Arizona, California, and Nevada, April
10-15, 2017 (Part 2 of 2)
Pelican Hill GC—Ocean South,
April 13, 2017: Located in Newport
Beach, CA, Pelican Hill has two courses sitting alongside the Pacific
Ocean…opposite Catalina Island. Both
courses were designed by Tom Fazio; the Ocean-South opened in 1991 and the
Ocean-North in 1993. When Golf Week
published its first Classic and Modern Top 100’s in 1997, it listed (Pelican
Hill-Ocean) as #72 Modern (#144 Merged on my list). So I had a quandary…was Ocean the South or
the North? Several calls to the course
did not yield an answer but one call to Tom Fazio’s offices put me in touch
with a guy who worked on the renovation of both…and he was sure the original
“Ocean” became the “South.”
I booked the first tee time
(7:20am), which I needed to get up to Los Angeles to play Hillcrest in the
afternoon and then catch a flight at 8:15pm to Las Vegas. The course winds through canyons and has many
sharply uphill and downhill holes, as well as many with L to R and R to L
severe slopes on the fairway. Plays to
6580 yards from the back. Four holes are
near the coast line:
o
#11, a 367 yard downhill par 4 heading straight
toward the Pacific and Catalina Island;
o
#12, 159 yard par 3 running right along the
coastal cliff to the player’s left and close to the left side of the green;
o
#13, 131 yard (or 108 yard) par 3 with two
alternative greens and again running parallel to the coastal cliff on the left;
o
#14, 544 yard par 5 moving eastward and uphill
(especially on 2nd shot)…stuck a 6-iron to 4’ for a bird.
Pictures of 11-13 follow.
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| Pelican Hill S #11 heads for Pacific |
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| #12 a tough tight par 3 along ocean cliff |
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| #13 with 2 greens---this one was NOT used the day we played...131 yds |
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| #13--this is green we did use--108 yards |
Holes 16-18 provide a dramatic
finish. The par 3 219 yard 16th
plays slightly downhill to an infinity green heading west to Catalina Island
(although the ocean is a full mile from the green)…birdied by me after hitting
a 3 wood to 10’. #17 is an uphill par 5
of 570 yards and played into the wind…after three well hit shots (playing from 540
yards) I was just short and left and got up and down for a par. The 18th presents a downhill “cape
hole” drive (cut off as much as you can chew) doglegging left and uphill to a
tough two-tiered green. I had a 5 to
finish 41-41 = 82…three birdies but four double bogeys.
In summary, a very good golf
course but more sizzle than steak.
Spectacular scenery on a number of holes with good but not great
architectural features and a number of fairly ordinary holes on 1-10.
Told the folks thanks and hopped
in the car for a 56 mile almost two hour drive hitting heavy LA traffic for the
last 10 miles…saved by GPS!
Hillcrest Country Club, April
13, 2017: About one mile southeast of LACC (and across the street from
Rancho Park…where Arnold Palmer once carded a 12 in the LA Open) sits Hillcrest
CC. For many years, Jews were not
admitted to LACC and Hillcrest opened in 1920.
Its membership rolls have included luminaries such as Groucho Marx,
Milton Berle, George Burns, Jack Benny, George Jessel, Danny Kaye and Don
Rickles. Later, the club opened to
non-Jews by first admitting Danny Thomas and later the likes of Walter O’Malley
(owner of my beloved 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers), Sidney Poitier, and
Jack Lemmon (who others have accused of looking like me).
In 1929 Hillcrest hosted the PGA
Championship won by Leo Diegel. This was
the first PGA Championship contested west of the Mississippi. It also hosted the LA Open in 1932 and 1942
won by Macdonald Smith and Ben Hogan respectively. Designed by Willie Watson, it today stretches
to 6727 yards on a piece of land that would be worth a few shekels, sitting
right next to Century City.
Hillcrest is a good course but
is land locked on a confined piece of property.
The club is in discussions with architects regarding a potential
renovation. The land itself is excellent
and a major renovation could yield a very interesting course.
After the round I thanked the
staff (service here is impeccable) and headed to LAX for my flight to Las
Vegas. I was starting to get a little
tired, but still had three courses to play in LV and then a flight hole
Saturday afternoon/evening.
South Shore Golf Club, April
14, 2017: Allow me to say at the start that this is not my favorite
city. I had a long day today starting
with the first tee time at 7:20am at South Shore, located in Henderson, to the
east of the Strip and located on Lake Las Vegas. South Shore plays to 6917 yards,
opened in 1996 and was designed by Jack Nicklaus. It appeared on Golf Week’s Top 100 Modern list
for 11 straight years (1998-2008) including four years when it was high enough
to make my merged Golf Week list…peaking at #66 in 1998.
Its clubhouse sits high up a
hill with Lake Las Vegas well below in the distance (the course extends down to
the Lake). It certainly is dramatic, its
amenities are first class, and its terrain is varied…but at this point on the
trip, I was getting tired of dramatic courses and was longing for subtle golf architecture. As you might know, Las Vegas is not the place
to go for subtle anything. The first two holes are both sharply downhill
into the valley and toward the lake…and the course stays in that valley for
#3-4 and generally moves uphill for #5-9, returning to the clubhouse on the
sharply uphill par 4 9th.
That pattern is generally repeated on the back nine sitting to the west
of the front nine. The drives from green
to tee are extremely long. No one will
ever call this an intimate course.
I will admit that it does finish
quite strongly on #16-18. #16 being a
212-yard par 3 (was playing into the wind this day) from an elevated tee to an
elevated green over a rocky gorge (I three putted for a bogey). #17 is a 382-yard par 4 with a forced carry
drive to a fairway turning right sitting between rocky hills on each side and
moving uphill to the green (see picture on scorecard)…since you asked, here I
hit a great drive and a 7-iron to 12’ but missed the birdie putt. #18 is a 427-yard par 4, downhill off the tee
and then uphill and turning right to the green…hit the green and finished off
with a par (and five straight 4’s on 14-18 including three putts on par 3 #14
and #16). Ended with a 42-37 = 79 and
that is an exhilarating finish…but no, not a course to play every day…or
perhaps even more than once. Pictures
follow:
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| South Shore #14 par 3 |
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| South Shore #16 212 yd par 3 |
Southern Highlands Golf Club,
April 14, 2017: After a short drive
westward to Southern Highlands, I was met by my host and fellow Golf Digest
rater, Andy C. Andy is a very good
player and was a wonderful host, despite receiving his education at a finishing
school located about 2 miles up the Charles River from the vocational school
where I spent my undergraduate days. In
fact at the finishing school he was captain of its golf team and as a result
played Brookline perhaps a hundred times…but not in the last 25 years. Hopefully we can rectify that this year or
next. In the “golf is a small world”
department, during lunch I ran into Ken J. the developer of Diamante in Cabo,
Mexico (and fellow GM panelist), who was just joining the club.
Completed in 2000 as a
collaboration between Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and RTJ, Jr., Southern Highlands
was on the Golf Week USA Modern Top 100 for 9 years from 2004-2012, but never
high enough to make my merged GW list. It plays to a quite robust 7510 yards
from the tips and we played from 6696 yards, probably the longest course I have
played in years…even adjusting for about 2000’-2500’ in altitude.
On the positive side, the course
has very wide corridors and as a result it does not have the feel of a desert
course. On the negative side, the course
leaves very little to the imagination, and like Shadow Creek exudes little charm. The bunkers are simply huge and as a result,
extend to areas that clearly would almost never come into play…for example a
good 30+ yards past the back edge of the par 3 201 yard 2nd
green. I guess if one were to overclub
by 4 clubs the back part of this bunker could be in play but I wondered how may
times in the course’s 17 years history this had occurred. Any???
However, given that the club’s water for watering its acreage was
reputed to be $2.1 million per year, perhaps it is cheaper to maintain the
bunkers than grass! Trust me, the course
is pure green.
I actually played fairly well
(39-41 = 80) so I guess I wasn’t exhausted yet.
After the round Andy and I had a nice dinner at the club and traded the
usual golf architecture/history stories. After dinner it was back to the hotel…one more
round to go at Cascata the next morning.
Cascata Golf Club, April 15,
2017: Cascata was completed in 2001 and was designed by Rees Jones. From the back tees it plays to 7137
yards. In 2005 it made the Golf Magazine
USA Top 100 at #84 on its only appearance on a Golf Magazine or Golf Digest
list Top 100. It appeared on the Golf
Week Top 100 Modern list from 2004-2008 but never high enough to make my merged
list.
It is built into the mountains
close to LV and is without question unwalkable (even the carts get tired). By my count, at least 9 holes are severely
uphill or downhill. I hit at least two
drives well over 300 yards. For example,
on then 17th, which I played from the 470 yard tee, I hit a 7 iron
second shot over the green…which was the same club I hit on my second shot on
the 1st hole, which I played from 287 yards. It should be noted that the wind this day was
against on all the uphill holes and helping on the downhill ones…I played the
5543 yard tees on the 6 uphill holes, the 6638 yard tees on the 7 downhill
holes, and the 6168 yards tees on the 5 relatively flat holes, which worked out
fairly well. There are some outstanding
views on the course but it has zero “flow”.
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| Cascata #3...sharply downhill par 5...see solar farm distant right |
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| Cascata #7 157 yd par 3--very exposed to wind...one of few holes I liked |
Had another “small world” event
here…my caddy on about the 5th hole, after I had mentioned some of
my golfing ventures, asked if I knew Mel H. (of Denver). I met Mel two years earlier at The Golf Club
and Oakmont and later had him at Brookline…and it turned out that my caddy had
also caddies for Mel (and he figured all us nuts probably knew one another…and
he was correct).
My flight back to Charlotte got
in early (and I got upgraded). The drive
home went well and I was home by 11:30pm.
So wonderful to be back home with Pat.
Trust me, I did not play golf on Sunday!
Anyhow, by playing Cascata I am
now down to one course left to play on the Golf Magazine World/USA Top 100
list…Merit Club in Chicago. On my USA
Top 100 EVER list, I am down to 19 courses (out of 353). Life to date course count now 920 (actually
921 since I played another course in NC this week). Getting there.
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