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.
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| 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 10th (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 11th
(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 2nd (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 6th
of Riviera’s 10th. 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 10th and
Augusta’s 13th would rank very high on that list. The Walker Cup will
be the first great test for LACC’s 6th 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 18th
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.
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| Paul, Pat, & Sus on 9th tee at Riviera |
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| Paul & Pat on 9th tee at Riviera |
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| 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 14th 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 11th 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.
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| Par 5 530 yd way uphill 5th...from shortest tee |
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| Par 5 430 yard way uphill and turning right 9th hole...dose not play short |
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| Paul & CN on 9th tee |
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| Approach shot on 444 yard par 4 10th...downhill all the way |
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| 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.
