Inspired by Golf & Life and Sharing My Experiences & Insight.
My two nights at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel on Vancouver Island were quite extraordinary! A modern, luxurious & convenient (down the street from the Victoria Golf Club) that captures the history, tradition & spirit of the prior 1920s Manor House version quite spectacularly! Thanks for hosting me Kris Morash! (Facebook Post, Andy Reistetter, 3-26-16 with 15 Pics).
Thanks Cathy Wichert & Sheryl Olson for connecting me with Bob who hosted me at the Riverside Golf & CC… nicest guy & friendliest club in a really friendly town! Beautiful golf course! Throw in a nights accommodation and the hamburger special at Stanich’s and life doesn’t get any better! (Facebook Post, Andy Reistetter, 3-26-16 with 17 Pics).
Ferry rides to & from Vancouver Island were a bit like a mini cruise… Beautiful scenery, comfortable & took rental car and all my belongings with me, no need to repack. A touch of sadness with a flashback to the Journey to Olympic Golf where I left me beloved Torch (1992 Infiniti M30 convertible) behind in Panama City when I went on to Colombia & later Rio… if BC Ferries were there Torch & I would still be together today… (Facebook Post, Andy Reistetter, 3-26-16 with 21 Pics)
JTOG Day 59: Saying Good Bye to Torch in Panama City, Panama
Your arrival at Rancho Bernardo Inn is a bit secluded, relaxed and certainly welcoming!
There are golfing experiences that one easily remembers. My ‘stay n’ play’ at Rancho Bernardo Inn (RBI) in San Diego was definitely one for a variety of reasons—the golf, the people, the culinary delights and the accommodations for sure. Did I say the people? The staff for sure, the ones I saw and the ones I benefited from but did not see. But my hosts—Food & Beverage Director Jocelyn Kraus and Director of Golf Blake Dobson—were incredibly welcoming and a lot of fun to be around!
RBI, as it is affectionately known, has been around since 1963. It’s premier Buddy Bell-designed golf course, the same man who designed Torrey Pines, hosted the San Diego Open, a PGA TOUR in 1964 and the LPGA for several years. From there came national notoriety, a 10-fold expansion in guest rooms and most recently a $2.5 million renovation and the opening of AVANT, continuing its renowned fine-dining experience. There are old and new traditions when combined with the people certainly bring forth a unique and diverse spirit to a golf resort. So much so the locals are regulars too for dining, the spa, golf or just hanging out in the Veranda Bar.
With Jocelyn Kraus and Blake Dobson on the 18th fairway after a challenging and entertaining golfing experience!
Back to my exceptional personal experience with and compliments of Jocelyn and Blake. One can easily see where the source of the high standards and various facets of the guest experience comes— from within the personalities and leadership of these two directors.
CLICK here for a Video Interview of Jocelyn Kraus & a Tour of the Dining Options at RBI.
With a home on the golf course Jocelyn is never too far from work which works to the benefit of the guests at the Rancho Bernard Inn. Dining options at RBI start with AVANT, a forward thinking restaurant that goes beyond what other restaurants have in terms of facilities and menu. An intimate yet spacious demonstration kitchen complete enables Matt Sramek, Chef de Cuisine and Margaret Nolan Carvallo, Pastry Chef to show their skills to groups as large as twelve people. The menu, and I certainly agree with the words of their website: draws on the best of wine country dining and moves it forward with a contemporary California mindset. Vibrant, creative dishes and artisan libations are served to delight every guest. Even the cheese plate appetizer is extraordinary!
This was no ordinary cheese platter… and neither was the rest of my culinary experience at RBI!
The Veranda restaurant serves three meals a day starting with a breakfast buffet. The outside patio overlooks the golf course and there is nightly music in the fireside lounge. The Veranda Bar is the place to be and where I watched James Hahn win for the first time on the PGA TOUR when he outlasted Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey in a playoff at the Northern Trust Open. Afterwards, smitten by the golf bug of our childhood and inspired by what we saw on the television, my brother Dave and I went out to play a few holes. That’s RBI, as elegant and formal as you want or as casual and impromptu as you like. After all, don’t forget to check out the ‘Golf Grill at the Turn!’
CLICK here for a Video Interview of Blake Dobson, Director of Golf.
The picturesque first green at Rancho Bernard Inn. Will you par or birdie the hole?
On the golf side of the resort it is all first class as is evidenced by the golf course and JC Golf’s Blake Dobson. It was one of the most fun rounds of my life! As you can see in the video Blake is quite a character with a tremendous amount of golfing talent. That backwards putt between the legs, perfectly within the rules of golf by the way, was for a birdie on the uphill par-4 15th hole. The golf course is memorable with my favorite holes being the short iron over water to a tight green on the 9th, the semi-blind approach shot on the 15th (which Blake easily mastered), the short driveable par-4 16th and the ‘I-definitely-want-to-play-it-again’ complex uphill par-5 finishing hole. Plus the margarita cart is quite refreshing and unique in my mind as I have never seen one of those before! JC Golf, by the way, operates eight golf courses in all.
I think this was my room! So comfortable, spacious and luxurious!
As far as accommodations, they were awesome—luxurious, spacious and extremely comfortable. JC Resorts operates three other resort properties—Temecula Creek Inn in the Wine Country, Scripps Inn in La Jolla and Surf & Sand in Laguna Beach.
Now is the time to book your visit to the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego. As Blake says—’why say no when yes feels so good?’ Enjoy!
CLICK here for an entertaining Video of my day with Blake!
Youth on Course in golf and in life! Photo Credit: NCGA & Poppy Hills GC.
There is something special about an amateur golf association like the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) owning two of their own golf courses and then having a program called ‘Youth on Course’ where kids can play 170 different golf courses for five dollars or less. They, the organization, have been around since 1901. That was even before golf was last played in the Olympics in 1904 at Glenn Echo CC in St. Louis. NCGA, one of the premier amateur golf associations in the world, was the first to own and operate its own member course when Poppy Hills Golf Course came into existence in 1986. Both of their golf courses, Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach on the Monterrey Peninsula and Poppy Ridge in the Livermore Valley on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay area are included in the ‘Youth on Course’ program. That’s not only incredible, it is inspirational!
I played Poppy Hills before it closed and after it reopened. Completely different golf course, completely different experience!
In golf, as in life, some things change while other things remain the same. My apology for digressing a bit here to my childhood growing up in Binghamton, New York but hey this is a diary! Where I grew up in Binghamton, New York is far from Poppy Hills and Northern California. My father introduced me to golf at a very young age and we played together up at Ely Park Municipal Golf Course atop Mount Prospect. The golf professional Ernest Smith had designed the sporty 18-hole golf course in 1933 and nearly 30 years later a nine holer of all par-3s for junior golfers like me. I still remember the day I graduated from the small course to the big course.
Beautiful golf course, beautiful experience… you can walk and pull a buggy for your clubs if you like!
The first “world-class” golf course I ever played was the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University. My older brother Larry followed in RTJ Senior’s footsteps there taking the same courses and graduating with a degree in golf course architecture. He played on Cornell’s golf team and brought me up to play the course about the time I was turning into a teenager. I remember nearly holing a 5-iron on the par-3 second hole with the golf coach watching. I wish I could swing and play like that my whole life through.
What does that have to do with Poppy Hills and the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA)?
Interviewing Robert Trent Jones, Jr. at the NCGA headquarters at Poppy Hills Golf Course in February 2014 when Poppy Hills was shutdown for reconstruction. I have played so many of his father’s golf courses that I feel like I knew him too.
Nothing really other than the Cornell course was designed by the Senior Jones. In fact Jones grew up in East Rochester and became the first golf professional at Sodus Bay Heights Golf Club about 50 miles east of his hometown. His first golf course design in 1931 was the Midvale Golf Club right next to his hometown. Coming out of the Depression, he built WPA courses like Green Lakes State Park by Syracuse, New York in 1936. After WWII, Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s career prospered when he collaborated with the other Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur golfer ever, to build the Peachtree Golf Club in Bobby’s beloved hometown of Atlanta. All in all, the World Golf Hall of Fame member designed over 500 golf courses around the world in 36 countries.
NCGA Headquarters and Poppy Hills Golf Course conveniently located on one site in Pebble Beach.
The world has changed quite a bit over the course of the 20th century. Whether West Coast with the NCGA or East Coast in my hometown with the Triple Cities (Binghamton, Endicott and Johnson City) Golf Association (TCGA), golf being affordable and accessible to kids has remained the same thanks to organizations like the NGGA.
Playing the new Poppy Hills Golf Course after this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was a sensational experience. Mind you that I played the old Poppy Hills for the last time in a rainstorm on a cold Crosby-like February day two years ago. I actually liked the old course as it was built according to the times of the 1980s—tough, tough, tough. I absolutely love the new course with its return to natural elevations, natural areas (less water and fertilizer needed) and limitless fairways with no rough until you reach the trees which I am more capable of doing than anyone.
CLICK here for a VIDEO Interview with Cole Handley, Head Golf Professional at Poppy Hills GC.
With Cole Handley in his office at Poppy Hills.
Who gets hired on as an assistant pro a couple of years before being informed of a course shutdown (which means no golfers, no job) and complete reconstruction, then becomes part of the crew driving a bulldozer and shaping fairways and green complexes, only to be promoted to Head Golf Professional upon reopening? His name is Cole Handley and his storytelling of his experiences from Thailand to Pebble Beach are extraordinary. He has seen Poppy Hills exterminated and rebuilt from the dirt up and will tell you not to miss the Poppy Hills experience for three reasons—the peaceful scenery, the incredible staff and the variety of fun shots that you will be challenged to hit on the new course.
Handley calls it “thinking outside the green,” use the land, never boring, tactical shot-making—better bring your imagination to Poppy Hills when you visit. Remember who designed this golf course for the second time—Robert Trent Jones Jr.—who recently joined his father Robert Trent Jones Sr. (whose first U.S. Open course design was Bellerive CC in 1959 for the 1965 U.S. Open) and his brother Rees Jones, the ‘Open Doctor,’ (who has renovated 12 golf courses to host the U.S. Open) as a U.S. Open contributor with his design of Chambers Bay. Maybe Poppy Hills was his warm-up or warm-down depending on how you look at it. Grab the opportunity when you can to play this exciting course.
CLICK here for Video Interview Introducing NCGA’s Richard J. Cerame and Kevin Merfeld.
With Kevin Merfeld (L) and Richard J. Cerame (R) on the deck at Poppy Hills.
With the NCGA headquarters on site at Poppy Hills there is some interesting synergy going on between the ‘grow the game’ and ‘play the game’ folks. The interviews of Richard J. Cerame, NCGA Marketing Manager and Kevin Merfeld, NCGA Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing clearing demonstrate the creativity of what is going on in golf in the northern part of the Golden Bear state.
CLICK here for Video Interview with Richard J. Cerame, NCGA Marketing Manager.
‘RJ’ hails from literally growing up on RTJ Senior’s first masterpiece of Midvale CC in Rochester, New York. and is bringing history to life on the golf course designated to be built on land reserved exactly for that purpose by Samuel F. Morse (not the telegraph guy) who founded the Pebble Beach Company in 1916.. The only Monterrey golf course completely in the Del Monte Forest. Cerame is fairly new to the new Poppy Hills and the NCGA but will not only market you a golfing experience but deliver it with “a private country club experience at an affordable price.”
The Northern California Golf Association has been around since 1901.
Like Head Golf Pro Handley, Kevin Merfeld was a before-and-after guy at Poppy Hills during the reconstruction. Unlike the handy dozer-driving pro, Kevin saw the action at Poppy Hills with notebook and pen in hand, while handling his NCGA responsibilities. Here’s a young man who grew up in the area and is a product of the junior program and high school. He tried to walk on the golf team at USC (versus swinging into?) and after graduation the journalist major was a newspaper man before come home to the NCGA and Poppy Hills. Youth, like Kevin, in organization, like Youth on Course is a good thing!
Some things remain the same as they are changing. Poppy Hills is an example of that. Before and after golf course is totally different. Before and after organization behind the golf course and behind amateur golf in Northern California the same and getting better all the time. Not only have nearly 400,000 of those five dollars or less rounds have been played but over one hundred kids have been hired as caddies, half of that number as interns and over $600,000 given out on scholarships to college-bound youngsters.
Golf, raising charity dollars for kids helping them develop life skills and getting them out on the golf course is all natural for the NCGA and Poppy Hills.
In addition, the new Poppy Hills Golf Course joined Pebble Beach in 2014 to once again host professional golf at its highest levels with the Nature Valley First Tee Open on the PGA TOUR’s Champions Tour. I have always wanted to go to this tournament as it showcases First Tee kids playing with the professionals. Scott Langley won the pro-junior event in 2006 and became the first First Tee graduate to play on the PGA TOUR in 2012. Though the First Tee is way more than golf, it is about life skills and developing children to have a successful life wherever life takes them. With a goal of reaching twenty million kids in their first twenty years I am sure in the years ahead we might see a First Tee president in addition to a First Tee golfer winning on the PGA TOUR.
I have been a regular at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 2009 and have always stayed at the Portola Hotel & Spa in downtown Monterrey, my California home away from home. During February’s Pebble Beach week Poppy Hills ‘pops up’ at the Portola and brings their state-of-the art launch monitor for a fun little festival in the lobby with live music. I hope to ‘pop in’ one of these years in the fall or the Nature Valley First Tee Open.
Whether one grows up in Binghamton, New York or across the country in Monterrey, California or even today around the world in Asia or Latin America. golf is golf and the people and organizations behind the game are the same, with the same benefit to young people growing up.
Some things, apparently and hopefully, never change in golf and in life.
The par-3 second hole on the new Poppy Hills Golf Course.
The par-3 17th green.
The new Poppy Hills, the only things that haven’t changed are the poppies and being in the Del Monte Forest!
The Golf Club at Quail Hollow, one of golf’s most picturesque courses in the heart of California’s Carmel Valley.
Golf Writer Andy Reistetter continues his exclusive “Play-Write” series with one of the Monterey Peninsula’s hidden gems- Quail Lodge Golf Club.
I am not a hunter though Quail Lodge was the perfect setting to bring a pigeon friend of mine to play golf and dislodge a few bucks from his tight wallet.
After spending some time in the Monterrey Peninsula area what could be more relaxing or fun?
Taking a short drive down Carmel Valley Road to Quail Lodge.
The spectacular scenery will take you another notch down on the relaxation scale and put you in “the zone” before you put the peg in the ground on the first tee.
Don’t forget to bring along your own pigeon.
With Garrett Johnston, my young and smiling pigeon for the day!
After a relatively easy 540-yard par-5 opening hole the 203-yard par-3 second brings one back to reality that the challenge of this golf course is endless.
One of the most beautiful holes on the golf course is the natural uphill 403-yard par- 4 fourth hole.
After letting a negative thought enter my head as I took my driver back I topped my drive and lost the hole to fall behind in the match by one hole.
My pigeon was youthful and overconfident, right where I wanted him.
The character of Quail Lodge continues to develop with the downhill 198-yard par-3 fifth hole with the green protected with bunker left and water right.
After a nice up-and-down for par our match was all square.
The serenity of the dog-leg-right par-5 seventh hole at Quail Lodge.
My birdie at the dog-leg-right 367-yard par-4 seventh hole from the right fairway bunker was my third winning hole in a row and put me 2-up in the match. This score would stand through the front nine.
Quail Lodge Golf Club is the type of golf course which gradually embraces you and before you know it you are completely in love with the place whether you have a bad hole or not.
Once you come to the 10th tee you realize the back nine is going to be a different experience than the front nine. While still along the Carmel River one now finds themselves looking down a canyon on the tenth tee.
Tee shot on the tenth tee at Quail Lodge.
It is a beautiful canyon and frames the drive on the relatively short 345-yard par- 4 tenth hole.
The tenth green is well bunkered and my approach shot finds the bunker short right of the green.
The resultant bogey diminishes my lead over the young video producer to one hole.
The young pigeon finds great difficulty on the 221-yard par-3 12th hole and allows me to win it with a bogey.
Perhaps the dramatic vistas amongst the canyons and streams of Quail Lodge have distracted my opponent?
Another birdie 4 at the short 502-yard 14th from the front bunker in two strokes increases my margin to the largest in the match- 3 holes with only four holes remaining.
It is there approaching the 14th green one can see the tranquil Quail Lodge. Though the 94-room hotel closed in November 2009 Edgar’s restaurant remains open and there is hope that the lodge will reopen soon.
Quail Lodge has a special ambiance that takes you to the heart of the game of golf.
On the golf course side of the Lodge is a putting course that nears the grandeur of the Himalayas at the Old Course in St. Andrews or the one at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida adjacent to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Oh what fun it would be to stay at the Lodge, have putting games there in the morning and evening and play the Quail Lodge Golf Course.
As the golf course traverses back towards the clubhouse one finds the lakes amidst the golf holes.
There is water left and right off the tee on No. 15, water right on No. 16 and water left on No.17.
This must be where the quail came to find the water. Another appropriate name for the club would certainly be Quail Lakes.
My opponent could only match my pars on Nos. 15 and 16 and therefore went down in defeat with a final loss rendering of 3&2.
Though with some life in him he did manage a deuce on the 146-yard par-3 17th hole.
Quail Lodge a peaceful, beautiful and serene place to be!
Good strategy, give them hope for the next match.
Quail Lodge Golf Club- a truly relaxing and enjoyable round of golf.
Bring your own pigeon to make it an even more memorable and fun experience.
CLICK here to go to the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, CA.
With Janine Chicourrat, General Manager of the Portola Hotel & Spa.
As much as I love going to Pebble Beach, I love staying at the Portola Hotel & Spa (& Brewery, see the video to understand!). Located right in the heart of downtown Monterey, on the waterfront with everything close by, it feels like home to me. I love knowing the history of the area and with a helpful and attentive staff, I feel like I am making a little history every time I visit. At least in my own mind, in my own life. I like thinking about Spanish Army Captain Portola discovering Monterey in 1770 and Samuel F.B. Morse developing the Monterey Peninsula and Pebble Beach in 1919. When you come to visit Monterey and stay at the Portola, I am sure you will feel the same natural feelings for the landscape and beauty of the area as others have since time began.
CLICK here for the website of the Portola Hotel & Spa.
Here are some pics from my most recent visit:
Above Stillwater Cove on 4th fairway.
Oh for the love of golf when did our beloved Pebble Beach come into our consciousness?
Was it through the television box as a youngster?
Nicklaus’ one-iron on the 17th the ball taking a bounce before striking the
flagstick.
Watson’s heroic chip-in at the same 17th with a finger point and prance around the green.
Was it even earlier through the eyes of Bobby Jones who’s quick exit in the first round of the 1929 U.S. Amateur brought a charm to the east in Augusta National via Cypress Point and Alistair MacKenzie?
How I so loved our Pebble Beach whence my eyes first saw her from the beach at Carmel after a road trip from Southern California to visit friends in the area?
Above the 7th green.
A walk onto the grounds and a visit to the Pebble Beach signed pro shop and first tee. A picture taken and savored for nearly thirty years.
The reality of my life in the early 1980s having to opt for Spyglass at $25 unable to afford a lovely but relatively expensive Pebble Beach at $75.
All these adult golfer years admiring her on the television amongst the spectacular view of the cliffs overlooking Stillwater Cove. The fun and laughter of the celebrity pro-am as if to witness the near end of winter back east just a few months before the spring flowers of Augusta.
Payne Stewart and his love for Pebble Beach frolicking on the wall along the 18th fairway.
A dream to play my beloved Pebble Beach one day always in my mind.
Then as fate would have it I came close to her, closer than one could ever be without putting a peg into her sacred ground.
Five years of being at the pro-am for the entire week witness a quaternary of rounds each year save Dustin Johnson’s three rounder in 2009. Bill Murray’s Cinderella story in all its beauty. Lots of celebrity and amateur interviews some with tales of love and romance down on the 7th green.
Another seven rounds watching the world’s best compete in the 2011 United States Open including GMac’s march to victory down the 18th fairway.
For my love was to be a love admired from afar never to have taken a divot from the turf of my beloved Pebble Beach. Much like my pilgrimage to the Old Course at St. Andrews in the spring of 2000 playing from domed plastic tees to save the turf in preparation of what became the fourth major of Tiger’s quest to surpass Jack’s 18. I never touch either of these beauties with a club head until an invitation to play came after this year’s pro-am.
The home hole… I felt like I was home for sure…
First out in the early morning walking merrily along the fairways of my cherished Pebble Beach. Ah what a grand experience it was. Like Bubba I never dreamt that far thinking I would love her from afar and never bring my imperfect game to her perfection.
I knew her closely and deeply from the practice putting green to the third hole which brought me towards the water with a look at the famous 17th before playing along the cliffs for the next seven holes. Then taking the high view for another five holes before the 16th brought me closer to the water once again to the crossroads I had known before.
It would be a beautiful ending to a lovely day with a hybrid to near perfection to Sunday’s hole though the fifteen footer did not drop into the target of the day. A picture off the 18th tee with clubs on shoulder to remind this humble golfer of the beloved Pebble Beach that I was there, that I lived the dream of walking her fairways, hitting and chasing that little white ball amidst the green tufted cliffs. The walk home up the 18th to another dream in my golfing life fulfilled.
My beloved Pebble Beach always in my consciousness and now in my golfing heart and soul.
Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer and a broadcast assistant for the various golf networks. He spends time on all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Web.com and LPGA.
Reistetter resides within two miles of the PGA TOUR headquarters and the home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.
A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame and THE PLAYERS while pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it.
Embark on a “Journey to Olympic Golf” with Reistetter on October 15th as he travels from St. Louis, Missouri where golf was played in the 1904 Olympics to Rio de Janiero where it will be played again in the 2016 Olympics.
http://www.journeytoolympicgolf.com/
Friend Andy Reistetter on Facebook or touch base with him by e-mail at AndyReistetter@gmail.com
Clubhouse at Edgewood Tahoe. Photo courtesy of Golf the High Sierra.
I may have been hypnotized for my week of High Sierra golf. It seemed surreal as I looked out the window during my flight into Reno and saw the Sierra Nevada below me. Flying along in the wisps of clouds in brilliant sunshine above such grandeur takes one into a new state of awareness. My mesmerizing meditation became focused as I saw the magnetic magnificence of Lake Tahoe. Below, I could see where the golfing gods had walked through one day and left behind golf courses in their green footprints. I knew I would be playing many of those courses during a weeklong golf journey. I couldn’t wait for the plane to land so I could get to the first tee.
Like any spinning wheel in a Nevada casino, my golfing journey went clockwise from Reno to Dayton to Lake Tahoe to Truckee to Graeagle. The terrain went from the mountain to the valley to the lake to the meadows to the really high mountains. Going around the High Sierra golfing wheel in seven days seemed like a magical and heavenly opportunity. With unlimited tee times at 40 courses how many could I play in seven days—maybe I could roll that lucky 7-11: seven days, 11 courses?
With Vince Mastracco, Matt McKay, and Steve Habel at Montreux!
My first round of golf was at Montreux CC, a private real-estate enclave and superb Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. You know it as the scenic course that hosts the annual Reno-Tahoe Open on the PGA TOUR, the tournament J.J. Henry won this year. Nestled in the Ponderosa pine trees on the gentle eastern slopes of snow-capped Mt. Rose, Montreux was a good first experience of High Sierra golf. With pine trees are taller than Jack’s beanstalk and dramatic views all around, Montreux offers a very different golfing experience. In this part of the country it is all about the altitude. I figured it out on the fourth hole after flying a wedge 20 yards over the green. I thought it was my superb and powerful ball-striking abilities. That it was not; it was high-altitude golf, a plus for anyone’s game and attitude!
After eagling the 15th at Dayton Valley!
The next day we golfed at Dayton Valley, a solid Arnold Palmer-designed facility. As a prequalifying site for the Reno-Tahoe Open, Frys.com Open and Q-School, this golf course provides all the challenge one golfer needs. If the wind kicks up, as it did for us, it becomes more of a challenge than a foursome of golfers needs. The rain never came but a rainbow did appear in the distant cloud-enshrouded mountain tops. My playing partner and I persevered through the weather to post an 8-under par 64 scramble score. Needless to say it was one of the best ball-striking days of my life as evidenced by the driver to five feet for eagle on the 323-yard 15th hole. Okay, so it was downwind and from the whites, but the putt was no gimme!
On the third day (and you know where I am going with this seven-day odyssey) the drive up to golfing heaven was spectacular via the NV 207 Kingsbury Grade Road from Minden. Once we rose to the elevation of Lake Tahoe, we played along its shore and in a nearby forest at Edgewood Tahoe, home to the American Century Celebrity Classic. This is the “Major,” where sports and entertainment celebrities compete for the right to be called the best nonprofessional golfer in America. This year, that honor went to Dan Quinn, a former NHL center.
Mr. Hickory Golf at the par-3 17th at Edgewood Tahoe.
The course design is really a Fazio Plus with Uncle George doing the original design that opened in 1968, and nephew Tom renovating the course for the 1998 season. The first nine leads the golfer up a gentle slope through towering pine trees while the second nine brings you quietly down to the lake. In a tranquil state one plays the par-3 16th with lake right and putts out on the final green as gentle waves slap along the shoreline.
To complete your experience at Edgewood Tahoe find the hidden hallway down the stairs behind the bar in the Brooks dining area. Check out the fascinating golf pictures of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and John Daly when they played junior events at Edgewood Tahoe.
When one is on a golfing pilgrimage to the High Sierra one must drive along the edge of Lake Tahoe. From south to north on the east side of the lake, it is spectacular. Like a tap-in birdie, one must stop to pause, take in the view and remember the feeling of awe and satiation.
After Montreux, Dayton Valley and Edgewood Tahoe, it was time to experience a unique combination of golf near Truckee—the closely mated twosome of Old Greenwood and Gray’s Crossing. The terrain is gradual, meadows abound and the land well-suited for parkland golf courses.
On the 18th green at Old Greenwood!
I walked Old Greenwood, saw some deer and tried to stay out of the chaparral. Taking notice of Old Greenwood’s logo, which depicts a golfer in knickers, and the Jack Nicklaus-designed course, a golfer knows playing here will be a memorable experience, and it was.
On the fifth day I played Gray’s Crossing (Peter Jacobsen/Jim Hardy design) with Ed Leinenkugel, a grandson of the brewery founder, and Joe Starkey, the voice of the 49ers. If Peter Jacobsen can have “Jake’s Takes” on NBC golf broadcasts, I can have an “Andy Dandy” on one of his golf courses. After I hit a great tee shot on No. 3, Joe makes the call “what a bonanza,” and after the round Ed gives me a bottle of the family’s best Summer Shandy. Does it get any better than that for a golf travel writer of average golfing skill? Did I tell you this is a great golf course? And I haven’t even mentioned PJ’s casual indoor/outdoor restaurant and bar (yet).
Are you counting? That was five golf courses in five days. I was definitely the “slacker” of the group. I picked up the pace on the sixth day driving up to the Graeagle area to play The Dragon and Plumas Pines.
First tee at the Dragon!
Playing the Dragon was a good and unique experience. I loved it! When you drive up to the clubhouse and it is a Frank Lloyd Wright design, you know it is going to be a special day. I played with a guy that last played it when the course opened and he said it is much more playable now. That is how I found it to be. Fairways and greens is good course management. Spray it a bit and you will pay the price though it will be lots of fun!
With Brandon Bowling, Head Golf Professional at Plumas Pines!
What can I say about Plumas Pines? There is no nicer Golf Professional (Brandon Bowling) in the world. The Superintendent (Mark Callahan) rides around with his dog in the golf cart. You feel like family the moment you step onto the property. The golf course is a good test of golf and a fun time if your girlfriend or wife can play along too! Have time to stay for dinner at Longboards as the slow-roasted baby back ribs are outstanding!
The seventh and final day of my High Sierra golfing trip came, and I saved the best for last—Whitehawk Ranch Golf Club! Now how can I say that after sharing the previous seven courses with you? Well I shot a two-birdie 73 from the 6,500 yard three-hawk tees. This is no cream puff of a golf course, but it is so picturesque that you are totally relaxed. In that state I believe you play some of your best golf, at least I do. I guess the 126 holes I played the previous six days helped a little too.
The 14th green at Whitehawk- tranquiity!
High Sierra Golf is not an ordinary golf trip. Perhaps it is the refreshing mountain air, the scenery or the elevation. Altitude maybe but attitude for sure—there is a certain personality and camaraderie to the area that makes the trip a lot of fun on and off the golf course!
While I did not play that lucky 7-11—I only played eight golf courses in seven days—I hope to return next year and play eleven!
