Trying to make this happen before the end of the year especially after playing Northwood.
Ok, rather random question, but if I were to expand the golf stuff to the Bay Area I need some help with a few things. It has been 35 years since I left for college. (I may be spending more time there as parents age.)
Is there a pretty defined area for “Bay Area” golf or is it pretty much most of Northern California? For example, here in Indy we consider our area to be an hour drive in any direction from I-465 (the highway loop around the city) but we also are trying to work with significant courses in the state- basically an excuse to include anything outside our area but still in the state (Warren, French Lick, Victoria National, etc.).
So, due to the different nature of the Bay Area I would consider it the 9 counties as the base “territory”. Obviously, there are many other courses close that fall under the significant category- Monterey, Santa Cruz, Northwoods, etc.
Next, is the name. Fairly short, two or three syllablea and nickname based. Frisco and San Fran are probably out (those still aren’t cool, right?). My question is could it still be San Francisco-focused or does it need to be Bay Area these days? This is 90% for locals, and in my day basing it on San Francisco would have been ok.
Thanks for the help.
There is a defined area, and it goes by counties - detailed here in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area
Essentially it goes as far north as Napa and as far south as San Jose, including the East Bay of Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, etc.
That said … I don’t think there’s consensus within the Bay Area of what is part of it. I tend to think of San Jose as being just outside the Bay Area. Part of what was called the Central Coast when I grew up. But Wikipedia is infallible 
so I guess I’m wrong.
As far as the name, those two SF nicknames still suck. But “The Bay”, Bay Area, etc., are all fine. Honestly, I think “Bay Area” is way better than “SF Bay Area” because it isn’t restricted to, just centered by, San Francisco.
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Thanks, but I know the physical. And even when I grew up there, San Jose was considered South Bay, but still part of the Bay Area. What I don’t recall as much, from growing up, was the 9 county designation.
I was more asking about what locals would consider Bay Area (or local) golf. East Bay, yes. Santa Cruz, no. Marin, yes. Sacramento, no.
Yeah, I’m trying to figure our between San Francisco and Bay Area- SF Bay Area would be too long anyway. And the best nickname I have come up with for SF is “The City”, which to me sounds even more localized than just saying San Francisco, so I’m guessing I’d go with Bay Area (actual like “The Bay”).
Sorry, I think I am just missing context. Re-reading your original post it appears that you have some sort of business that you are considering expanding here. Apologies if you’ve posted it elsewhere but I’d need to know more before answering.
If it’s about playing golf courses, I think all nine counties make sense, but you would need to be able to filter BY county. If I’m considering a round in Napa, suggesting a course in San Jose does no good.
Pretty much nailed it. Here we’re working with directionals, but that is easy when your base is a circle. It would probably have to be divided by SF, Peninsula, South Bay, East Bay, Marin, Wine Country and whatever else is left.
But in seeing where everyone on this thread plays, you’re willing to travel for good courses, good deals or good friends…
EDIT: Wow, they only go with five sub-regions: the East Bay, North Bay, South Bay, Peninsula and the city of San Francisco on Wikipedia. I think I’d be more specific than that.
Well, it’s also about who your target golfers are. Casual golfers I know HATE the idea of spending 45 minutes driving to play golf (this was of course back in the day when they commuted to work and the idea of DRIVING for fun was a burden.). For a nut like me, I’ll drive wherever to play a GOOD golf course, and hell when quarantine finally opened a bit, I drove two hours to play an awful course and was happy about it.
Honestly those sub-regions make “sense” to me, but it’s probably personal taste. I think a very good variable wouldn’t even be distance from me, but driving distance if you could somehow figure that out.
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I just think that the North Bay is pretty broad. You’ve got Marin, North Cost, Napa Valley and whatever they call the area around Vallejo (basically the four counties). East Bay is quite “deep” too- I think of it as the part on the water in front of the foothills, and then the backside of the foothills but still in Contra Costa and Alameda.
Ventured out to a course I hadn’t played before early this morning…Swenson Park in Stockton. I live in Brentwood so heading to Stockton isn’t much of a task. Anyhoo, brief course review; it’s the muniest of munis. Uninspiring, unoriginal, bland, I think you get the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love munis. We have some very nice ones here in the Bay Area, but Swenson just didn’t vibe for me. Tiny greens, tight tree lined fairways (where my width and angels?) and they forced me to take a cart for some reason. Literally they said I couldn’t walk. Weird. Oh well, they can’t all be diamonds in the ruff. The journey continues…
This is the first time I’ve ever heard this take. I grew up there.
Unless you’re old enough that the Dionne Warwick tune is stuck in your head.
Like, I could see considering Morgan Hill or Gilroy as “out” of the bay area (maybe)…but part of the central coast? They’re suburb bedroom communities to the bay, which I would think counts as part of the bay.
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San Jose is definitely part of the Bay Area! It must be a solid 5 minutes to the damn salt flats. I grew up in Saratoga and would still be living there if I could afford it.
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He must live north of the City. Where did you go to HS?
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We moved to the East Bay before HS, I would have gone to Prospect.
Had a bunch of friends growing up that lived in Saratoga…around Saratoga Woods.
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Yeah - went to Westmont. Whooped on Prospect (and everyone else) my Jr and Sr years. We moved from the East Bay (San Ramon) to Saratoga when I was in 4th grade. Worked out well in the Real Estate dept.
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Yeah we did the opposite…south SJ to Livermore. Better QOL in some ways, but my folks still kick themselves for the real estate decision.
My mom went to Westmont in the 80s…she grew up in Los Gatos and now they live a 5 iron from the house she was raised in. So you never know…you might make it back!
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I may have went to school with her - or my brothers and sister did. We have all of the 80s covered. Awesome
I do live north of the city. Marin kid. But I went to college in Santa Cruz, which was for sure called the Central Coast while I was there, and I always lumped San Jose into it.
Lifelong Bay Area guy here (born and raised in SF, have lived in Lafayette for 27 years). SJ was always Bay Area to me.
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I’m sure most of yall have seen this already but there’s a couple of items on the west coast to bid on as well as a few good east coasters. For those not familiar with the Evans Scholarship, its a caddie based program that provides full college scholarships to caddies who qualify in the states that participate. I’ve known a few people who were awarded the scholarship over the years and I think it’s a great program that helps kids get a jump on life.
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Baylands this morning, what a great day for golf. I had one of those rounds that make you think about what could have been.
After a great start (birdie #1, missed 5ft birdie on #2) I proceeded to give away a bunch of strokes with silly 3 putts and awful tops off the tee (penalty strokes). Carded the same score as my previous outing here 81 but they could not have been more different. This round with no 35 putts/11 GIR and driving was not good. The previous round had two doubles and was 30 putts/5 GIR, driving was more consistent and chipping on point. Consistency is not my strong suit.
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