Figured I would report back with some impressions from a pretty excellent four days here in NorCal, in case it would be helpful for any future visitors.
– Flew in from Raleigh-Durham on Thursday morning and landed a $90 Golfnow hot deal at Harding Park that afternoon. Great value at that price, and I’m super jealous that all you locals get to play that place regularly for even cheaper than that. Started off the back and was enchanted with the place by my third hole, just a lovely walk with some very recognizable holes and a dynamite vibe on a gorgeous April afternoon. The back nine was so cool, and obviously the front nine was less memorable but still solid. Thought the course was a great walk and felt surprisingly gettable for a PGA Championship venue, although that’s surely due in part to the fact that tees were up a bit while they prepared the back tees for the upcoming ladies event. Highlight for me was No. 16, the par-4 where Morikawa drove the green with that gorgeous cut 3-wood – I blocked my tee shot right into the trees but managed to make birdie from this position:
– Friday morning I played Presidio, and this was probably my favorite course of the week. I don’t always love mountain golf, but this felt like mountain golf done right – it was dramatic but not overly extreme, and playing with a local sherpa who told me where to hit made for a much better experience, I think (especially since I mostly hit my targets off the tee). Sure, you get some unjust hanging lies, but I thought that added to the experience rather than detracted. I found a whole bunch of holes to be very memorable, I loved the fescue-lined bunkering and the trees and the views. The whole thing just felt like a perfect fit for the land. A delight.
– Woke up early Saturday to play 2 loops at Corica Park North, and you guys were spot-on: it is firm, fast and very fun. I went to Scotland last summer and this place definitely felt like the kind of course you would find in Scotland. It’s gettable, but still has a lot of shot value, and the greens were the best of the weekend – large and undulating and in outstanding condition. My only gripe was the pace of play – I teed off at 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday and the round took 5 hours, 15 minutes, due in part to the fact that they don’t seem to have any good procedure for players making the turn to repeat the nine. We wound up having to wait 25-30 minutes to tee off again on No. 1. I found that frustrating – if you’re going to sell pre-booked 18-hole rounds on a 9-hole course, feels like you should have a better system in place to avoid the logjam with people making the turn and people just starting.
– I was in town for work (I’m a baseball writer, here to cover the UCLA-Stanford series), so I stayed in Palo Alto for the weekend. I looked for someplace nearby to play, but the Stanford course was booked up for the Pac-12 tournament and I didn’t find anything else great available close by. So being the hopeless golf sicko that I am, I took @SweepingDraw’s advice and woke up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday to make the drive down to Pacific Grove for a 7 a.m. tee time, managing to make it back to Stanford in time for a 1 p.m. first pitch. And it was worth it – that place is a jewel for $78 on a weekend. The People’s Pebble! For some reason the greens vexed me all day – they were much less dramatic than the other greens I played this weekend, but it felt like you could look at any putt from either side of the hole and it looked like it was downhill in both directions, or vice versa. But I thought they were in good condition, and the views were delightful, of course. Fun little course with some quirk but nothing crazy; felt like a place you could really go low if you had some familiarity with it, and if you can keep the ball in the fairway.
That’s what I got. You folks are very lucky to have so many excellent public golf options in the region, and I look forward to hitting up some more new spots on my next trip to the Bay Area. Cheers!
