71. California Desert, February 4-11, 2017

California Desert, February 4-11, 2017

I made a lot of trips to the CA desert in the mid-1980’s.  I had started a process of revamping my golf swing with Hank Haney in November 1984 (when he was at Sweetwater CC southwest of Houston) and about a year later Hank became the head of golf instruction at PGA West in La Quinta, CA. 

Back then, the courses at PGA West were immaculate and extraordinarily well run. They had been developed and managed by Landmark , a company formed by two PGA professionals (both of whom had played on the PGA Tour) Ernie Vossler and Joe Walser, both of whom unfortunately passed away in the last 5 years.  At one time Landmark was involved with PGA West (CA), La Quinta Resort (CA), Mission Hills (CA), Oak Tree CC (OK), Oak Tree GC (OK), Kiawah (SC), and Palm Beach Polo (FL).   They had purchased an S&L bank (remember those?...a US Gov’t conceived industry with 100% of assets being fixed rate 30 year mortgages funded almost exclusively by short term savings accounts…so when interest rates exploded there was a problem…anyhow, the whole story is toooo long).

I had been back to the desert twice (each time for one day) in the last three years, and conditions were not the same.

On this trip, I was hoping to play two of my 4 missing Ryder Cup sights, plus two courses on my USA Top 100 Ever bucket list.  Both Pat and I have old friends who live in the desert so getting on courses proved fairly doable and our calendar for dinner filled up quickly.

We rented a villa through Air BnB again (did the same thing in Melbourne last year).  It was located in Rancho Mirage about one mile north of Mission Hills CC.  It was well furnished, in a nice neighborhood, and well located…about all we could ask.  Saturday night 2/4 we unpacked and settled in. 

Thunderbird CC, February 5, 2016: Founded in 1951, Thunderbird was the first golf club in the Cochella Valley as the stars and power brokers flocked to the desert to get away from LA on weekends.  At its 4^th Annual Invitational Tournament in the 50’s, the entertainment committee consisted of Phil Harris (Chair), Desi Arnez, Hoagy Carmichael, Dean Martin, Gordon MacRae, and Perry Como!!  In 1955 it hosted the Ryder Cup, and in its early years it developed the world’s first motorized golf carts.  It has never been on a Top 100, and I am sure couldn’t care less.  It served as the “home” course for the initial Bob Hope Desert Classic (again, to our generation this event will always be “The Hope”) in 1960, and was one of the other host courses the following two years.  It also hosted the pre-cursor tournament known as the Thunderbird Invitational from 1954-59.  These days it plays to 6801 yards (par 71).

The head pro at T-bird is Nick DeKock who had worked at Brookline before heading west.  He was before my time at Brookline but Pat remembered him well.  Unfortunately, we learned upon arrival that he had torn up his left ankle in an accident while riding a golf cart, and was confined to his home for another few weeks.

When we arrived at the first tee, I remembered that Thunderbird was always considered the easiest course on the PGA Tour, and I started thinking that this might be the change to shoot my age.  A 3-putt bogey on #1 followed by a double on #2 made those thoughts disappear fairly quickly.  At that point, I started grinding and focusing on very shot and my play improved vastly (playing holes #3-#11 in two under)…until I got to #14 and started getting ahead of myself again.  As it turned out, I ended up with a 73 after being stymied by palm trees on holes #15 and #17, so I still really had a chance…  Truth of the matter is that the course was playing as a par 69 as two par 4’s were shortened to par 3’s due to flooding the prior week. 

Thunderbird was always one of the great old clubs of the desert.  Many of the homes have wonderful outdoor sculptures but one house (I did not find out who owns it), had an interesting photo in its almost all glass living room and I took a pic here so you would not miss it (look carefully):

 

Look inside on the left side of the sliding door...

 

We finished the round just after 3pm and were invited to watch the Super Bowl in the club's beautiful grill room and bar.  Pat, of course, was close to clinically depressed as the first half rolled on (the couple behind us rooting for the Falcons did not help).  We got back to our villa and watched the second half and the amazing 4^th quarter and overtime at home.  Incredible what the Patriots can do when they don’t have to play the NY Giants in the Super Bowl.  Best part of the game for me was watching Roger Goodell getting roundly booed during the trophy presentation.  My problem with Goodell has nothing to do with deflategate…it revolved about his handling of Colin Kaepernick and his denial of a Dallas Cowboy request to display a decal honoring the five Dallas police officers who were killed in July.  Enough said!

Thunderbird fulfills the needs and desires of its membership beautifully and superbly.  While I have no access to the Club’s demographic data, allow me to just say (as a 72 year-old) there were not a whole lot of “spring chickens” around the club that day.  The fairway grass is a little long, the greens are a little slow, the bunkers a little shallow etc etc etc.  It is also a great great club, beautifully maintained with outstanding service.  Isn’t that exactly what most 70-90 year old golfers want??  I can tell you that if I haven’t shot my age in few years, I’ll be back at Thunderbird!!

One other important note.  After the Super Bowl, the new “version” of “24” started its first season…no “Jack”, as Keith Sutherland is busy with “Designated Survivor”, but pretty good based on the first hour.  So now I have two shows worth watching on TV other than, of course, Fox News and golf.

La Quinta Country Club, February 6, 2017:  Founded in 1959, LQCC was a frequent host for exhibitions and events featuring pros from The Tour and in 1964 served as a host course for the first time and to date has been one of the The Hope’s host courses for 43 years, including 5 years as the “home” course.  Like Thunderbird it has had it share of Hollywood stars (but no great pictures displayed in homes) and Presidents.  In October 1960 during his last year in office, President Eisenhower flew in by helicopter for the club’s dedication.  Other notable members have included President Ford, Bob Rosburg, John Brodie, Clint Eastwood, and Andy Williams.  In terms of USA Top 100’s, LQCC was included in the 91-100 grouping in Golf Digest’s 1969 “Best Tests” listing.  It has not been on any other USA listing or any Global listing

We played at 9am with Susan & Larry B., friends from Brookline who started coming to the desert in 1983.  After hitting a few balls at the range, we were off, and at least for a while I was on fire, going birdie, bogey, par, birdie, par, birdie, birdie to be 3 under through 7.  I made the turn at 2 under and started thinking the wrong things.  Had a 40 on the back for a 2 over 74..two strong days of golf…hit the ball well but no cigar.  Now to put things in perspective, about 2 weeks earlier, Adam Hadwin fired a 59 playing from 7060 yards (we were at 6175 yards)! Course is very enjoyable to play and in perfect condition (for a “green” golf course).  Amazing the conditions out here.  The weather in generally perfect year round (it gets brutally hot in the summer but bermuda grass loves heat) so it is like growing grass in a laboratory.  The greens here, and at Eldorado and Tamarisk were as good as any greens I ever played (again except that they were too “soft” for my taste).  On the other hand, from an architectural standpoint building courses in a desert present a new set of problems.  Yes, you start with an “empty canvas” and my guess is that costs are lower, but generally the land is void of features such as creeks and hills (although the mountains here present a fabulous background).  But the real problem is that nature tends to create better shapes and contours than we do. 

La Quinta is a great club with a very good course…and it is was my 900^th.

Monday night was a dinner with Margorie M. and Rick H., a couple who currently split their time between the desert and Bend, OR.  We met Margorie and Rick at the ISAGS event in South Africa and I played Crosswater and Pronghorn-Fazio in Bend with Rick (both in 2015).   We were sorry that they did not do the Cabo trip, but it was great catching up as these are two wonderful folks, even if Rick is clearly a monopolist, having had his 31^st (yes, that says thirty-first) hole-in-one in January 2017.  This is further proof that life is not fair, as in 61 years 7+ months I have a total of one (of course, it is generally believed that Ben Hogan only had two).

Eldorado Country Club, February 7, 2017: To my mind, desert golf to date is divided into three “eras”:

1.     startup phase that featured Thunderbird, Tamarisk, La Quinta, and Eldorado;

2.     “growth” era bringing huge developments with courses by Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus and others, which started with La Quinta Resort and PGA West and received nationwide attention with the advent of the televised “Skins Game” each Thanksgiving weekend; and

3.     “over the top/boom-bust” era that has seen a new “king of the hill” club open about every five years proclaiming to be the latest and greatest (in order: Vintage, Quarry, Stone Eagle, and Madison Club) and todays world with no “full” clubs in the desert.

Everything I had heard through the years indicated that Eldorado was the major domo of the first era.  Also, having played Thunderbird on Sunday, I needed to play Eldorado, to bring my “missing” Ryder Cup course list down to two (Portland GC and Greenbrier-Greenbrier).   Several months ago, I asked a golf pro friend if he knew anyone at Eldorado, and he quickly advised that a mutual friend, Barney Adams (as well known as Barney is in the golfing world, might as well use his full name) was living full time in the desert and played at Eldorado.  I first met Barney around 1992 when he set up a custom fitting shop at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in McKinney, TX.  He may have been the first custom fitter in the game, and was also hawking a “two-putter solution” consisting of two putters identical to each other except for loft.  One was for bent grass greens with a loft of about 3-4°, and the other was for Bermuda (as bent grass is “smoother” putting on bend requires less loft to carry the ball before it gets rolling).  A few years later came the “Tight Lies”, golf's first successful infomercial, and Adams Golf (and a myriad of other inventions and patents).  BTW, he has a new one in the works so watch out, golf world!!

Pat loved the round with Barney...he is truly a fascinating character and brilliant.   Remember, aside from all his inventions, he also came up with the concept of “Play It Forward.”

Eldorado CC was founded in 1957 and two years later hosted the Ryder Cup (even making the cover of Sports Illustrated.  In early 1961 President Eisenhower retired and became the first of three US Presidents to be named an honorary member (followed by Presidents Ford and Reagan).  From 1961 through 1989 Eldorado was one of the clubs utilized for the Bob Hope, including 1964 when it was the home club for the event.  In 1966 and 1967, Eldorado was included in Golf Digest’s “200 Toughest” lists (listed alphabetically).  In 2003, the course was totally renovated by Tom Fazio.

The golf course is very very good.  Well bunkered and a fair amount of water affecting play on six holes.  Given how flat the property was in 1956, today it has nice elevations and excellent contouring.  I thought the best holes were 3, 5, 12 and 18.  I started well and was even par through 5 and had a 2 over 37 on the front…followed by a 40 on the back.  All in all three strong days of golf.

Tuesday night we joined Brian and Linda M. for dinner.  I first met Brian in 1981 in Scotland…he is one of the world great golf and golf course photographers and we have stayed in touch over the past 45 years.  Brian and Linda now split their time between the California desert and Italy’s Tuscany Region.  He is a long time member of the Golf Magazine Top 100 panel and has an incredible eye for the natural beauty of golf courses.  Plus, those of you who have seen my office may have noticed a photo Brian took of me at Prestwick in 1981...obviously ranking upon there with the photo of Hogan's 1-iron to Merion's 18th.

Stone Eagle Golf Club, February 8, 2017:  Stone Eagle was designed by Tom Doak, and is his only course in the CA desert.  Opened in 2005, it hit tough times during the 2008-9 financial crisis and then was bought out by a small group of members in 2010.  It is located in Palm Desert, high above the desert floor.  The temporary clubhouse sits at about 600’ of elevation and the highest point on the course is 1100’…a vertical rise equivalent to a 40-50 story building.   This is a bold design with wide wide fairways and greens that flow in almost every direction.  Yes, the fairways are very hard to miss…but depending on pin location, precision off the tee is critical in terms of angles into the greens.  Had a 38-43 = 81 here which was pretty good for seeing it for the first time.

In terms of golf holes, it is by far the best course I have seen in the CA desert.  However, it is unwalkable and has long drives between most greens and tees.  To date it has not made a World or USA Top 100 listing.  While I simply loved the individual holes, the lack of “flow” was important to me.  A golf course is not simply 18 individual holes…they are pieces of a puzzle that needs to fit together.  I will be the very first to admit that I could not do a better job of fitting a golf course into this piece of property, but I certainly question why one would try to put a course here.  Site selection is job #1!!

Finally I took some pictures here.  See them below and you can get a sense of the enormity of the place and the views of the desert floor:

 

Approach on #1, 402 yd par 4

From tee on #2...uphill dogleg left 398 yd par 4

Look at the ridge on 2nd green!!

Downhill par 3 3rd 164 yards

464 yard par 4 4th sharply downhill and turning left...tough hole

6th is uphill and turning right...this is uphill approach on 364 yd par 4 

#7...sharply downhill par 3...reminded me of #15 at  Essex County (NJ)...218 yards

 

#10 386 yards uphill to highest point on course---this is approach shot

Tee shot 404 yard #11 steeply downhill and turning left

Captivating but dangerous #12 153 yards of peril 

#13 548 yd par 5 downhill off tee and then uphill to sharply sloping green...neat hole

par 3 #15 185 yards

A friend from the desert greeted us off of 9th tee!!  Didn't get his name.

We had dinner that evening at Alberto’s, a wonderful old fashioned Italian restaurant suggest by Larry B. with Larry and Susan B. and Barney and Jackie Adams.  It proved to be a very nice dinner…and Pat was looking forward to the day off from golf and I was looking forward to a late start the next day.

Tradition Golf Club, February 9, 2017: Located on an old estate nestled against the Santa Rosa Mountains of La Quinta, this enchanted land was an escape for the very wealthy and famous until the 1990’s.  It was converted into a private club with 18 holes designed by Arnold Palmer, and opened in 1997.  Many of the holes are right up again the Santa Rosa Mountains.  Tradition has never been on a USA Top 100 but it was #91 on the GW Modern USA Top 100 in 2002…which has been its only appearance. 

Tradition plays to 6895 yards (par 72) from the back and the fairways are well contoured so as to confront the player with uphill, downhill, and side hill lies on almost every hole.  I started off well again and was even thru 7, then bogied 8 and 9 as I got caught behind a group ahead for 38.  Coming in on the back 9 I ballooned to a 41 (for a 79) having lost concentration during the waits.  No one to blame by myself, and getting to be a old story this week…hitting the ball great on the front nine and giving it back on the back.  The course finishes very strongly with #16 and #17 being very strong.  #16 is a 395 par 4 straight up hill on its approach to a crested green that is tough to hit, and #17 is a sharply downhill par 4 of 340 yards with the Santa Rosa Mountains to your right…a beautiful hole and I birdied it!  See picture of #17 below:

#17 at Tamarisk

Yours truly while waiting on 8th tee...even par and before game went south

Thursday night was another night at an Italian restaurant…somehow we managed to book Italian restaurants for 5 straight nights, included at the same place Thursday and Friday night.  Thursday night we ate with a couple from McLean, VA, John and Sally V.  Pat and I had met Sally a year earlier in Melbourne.  After dinner we started packing…as we had a full day scheduled Friday and an early flight Saturday.

Tamarisk Country Club, February 10, 2017:  Tamarisk is the second oldest club in the desert, founded in 1952, a year after Thunderbird.  At that time, Thunderbird was a 100% gentile club and Tamarisk was the desert’s first Jewish club, with an early membership that included Danny Kaye, Jack Benny, George Burns and 4 of the 5 Marx Brothers.  The first head pro at Tamarisk was none other than Ben Hogan.  The Bob Hope was played at Tamarisk 19 times including 1961 as the home club. 

We were set up to play by a friend of Tom B. (of LACC) and we played with the current club champion, Rob P., who is from Des Moines, Iowa and Paul L., a long time golf pro at The Vintage in the desert.  Both had superb games and were even finer gentlemen.  Tamarisk plays to 7003 yards (par 72) and was included on GD’s initial “200 Toughest” in 1966 (listed alphabetically) and their 1969 100 Best Tests list in the #91-100 group (as was LQCC).  While all of the courses in the desert were in excellent shape, the conditions here were close to unbelievable.  The greens were as true as can be and the fairways and greens just perfect.  However again, I would have preferred to see the fairways and greens firmer and faster (Rob offered up the same comment before I said a word).  In any case, I was please to finish off the trip with a 40-39 = 79.  I hope Rob can get up to Boston this summer…I would enjoy showing him TCC and I have heard many great things about courses in Iowa (one of 5 states I still have to play) and hope to get there this summer.

Friday evening we enjoyed a nice dinner with Frank and Sandy R., who we have known for years in Pinehurst.  Was great to catch up…and we were ready to head home!!

The flight home went smoothly, but I apparently caught the flu bug, probably on one of the flights back.  I went on Tamiflu about a week after our return and am now about to deal with the bronchitis that has followed the flu.  Certainly not fun, but could be worse.

All in all a wonderful trip.  Saw a bunch of old friends and met a bunch of new ones.  Reached #904 on my course count and made some progress on remaining bucket lists.  From a golf standpoint, highlight was Wolf Point Ranch (TX) as it is so unusual.  Behind Wolf Point are LACC-North and Riviera…was great to revisit those and meet Samm Klapara.  The Super Bowl was amazing and I was happy for Pat and my New England friends.  Plus "24" is back on the telly!!  Lastly, I started hitting the ball real well…need to keep that up!

70. Next Stops: Los Angeles, CA and Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA January 30-February 4, 2017

Next Stops: Los Angeles, CA and Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA January 30-February 4, 2017

Before I start this post, I need to add three things to the last post to keep the millions of you readers up to date.  First and foremost, I forgot to post the picture we had taken at El Cardonal of Pat and me…see below.

Pat & Paul in front of Diamante El Cardonal clubhouse

Second, when we arrived at the Cabo airport on Saturday 1/21, it took us a good 1:15 to get through Mexican immigration.  It seemed like about 5-7 planes from the US landed within a half hour flooding the terminal with probably 1000-1200 passengers.  When we got inside the terminal, there were at least 800 folks in line ahead of us.  After talking to some folks during our stay, we got the sense that a couple of the earlier flights were delayed causing this extreme backup.  However, we also heard that delays are frequent on Friday and Saturday during the winter season…so if you are planning a trip, a word to the wise…

Finally, when I collected our luggage, I grabbed two golf bags that looked alike (Pat’s and mine are very similar).  When we arrived at the hotel I checked in, caught up with some friends we saw, and then went to collect our bags to get them transferred to our room.  That is when I saw that one of the two bags was Pat’s and the other was Ron L’s (who we played with at Diamanté).  I then turned around and saw Ron walking toward where I was so I said hello and asked how he was…his reply: “I am fine but my golf bag was missing at the airport”.  I sheepishly told him that I had picked up his bag instead of mine…and had a message from the airport that my bag was still there.  Eventually, arrangements were made to bring my bag to the hotel and all ended well.  The funny thing is that Ron’s bag is the same as mine because I showed him my bag in Hong Kong last year and told him he had to get one!!

Mid-day on January 30, we were off to the Cabo airport to catch an American Air flight to LAX.  The flight went smoothly and we zipped through immigration (both of us are on “GOES”) but took about 20 minutes to get through customs…which was the longest wait I have ever experienced in customs except perhaps Australia and NZ where they examine your golf clubs and shoes to make sure all ground dirt has been cleaned off. 

Proceeding thru the terminal we could clearly hear the shouting and other noises made by the Trump Executive Order protesters and in the arrival area were several lawyers with hand written signs hustling business (yes you lawyers, I know that they have the right to do this…and re-read what I just wrote, I did not say they didn’t have that right, I just pointed out that they were hustling business…and I have the absolute right to do so…). 

We stayed the three nights at Los Angeles Country Club located right near Beverly Hills and Century City on probably the most valuable piece of real estate occupied by golf (36 holes) in the world.  One year ago, we met a member who is also a member of the GM ratings panel, Tom B. at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand.  I had the pleasure of hosting Tom at Brookline last summer…he is a great guy and a very strong player and hosted us at LACC on Tuesday.  The evening of 1/30 we had dinner with Tom and his wife, Lisa, and Henry and Janine L. at a neat restaurant (Grill on the Alley).  I have known Henry for a mere 54+ years as we were fraternity brothers and also worked together at Citibank.  Our friendship has survived our political disagreements and the fact that neither Henry or Janine play golf…but that is OK on both fronts.  When Henry and I are together I realize that guys can exchange old war stories even when they are not about golf!!  J  Pat loves their company as well and we always love to see them.

Los Angeles Country Club, January 31, 2017:  Founded in 1897, LACC (and its predecessors) first was comprised as a nine hole course, then another 9 holer and an 18 holer until moving to its present location near (or in) Beverly Hills in 1911 with 36 holes.  The courses (North and South) were designed by members ands subsequently renovated by Herbert Fowler and George Thomas, Jr.  Thomas also designed what are for sure the two other great courses of LA…Riviera and Bel Air. 

I first played LACC in 1975 during a two week trip that included the following first time courses (in playing order): Silverado-N, Half Moon Bay, Sharon Heights, Olympic-Lakeside, San Francisco, Carmel Valley, LACC-N, Riviera, Lakeside, El Cabelero, and Goodyear-Wigwam (AZ).  Please note that for sure the trip also included Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Stanford (which I had played before) and probably Cypress Point as well.  So if any of you think my craziness is a recently acquired affliction, trust me that it is long standing!  I also played LACC once in the late 1970’s or early1980’s. 

In about 2012 Gil Hanse completed a major renovation of LACC’s North Course (please note that he recently completed his renovation of the South…I have never played the South track but really should as I have heard excellent reports on its renovation…but it is always difficult to pass up another round on North).  I played the renovated North in April 2013 and simply loved the result.  Frankly, my impressions from my two earlier (pre-renovation) rounds was that the course was very good but perhaps too highly rated (generally rated in Top 30 in USA in 1970’s by Golf Digest).  Today’s LACC-N is indeed a great track.  Hanse brought back the strategic nature of Thomas’ design and also brought the “look” of the North Course back to the early days of the Los Angeles area…when LA was a desert environment…with unkempt wash areas, and a wonderful “unmanicured” look. 

History wise, LACC is rich in tradition and about to get richer.  It hosted the LA Open five times prior to WW II and will host the Walker Cup this year and the US Open in 2023.  In terms of ratings, it is one of 19 courses that have been included on every USA Top 100 listing ever (a total of 67 listings on my spreadsheet).  It has also been on 34 of the 41 Global Top 100 listings I track (18 courses have been on all 41). Its highest USA Top 100 rating was #15 on Golf Digest in 1989 and its highest current rating is #20 on Golf Magazine.   On World Top 100’s highest ever was #27 (1987 GM) and highest current rating is #30 (2015 GM).

As a club, LACC generally has been regarded as LA’s premier waspy club and is well known for never admitting Hollywood and other media stars as members.

Pat and I played with Tom who can really play.  Suffice it to say we played different tees.  I played from 6089 yards (par 70) and while the card lists the Black tees as 7010, the Walker Cup/US Open tees are at least 7400.  After a poor start (bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, double bogey…to be 6 over thru 5) I got hot and went birdie, par, birdie, par to finish the front with a 39.  A 40 on the back let me finish with a 79 and I was very pleased.  To repeat, I loved it in 2013 and this time felt it was even better.  Course has simply no weak or average holes and its best (IMO) are the following:

            #2—484 yards (from Black) straightaway flat par 4 with wash area fronting a difficult green (Hanse restored this hole back to its original design…it had been a dogleg right uphill par 5 and there were some who thought the change was a mistake (including me in 2013), but the general consensus among affectionatoes (otherwise know as nuts) is that it is a real improvement, and I now understand the change;

            #5—483 yard uphill par 4 with narrow (as I recall about 7 yards wide) peninsula portion of green extending in front…surrounded in front and both sides by a very deep bunker (rest of green just merely tough); parred this hole with the pin on that front peninsula in 2013 and it exacted revenge this time;

            #6—335 yard drivable par 4, downhill off tee then doglegs 90° right and sharply uphill to wide but very very shallow green (note…if you try to drive it…the green’s orientation makes it narrow and deep from the tee); there is a bunker short of the green and a sharply uphill slope covered with deep fescue behind it (orientation based on playing hole safely off tee); the most amazing thing about this hole is that Thomas even conceived of it, as the “obvious” choice for the land would have been a downhill par 3…instead be built one of the world’s great drivable (but unheralded) par 4’s that may rival what he did at Riviera’s 10^th (more later); since you asked, I stuck a gap wedge to 12” for a birdie;

            #11—249 yard downhill “Reverse Redan” par 3…LACC’s signature hole (bad me left his camera in the room) that is tough but fun and fair…green of course slopes left to right and back to front; like all good Redans great fun if you play it well and headaches if you do not;

            #14—598 yard slightly uphill and turning right par 5 that is very well protected by deep fairway, cross, and greenside bunkers, and whose green has a peninsula like the one on #5 (but less penal); here you tee off just over the wall from one of LACC’s favorite neighbors, The Playboy Mansion (btw…if Pat had a blog about this trip, most of her space would be devoted to the “celebrity” homes surrounding LACC, especially Lionel Richie’s off of #4…I don’t understand how they can be called “celebrity” homes since I didn’t recognize most of the names, except of course The Playboy Mansion);  anyhow a wonderful par 5;

            #15—a mere 133 yards uphill to smallish green well guarded by bunkers…sharp slope from back left to front right, angle of green, and two tiers make this a very difficult and cute hole;

            #17A—not part to the official North Course but “found” by Hanse…110 yards to a tiny green perched on small hill above deep bunkers this was part of the original 18 holes on the property and is great fun to play!!

Plan to watch the Walker Cup later this year…this is a real gem!!

That evening we had dinner at the house of another fraternity brother John S. and his wife Vera.  In 2011 I saw John (and met Vera) for the first time in 47 years (he had transferred to Columbia after our sophomore year).  I had dinner with them and Henry and Janine L. about three years ago during a whirlwind trip to the west coast that Pat did not make.  Was good to see them, and their beautiful home (actually about 2 blocks from Riviera).

Rivera Country Club, February 1, 2017:  As noted above, Riviera was designed by George Thomas as well…and the debate rages as to which is the better course…LACC or Riviera?  I will hold my vote till later in this post.

Riviera opened in 1926 and is located just north of Santa Monica about 5 miles from LACC.  It is located in a canyon with steep cliffs precariously holding up some very impressive homes looking down on the course.  It needs to be noted that these homes generally pale compared to those bordering LACC, but that assessment is made without the opportunity to inspect the inside of the homes (much to the disappointment of the Wifey). 

Riviera has always welcomed the celebrity types and was a big hangout for Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. et al.  A long time host venue for the LA Open (including next week), it also has hosted a US Open (1948 won by Ben Hogan) and two PGA Championships (1983 and 1995, won by Hal Sutton and Steve Elkington respectively).  Hogan’s performances in the US and LA Open’s gave Riviera the nickname Hogan’s Alley (also often applied to Colonial CC in Fort Worth, TX).

I first played Riviera in 1975 (the day after I played LACC-N for the first time).  I remember playing the par 5 11^th (now 583 yards) at that time…when I was fairly long…by hitting a tree with my drive, hitting another tree with my 3-wood and then hitting a third tree, overhanging the green to get to the green lying 3 about 40’ from the hole.  I proceeded to hole that putt for a birdie and the Riviera member I had been paired with simply shook his head in disbelief.  About 10 years later a friend of mine from Quaker Ridge went out and played Riviera and when they arrived at #11, the member he was paired with said he had played with a guy from Quaker who hit three trees and birdied it.  Bill’s response… “was his name Paul Rudovsky?”

Riviera has also been on all 65 USA Top 100 listings and has been included on 38 of the 41 World 100 lists I have on my spreadsheet (both Riviera and LACC-N are not included on either of Rolex’s lists…which may say more about the quality of those lists than the quality of those two courses. Its highest USA Top 10 rating was #16 by GM in 1995, and its highest current USA rating is #19 (GM 2015).  On Global lists, its peak was the MacWood 1939 Spoof list at #18…and excluding that Spoof list #26 on GolfClubAtlas (highest ever and current).  Its current GM rating is #29.

We played it with Sus E. (banker) and Tony C. (dentist) who I had hosted at Brookline almost 3 years ago.  Wonderfully fun guys making a fun day despite my ugly 86.   Also saw Ken S. who came out to greet me…I had hosted Ken at Brookline 5 months ago.  More about a very special visitor later.

Course starts weakly with its only weak hole, a 504 yard straight par 5 off of an elevated tee (which I birdied) followed by a very tough but not that interesting par 4 2^nd  (471 yards, flat, turning gently right to a raised green).  Then the golf course heads to the area west of the clubhouse and really gets going, with superb holes scattered all over…the best of which are:

            #4—a 236 yard par 3 featuring a semi-blind shot to a green sloping from front to back (!) and protected in front by bunkers and a mound well in front of the green…some guy named Hogan (see above) once called it the USA’s best par 3…not a bad endorsement;

            #8—a 416 yard par 4 which is a dogleg right from the left fairway and a dogleg left from the right fairway…in between ain’t so pretty and is filled with waste bunkers, fescue and other unpleasant things; I can testify that visits to this neighborhood tend to be longer than planned;

            #10—often recognized as the best short par 4 in the world…315 yards of pure terror with a perfectly angled shallow green sloping to the back…impossible to describe adequately…watch in on the tube next week;

            #12, 13, and 15—probably the best semi-continuous stretch of dogleg par 4’s anyplace…with 12 and 15 playing left to right and 13 playing right to left…just made for a guy named Hogan who controlled his golf ball better than anyone else who ever played this game (same is true of Hogan’s other alley, Colonial CC in Ft. Worth, TX);

            #16—intriguing 166 yard par 3 to a small green surrounded by very deep bunkers ands sloped severely from back to front in the back;

            #18…if you don’t know this hole from TV, you probably can’t spell golf and no description will work.

As many of you know, Riviera’s fairways and rough are “infested” by a “weed-like” grass known as kikuyu…which makes for a wonderful fairway surface and very very difficult rough to play from, given the thickness and toughness of its blade.  The greens are bent grass and in perfect condition as was the entire course (it was being prepped for the PGA Tout’s visit this coming week).  Given the amount of rain that had hit LA over the prior month, the conditions and both LACC and Riviera were simple perfect.

Riviera has never been owned by its members.  The Hathaway family owned the club for decades but it was purchased around 1990 years ago by a Japanese company controlled by Noboru Watanabe and while it is a membership club, the lack of member ownership (or potential ownership) certainly affects the “feel” of the club…and not in a positive manner.  However, no question that the golf course is one of the world’s great ones!

OK, so now which course do I think it better, LACC or Riviera, and which drivable par 4 is better, LACC’s 6^th of Riviera’s 10^th.  Tough questions but I shall not shy away from answering.  First, the drivable par 4’s.  The nod goes to Riviera, simply because it has been “tested” so many times in LA opens and three majors.  Any par 4 that gives up so many eagles and birdies while extracting so many bogies, doubles, and worse from the world’s best must be great.  In fact, given the wealth of data coming from the PGA Tour these days, it would be interesting to see which holes on the PGA Tour have the highest standard deviation for scores at PGA events.  Me thinks that would be an interesting proxy for greatness and that Riviera’s 10^th and Augusta’s 13^th would rank very high on that list. The Walker Cup will be the first great test for LACC’s 6^th and being match play, I would expect many efforts to drive it.  Should be interesting.

Which course??  I vote for LACC-North.  I would not have voted that way based on my play there in the 1970’s and 1980’s but now I believe the call is clear.  Riviera is just as good as it was (and even better), but LACC is hugely improved.

Need to back up about 3 years now.  In late 2013 I was planning my round the world trip to finish my first Golf Magazine World Top 100.  I needed help getting on some Japanese courses and was put in touch with Samm K.  Samm’s husband Norman was the third person to ever finish a World Top 100. About 4-5 years after Norm finished his 100, Samm was stuck at 98 of 100, as two of the clubs (The Golf Club outside Columbus, Ohio, and Garden City Golf Club on Long Island in Garden City, NY) were men only.  Members of both clubs who knew the K’s wrote their respective Board of Governors and requested that an exception be granted.  And so, in 1998, Samm became the first (and still the only) woman to complete a World 100…and at Garden City about a dozen members came out to cheer her on as she finished the 18^th hole.

I exchanged emails with Samm in December 2013 regarding the Japanese courses and she firmly said it would be no problem and that she would get back to me.  By the end of January having heard nothing from her, I reached out and contacted her, and she apologized, said it was being handling by others as they had learned in December that Norman had pancreatic cancer.  Norman passed away on October 2015.

I made contact with her a couple of weeks before the trip and she said she could meet me at Riviera (where she is a long time member) after the round.  Pat and I were so pleased to meet her that afternoon.  She is revered in the golf world and it was easy to understand why.  Samm and I traded golf course stories and Samm and Pat traded people stories for about an hour and then we had to leave.  We invited her to revisit Brookline this summer, which would be great.

 

Paul, Pat, & Sus on 9th tee at Riviera

Paul & Pat on 9th tee at Riviera

Samm, Paul, Pat, & Sus in Riviera Grill

That evening we had dinner with the Henry and Janine, and then on Thursday morning flew from LAX to Monterey CA.  CN and Elsa R picked us up at the Monterey airport.  We first met their son Raven in 2009 when he was on the golf team at MIT, and through Raven met CN and Elsa a few years later.  Raven finished his undergraduate work in 2012 and last August was awarded a PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, and is now working in this field in Boston.

Monterey Peninsula Country Club, February 2, 2017: They are a wonderful couple and it is easy to see how Raven turned out so well when you know his parents.  CN is a bit of a golf nut (but not quite like me).  In Carmel they belong to Monterey Peninsula Country Club, which has two courses, the Shore and the Dunes.  The late Mike Strantz (think Tobacco Road in NC) had renovated the Shore in 2003 to high acclaim and Tom Fazio recently completed a renovation of the Dunes.  Pat and I played the renovated Shore for the first time in February 2014, and I had played the Dunes in 1979.  While the Shore has done very well on Top 100 lists since its renovation (currently #59 on GD’s 2017 USA list, was #80 on the only golf architects World 100 survey conducted several years ago), the Dunes has languished…but my sense is that that will change over the next few years.

Pat, CN and I went out on the Dunes around 11:30.  The course was surprisingly empty given that the Shore was closed in anticipation of the Crosby (to my generation it will always be the Crosby) the following week.  From 1947-64 the Dunes course was a regular during the Crosby; during 1965 and 1966 the Shore course replaced the Dunes but was replaced by Spyglass Hill at that point.  Since 2010 the Shore has been back in the Crosby, but it is expected that the Dunes will replace the Shore in either 2018 or 2019.

The course is beautifully done.  It starts in the forest and heads deeper into the forest before turning westward toward the shore, culminating with the par 3 14^th along the Ocean.  Best holes are:

#4—a 234 yard downhill par 3 top a green whose back right corner is tucked behind a large dune and that pin position is virtually blind from the tee…but since the green slopes from front left to back right, it is not unfair;

#5—a 312 yard uphill par 4 to a wild green (see picture)…after driving into a fairway bunker, my approach went over the back right (near the pin) and I avoided the perils of the green by chipping in for a birdie;

#6—a brute of a par 4 that is 470 yards downhill to a deep but narrow green protected by a creek front and left (see picture of difficult green);

#8--417 yard par 4 downhill and turning right to narrow green protected by crook in front and left and large dune to right;

#9-14—a beautiful stretch into and around the dunes close to 17 Mile Drive and the Pacific shoreline;

#14—167 yard par 3 from a peninsula tee to a peninsula green along the Pacific shoreline…see awful pic below but his is a neat neat hole and very exposed to the winds;

#15---636 yard par 5 heading uphill and inland and very exposed to elements…a brute of a hole and a true par 5 for almost all.

Overall impressions of Dunes were very positive.  The greens vary in size from small to massive and generally are anything but flat (see pics of #4 and #5 green above).  Course reopened in October 2016 and has had almost nothing but rain since.  Grass on fairways and greens was a little thin but I would expect that to be worked out shortly.  My guess is that Dunes will find its way to the #70-100 range in the USA listings within another two years.

One historical note drawn principally from GolfClubAtlas.com: the Dunes was originally routed by Seth Raynor who unfortunately passed away before finishing the course.  The course was finished by Robert Hunter and given Hunter’s belief that great golf courses are the work of artists as opposed to engineers, it is highly likely that the Dunes never reflected many of Raynor’s trademarks.  Also, due to a limited budget in 1926, the course never had adequate drainage.  In 1998 the Club selected Rees Jones to improve the drainage and update the course, and now Tom Fazios’ work updates Rees’.  While many Raynor fans (and I am one) will lament the lack of much of a Raynor look to the Dunes, the reality is that it probably never had much Raynor in its design.

After the round we had dinner with CN and Elsa at the half way house behind the 11^th green of Dunes.  With a roaring outdoor fire pit, this is a wonderful place for a casual dinner.

Tehama Golf Club, February 3, 2017: We lucked out weather wise at Dunes and would need more luck on Friday at Tehama.  Tehama is a 2000 acre real estate and golf development created by Clint Eastwood.  It sits outside of the 17 Mile Drive gates on a hilltop just north of Carmel Valley Ranch and Quail Lodge.  Plain and simple, this one is Clint’s baby….he personally selects the members and, in the tradition of many old great clubs, is the “benevolent dictator”.  Designed by Jay Morrish and completed in 1999, there is a story we heard several times that Jack Nicklaus looked at the property during Clint’s search for an architect, and told Clint “sorry, but you cannot build a golf course here.”  Apparently, when the course was completed, Clint invited Jack back out and he said “as I told you, you cannot build a golf course here.”

The property is very very hilly with no wide valleys, so the holes flow up and down steep hills.  While this is a spectacular piece of land visually, I am afraid that Jack was right.

CN and I teed off with our host, George G., a retired jewelry manufacturer from St. Louis.  Pat and Elsa went off to run around the Monterey Peninsula.  CN and Elsa joined the club back 17-18 years ago when it opened but later resigned after building their house in Hawaii.  The course was very very wet from all the rains but playable.  Relatively short, it plays to 6567 yards (par 72) from the tips, but this day, with no roll it was playing much longer.  As usual I played from about 6000 yards.  Please see the photos below.

 

Par 5 530 yd way uphill 5th...from shortest tee

Par 5 430 yard way uphill and turning right 9th hole...dose not play short

Paul & CN on 9th tee

Approach shot on 444 yard par 4 10th...downhill all the way

Very tough par 4 466 yd 13th, downhill off tee then uphill to green; water left on tee shot

While I do not believe that Tehama is a great course, there is no question that Tehama GC is a superb golf club.  Stories about Tehama’s multiday member guests abound in the golf world and invitations are highly prized.  As you can imagine, Clint Eastwood is probably a pretty damn good host!

That evening, dinner was at Elsa and CN’s house in Carmel along with George G. and his wife Priscilla, and a “larger than life” sculptor who lives is Carmel, Robert MacDonald.  Robert created “Momentum” a 15’ high, 15 ton bronze sculpture commissioned for the 2000 US Open.   Dinner was wonderful and then we had to pack up to leave Saturday flying MontereyàPhoenixàPalm Springs for the last stop of the trip…7 days in the California desert.

After round at Tehama I stood at 898 courses lifetime...with 6 to go on desert itinerary.