Bobby Jones played it on opening day in 1929, he immediately hired Mackenzie to design Augusta National.

Pasatiempo is only 6,521 yards from the tips, but it plays to a stalwart 72.4 rating/143 slope. Its dramatic elevation changes and seemingly endless natural hazards make for a rugged course whose difficulty is cranked up several notches by Mackenzie's strongly contoured greens and sprawling, glorious bunkers. Every hole seems to offer a risk and reward tactical choice and every green runs fast, true, and convoluted.

Each successive tee box presents you with a unique challenge. The opener is a 457-yard par four that requires a long, accurate approach as well as a powerful drive. The third hole, a magnificent 235-yard uphill par three, is protected not just by its length but by four menacing greenside bunkers along with a mind-messing cross bunker. The first par five you play, the sixth hole, is 567 yards, but believe it or not, accuracy counts more than length on every shot due to the tight fairway, cross bunkers, and long, narrow green. Next up is the shortest par four on the course, the 348-yard seventh hole, where trees from both sides nearly meet overhead to practically form a tunnel over the fairway. Needless to say, a controlled tee shot is essential.

Natural hazards abound on the back side. A bottomless ravine threatens both your drive and your approach on the 392-yard eleventh hole, then comes back into play guarding the green on the 373-yard twelfth. Fifteen is a 141-yard one-shotter perched behind another deep fissure in the earth's crust, as is the 169-yard finishing hole, which also slopes--and putts--more like an icy ski slope than a golf green.

16th Hole, Pasatiempo. Photo courtesy of Rob Babcock/Pasatiempo Golf Club

The number one handicap hole on Pasatiempo is the 387-yard sixteenth, a hole Mackenzie himself considered the best two-shotter in the game. The drive is uphill, blind, and rewards a high draw if you can pull one off. The approach is what separates the men from the boys, however. It's back over the ravine you've encounted on several holes and into a brutal three-tiered green that is a full 49 yards deep and has a frightening false front. Coming up short is not an option, nor is leaving your ball above the hole. In other words, par on this hole is almost always a function of a perfect second shot. It's easy to see how Pasatiempo was built to enhance match play, the predominant form of competition in its day.

The club has hosted numerous USGA championships and is the permanent home of the Western Intercollegiate Golf Tournament where everyone from Ken Venturi and Gene Littler To Johnny Miller, Dave Stockton, and Tiger Woods competed during their college years. LPGA star Juli Inkster literally grew up on the course and Alister Mackenzie chose to live there--his home is along the fairway on the sixth hole. And here's an aside for New York area golfers: Mackenzie is believed to have worked on Century Country Club in Purchase while he was a partner with Colt & Allison, the official designers of the course.

One of the best features of Pasatiempo is its status as a semi-private club. Certain tee times are reserved for members, but you can book a time online as much as 365 days in advance. If you treasure the classical traditions of golf architecture or otherwise want a spectacular golf experience, book yours today!

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

A Perfect Golf Weekend? Try Half Moon Bay

The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay epitomizes the perfect golf weekend destination. Just 30 minutes from San Francisco International Airport, the resort offers accommodations at a fabulous Ritz hotel, two very entertaining golf courses, and guest pampering that won't stop.

Golf is the heart of the resort and two excellent and completely different golf experiences are available to both resort guests and daily fee players. The Old Course, a traditional parkland-style track that opened in 1973, was designed by Arnold Palmer and Francis Duane. Its18th hole along the ocean has been ranked among the 100 best in America. The Ocean Course was designed by Arthur Hills to pay homage to Scottish links-style courses. It debuted in 1997 and was remodeled in 2009 to make it play even more true to the style.

18th Hole on the Old Course. Photo courtesy of the resort.

The Old Course stretches 7,001 yards from the tips. The generous fairways and gentle greens are perfect for the resort player who chooses the right tees (the whites are fine at 6,323 yards). The better player will be rewarded by well-placed tee shots and aggressive pin-seeking approaches while the less-than-perfect golfer won't be decimated by a miss or two. The Old Course ends with two thrilling holes on the Pacific, a 167-yard one-shotter that plays dead into the prevailing wind followed by a risk-and-reward 405-yard par four with the ocean on the right and a ravine crossing the fairway smack in the middle of the range of just about everybody's tee shot. A driver should probably be your last choice off the tee on the final hole. The shot into the tiny 18th green is a simple short iron or wedge made a bit more demanding by the audience typically watching from the hotel patio and fire pit adjacent to it.

The Pacific is in view from every hole on the Ocean Course, but is in play (kind of) only on the 184-yard par-three seventeenth hole, where an errant tee shot can easily find the beach at the bottom of the cliffs next to the green. The ocean breezes (or gales), though, shape every shot you make on the 6,854-yard track--especially on the back nine. The course plays much like pure links, with rolling, contoured fairways where odd bounces prevail and approach shots into generous greens demand careful consideration of the humps and bumps of the greenside terrain. Shot values matter more than sheer length and power. The fairways are generous but the rough is mowed short around bunkers to bring the hazards into play on tee shots. Greenside surrounds are cut to “just above green” mowing height to foster ball movement on the ground and native fescue between holes provides you with visual cues about how to direct your shots.

18th Hole on the Ocean Course. Photo courtesy of the resort.

With a little planning, it's easy to play both courses in a day. Just be sure to leave time for a generous lunch break in Mullins Bar & Grill in the clubhouse or in the Conservatory Lounge in the hotel. The sliders of pulled pork cooked for 48 sweet hours deserve your full attention, so allow enough time between rounds to enjoy them.

Other dining options include the nautically-inspired Navio, which serves fine coastal cuisine from a 1,000 sq. ft. display kitchen and ENO, a wine bar that contains over 5,000 bottles of international wines and includes sommelier-selected wine flights. Other resort amenities include a 16,000 sq. ft. Spa and Fitness Center with a unique co-ed Roman mineral bath, an immense patio perched on the cliffs above the beach, and soul-searing views of the Pacific from nearly every room. There also a scenic trail that winds along the cliffs and activities nearby include horseback riding, deep-sea fishing, whale watching, sea kayaking, hiking, biking and antiquing.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf