One Decade and An Economic Downturn Later, Roddy Ranch Continues to Kick Up Its Heels

by Andrew Hidas

Why is it that you never hear about a rodeo champ or cowboy with the name of “Milton” or “Gail?” No no no, that wouldn’t work at all. But “Jack”—now there we have a name fit for Wrangler’s and lariats and the dust kicked up by cattle as they galumph into the corral.

All the evidence suggests that Jack Roddy was born to be a rancher, but little did he suspect through a career that had him bound for both the Rodeo and the Cowboy Hall of Fame that his name would also become indelibly linked to the game of golf. But there it is anyway: Ten years after its debut, “The Golf Club at Roddy Ranch” continues to roll off the tongue of increasing numbers of golfers who do their own happy galumphing to the East Bay town of Antioch, where they behold a rangy, pure links-style layout whose 235 acres have been sliced neatly from a 2,000-acre working cattle ranch.

Accolades along the lines of Golf Digest’s 4 ½ star rating for five consecutive years have been heaped upon Roddy Ranch since its first days. But probably the best testimonial comes from an even more meaningful number: Last year, amidst the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Roddy Ranch had its best year ever.

 Some of this is due, no doubt, to shrewd business practices that include frequent email and web specials and a great ear for price sensitivity. Hard on the heels of a golf course boom and escalating prices, Roddy Ranch abounds with low-and-mid-priced bargains starting at $25 for super twilight weekdays, just $45 regular weekdays, and web and email specials for “anytime” play that can put you on the course weekends for about that same weekday price.

 But another part of Roddy Ranch’s success is even more basic: Word has long since gotten out that this is one helluva golf course, with impeccable conditions, a serious service ethic, lovely surroundings, and golf challenges galore. So it would appear that as golfers have become more discriminating with their dollars and playing time in recent years, they seem to have been discriminating in favor of all that is Roddy Ranch. 

What they find there is a 7,024-yard course from the black tees, with four other placements ranging down to 5,390 yards on the par-72 layout. The course has matured in the past decade, with its greens becoming truer and the few trees even more stately and imposing than ever. A massive century-old oak in the middle of a dogleg on No. 9 can still rattle even the most confident player, and more oak trees border the No. 6 fairway.

But make no mistake: the sight lines here are clean and largely unfettered by anything other than the rolling topography that puts you in mind of windswept horizons and the sprawling spaces of cowboy country. Varying elevations come into play from the get-go on a downhill No. 1 that stretches for 534 yards over bunkered fairways and a rough right that you’ll want to avoid on your way to making par 5 (or not).

No. 2 takes you back uphill for 312 yards that will invite a carry, before you slope down again for 159 yards on No. 3, where you’ll be deposited in a beautiful amphitheatre setting around the green. Then back up you go for the 428-yard No. 4, with a mid-fairway bunker that looks easier to carry than it might turn out to be.
No homes intrude on the course nor ever will, though a planned development on the northwest corner of the ranch property will someday offer golfers the option of living in tidy proximity to this public course that also offers a wide variety of membership and frequent play options.

General Manager Kevin Fitzgerald has been at Roddy Ranch since a year before its debut and seems as settled as the most devoted ranch hand. He’s busy raising a family from a home on the working ranch, marveling at 72-year-old Jack Roddy’s energy and enthusiasm for walking the course every day and enjoyably bantering with his customers. “I consider Jack a father figure and mentor—he’s our modern day John Wayne,” Fitzgerald says. “There’s a reason why we have almost no turnover among our 40 employees. No one who comes here ever wants to leave.”

Designed by J. Michael Poellot, Roddy Ranch employs two lakes that serve irrigation needs and add some spice to holes 10 and 14. The lake on 14 is sweetly named “Lake Donna” for Jack’s wife, Donna Roddy.

Greens average 6,000 square feet, and with their true roll, this will be as pure a test of your putting skills as you are likely to find. Add in the stark fact of 82 bunkers, and your accuracy further afield will also be put to the test.

The recent addition of a 3,200-square-foot banquet tent for wedding and other group gatherings and a doubling of “The Corral” café has heightened Roddy Ranch’s status as an events-based social and professional destination. The coup de grace, though, is—and always will remain—the purity of a golf experience that strips you right down to the essentials of driving, pitching and putting—all against the rich mythological backdrop of a true western legend.

Mare Island’s 360-Degree World Beckons on San Pablo Bay

by Andrew Hidas

Really, we need at least one more lifetime than is given to us, no? One to explore the wide world beyond our own neighborhoods and comfort zones, to fully absorb the fact that people and places and sights and smells and customs can be very different than our everyday norm—neither better nor worse, but different, with their own integrity.

But then, in an ironic twist that leaves us half laughing and half dismayed, we need another lifetime to truly come to know all the places we’ve neglected to get to in our own neighborhoods and comfort zones (or got to only once when our relatives came to town and they longed to see some wonderful place we were embarrassed to admit we’d never gone to ourselves).

In other words, how many times have you hiked Point Reyes? Or been to the top of Coit Tower? Or paddled the Russian River? Or more to the point of our discussion here: beheld the wonders of Mare Island Golf Club? If the answer to that is “not yet,” may I gently suggest you quit stalling in the hope that science comes up with a magical pill guaranteeing a second life? Instead, venture out to this Bay Area treasure so you can sooner rather than later utter that well-known, inevitable phrase, “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.”

Location is everything in real estate, and there is no location quite like this island that affords 360-degree views of San Pablo Bay and the hills, mountains, rivers, wildlife refuges and bridges that frame it.

“You drive out here and it can feel like the middle of nowhere, then the road just ends and you turn and look around and say, ‘Whoa! Where has this place been all my life?’” muses General Manager Matt Sullivan, who came over from Roddy Ranch in 2006.

Sullivan is in the habit of soothing slightly anguished first-timers who bemoan what they’ve been missing, but then make it up to themselves by becoming regulars at this warm and casual 4-season course whose tree-lined front nine dates to 1892 and thus qualifies as the oldest course west of the Mississippi River.

The back nine involved some rerouting and additions by renowned architect Robin Nelson in 2000, resulting in a distinctly links-style overlay that further guaranteed a varied course that will absolutely demand you play every club in your bag.

Mare Island’s par-70 layout gives a hint of some challenge when you observe that its course record is 68. Such a narrow span between par and best-ever means there will be no burning through holes while tightly holding on to your driver here. Skillful shotmaking requirements come into play pretty much from start to finish when you’re not ogling the gorgeous vistas.

No. 3 exemplifies the challenge you face here. It’s just 195 yards from tee to cup, but you can’t see most of the green when you set up, and trouble both left and right means you’ll have to be straight and true (and hopeful). Just finding your ball can be a consolation prize when you don’t make its challenging par-3.

No. 7 picks up the challenge theme with a 388-yard beauty flanked in back by one of the course’s few water features. A false front just waits to roll your ball right back if you don’t park it deftly on top. You may not have to be perfect here, but “almost perfect” really helps. What also helps is its designation as the No. 1 handicap hole.

No. 13 boasts the highest point on the course, and just like the highest anything, it tends to draw the most acclaim. (For good reason, though, on a course with neighbors as appealing as bays and mountains tend to be.) This par-4 plays straight downhill for all of its 377 yards, offering 360-degree views of the bay and its bridges, the Napa River, and beyond. You can’t have a pulse and fail to get swept up by the sheer pizzazz of this setting.

The finishing hole at No. 18 requires a good long drive to make a decent inroad into its 429 yards. The fact that it plays gradually uphill to a small green means you’re right to be satisfied making a par-4 to finish off your round.

Sustained efforts in the past year to improve turf conditions and refurbish the clubhouse means superior shotmaking and drainage on the course and a more pleasing clubhouse experience after your round. Mare Island suffers minimal closures and next-to-no restrictions on cart access.

Mare Island used to be military play only, but today most players are civilians. With the least bit of planning, civilians can score a tee time to suit their needs.

Besides which, this renovation was comprehensive, with the year offline allowing an array of improvements beyond course redesign. A brand new irrigation and drainage system greatly enhances playability. Practice facility and driving range improvements make it easier to keep on your game off the course. And when play is done, golfers can relax in the newly renovated bar and dining area of the clubhouse (replete with five new flat-screen televisions) or sit on the patio and enjoy the scenic view of the new Mare Island. It’s the crowning touch to an enjoyable round of golf in this hallowed mecca of the golfing world.

Rates are modest at $30 weekdays, another $14 for a cart, with senior and youth discounts dropping prices even further. A $29 player’s card buys you discounts all year long, and a $99 monthly option pays for itself in a few rounds a month.

Mare Island’s storied history includes, among many tidbits, the tragic news of Pearl Harbor being relayed first to the Naval Communications Center that later became the clubhouse. Against that backdrop, the opportunity to breathe deeply and exult under the wide open skies of this island golf venue is one you’ll be wise to take advantage of—in this very lifetime.

Ready and Remarkable

Take an easy drive down into the quiet Hemet Valley to the southern fringe and you’ll find the hidden gem of the Inland Empire, Diamond Valley Golf Club. Situated in West Riverside County the course is located slightly off the beaten path yet easily accessible from San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties. Well worth the expedition!

Because Hemet is close to Palm Springs both share a similar desert climate that makes for great year-round golf! Set amid 450 acres of the San Jacinto Mountains, Diamond Valley is truly an oasis; there are no homes or development within its perimeter. The natural landscape and rolling terrain offers a stunning backdrop to the lush fairways, greens, waterscapes, native plants and grasses.

Designed by Art Magnuson and Bill Martin in 1999, Diamond Valley offers interesting features allowing for creativity with your navigation skills to choose your approach off the tees. Always a highlight, Diamond Valley has practice facilities that include: an all grass driving range, bunker and putting green. You can arrive early to give your self time to warm up and leave all your not-so-great shots behind

This solid championship layout posts a 138 slope and a 73.6 course rating set to challenge all skill levels. Diamond Valley offers five sets of tees to choose from. No matter the skill level, everyone will enjoy this course experience. The wide-open fairways offer sweeping elevation changes. The greens are well protected by sand bunkers and are hard and roll fast. One of the most memorable and challenging holes is #12, a 611 yard par 5, that features an enormous two acres and bunker guarding the left side of the fairway! Followed by the driveable 14th, Diamond Valley offers many risk reward holes.

Before or after your round, save room for a cold beverage and some great food because the snack bar will be managed a favorite local restaurant, Smokin’ Joe’s BBQ! Golf and BBQ, now that’s an eagle! On course, the cart girl will be offering quality sandwiches, cigars & beverages at affordable prices.

If considering a golf tournament or social event of any size, the experienced staff will guide you through the planning, preparation and execution to ensure it’s success. A large pavilion offers sweeping views of the course, the valley and surrounding mountains. The comfortable venue offers a casual concept but can easily be dressed up for formal affairs.

The New Monterey Pines Is Renovated,
Ready and Remarkable
by Andrew Hidas


Sure, the U.S. military may have withdrawn from some of the earth’s prime real estate when Fort Ord was decommissioned in 1994 and eventually transformed into Cal State University, Monterey. But that doesn’t mean the military influence doesn’t still linger to great effect in this fabled town by the sea.

Matter of fact, the military’s continuing presence—by way of the renowned U.S. Naval Postgraduate School—has turned out to be a boon for Bay Area golfers, given the complete renovation of Monterey Pines Golf Course. The fact that us civilians get to join in with nearly unfettered access to the course is a gift that wise golfers are not likely to ignore in coming years. (The 6,380 rounds played in the course’s first month after its July 25, 2009 Grand Opening are a good indication there are plenty of wise and avid golfers paying attention.)

Playability and affordability both loom large at the new Monterey Pines. The playability factor stems from both its relatively modest length (5,556 from the back tees) and the fact that virtually no holes are designed to provoke you into imagining your own vengeful military maneuvers against tight twisting fairways and unreachable greens that mock you from afar.

Architect Marc Messier of The Kevin Tucker Design Group has overseen such a major overhaul of the course that “new” is probably closer to the mark than “renovation.” rerouting What he’s come out with is 11 par-4s, five par-3s and just two par-5s, both at about 500 yards. He also expanded two formerly postage stamp lakes about 10-fold on the back nine. The lakes host good portions of holes 10, 12, 13 and 18, ever ready to lap up your errant shots.

T-1bent grass greens and tropically white sand bunkers provide a lovely counterpoint to the rugged vistas that still typify the Monterey coast. This par-69 is a fun and quite walkable course, made all the better by an active starter and marshal who help keep the traffic flowing at an efficient clip. Challenges abound to fire up your shotmaking skills, but none of them are outright diabolical. Drive time gets started immediately on No. 1, the course’s longest hole at 501 yards, most of it long straight fairway.

The 7th, a relatively short par-3 at 166 yards, is among the more difficult holes, presenting a downhill tee shot and a fast two-level green that slopes left to right.

Vying for most scenic honors is No. 9, a 367-yard beauty with the tee box framed by trees as if someone painted it just that way for hanging above the fireplace. Then the bay hovers behind the green once you’ve punched your ball along the fairway.

No. 10 is a challenge, with a dogleg right, a lake to the right, and the green perched at the lake’s pinnacle, from where it’s been rolling balls with regularity into the drink since the course reopened.

No. 12 hugs one of the lakes all the way along the left side of the fairway as you negotiate a sharp dogleg. You’ll need an accurate tee shot here, with a carry needing 150+ yards to a sloping green.

Most of the area’s better known courses capitalize on the Monterey County beauty factor with rates that will dent all but the most engorged pocketbooks. So goes the market, but not so Monterey Pines, where you can find world-class golf at rates that will not require a raid on your child’s education fund.

Thirty-four dollars for weekday civilian golf ($37 weekends) on a completely renovated course on the Monterey Peninsula? With the salt breeze wafting across the fairways, foghorns and sea lions competing for auditory rights on gray early mornings and pine trees soaring overhead? Yep, yep, and yep.Better still if you’re retired or active duty: $18 weekdays and $20 weekends. True, that’s a tad more than the 75 cents enlistees had to come up with to play the course upon its April, 1963 debut (officers got nicked for a buck). But movie tickets were 50 cents back then, too, so Monterey Pines rates still represent a huge bang for your recreational buck.

Monterey Pines used to be military play only, but today most players are civilians. With the least bit of planning, civilians can score a tee time to suit their needs.

Besides which, this renovation was comprehensive, with the year offline allowing an array of improvements beyond course redesign. A brand new irrigation and drainage system greatly enhances playability. Practice facility and driving range improvements make it easier to keep on your game off the course. And when play is done, golfers can relax in the newly renovated bar and dining area of the clubhouse (replete with five new flat-screen televisions) or sit on the patio and enjoy the scenic view of the new Monterey Pines. It’s the crowning touch to an enjoyable round of golf in this hallowed mecca of the golfing world.

Shadow Lakes & Deer Ridge Present the East Bay’s Niftiest Golf Package

by Andrew Hidas

Shadow Lakes and Deer Ridge, a short stroll apart from each other in the East Bay boomtown of Brentwood, used to engage in a friendly little rivalry to squire away available golfers while fully acknowledging the merits of the opposing course. Like two belles both looking to shine at every ball, both courses were built upon fabulous genetic endowments and wrapped in gowns by noted designers—Gary Roger Baird for Shadow Lakes (debuted fall 2001) and Andy Raugust at Deer Ridge (fall 2004). Then late in 2006, they went friendly competition one better by joining together in the niftiest little partnership this side of Ben and Jerry.

Today, both courses offer up a consistent blend of playability, views, challenge, impeccable course conditions, great practice facilities, and that intangible something-or-other that every memorable golf venue leaves in the very bones of players in those satisfying hours and days after a round.

These are daily-play public courses (or dailydouble- play at 36 holes if you’re feeling sprightly) that also offer membership packages on a single- or both-courses basis. Even today, with significant housing elements that have seen Brentwood more than double in population to nearly 50,000 people since the 2000 census, both courses play to the feeling of expansive skies, pasturelands and orchards that still give this part of the bay its distinctive sense of place.

What the partnership has done besides make 36 holes available for a daily double golfing dose is to increase course availability in the wake of the events business that has become a significant factor in the golf industry’s business model. Meaning, when one course closes for a tournament or corporate event, the other is there waving its open arms. Shadow Lakes presents the larger year-round events capability, while Deer Ridge is ideal for more intimate events through the moderate weather months. Out on the courses themselves, the extra 400 yards, generous fairways and difficult greens of Shadow Lakes makes it the course of choice for pros, scratch golfers, and “let’s kick it up a notch” recreational players searching for maximum challenge in their outing. Though both courses are par 71, figure on a good three extra shots (and more time with your irons) most days at Shadow Lakes compared to Deer Ridge.

Most all the 6,710 yards of Shadow Lakes and 6,302 yards of Deer Ridge fall under the half-imposing, half-inspiring spell of Mt. Diablo. The mountain presents a stately and irresistible visual magnet that can help leaven whatever mussing and fussing you’re compelled do with club selection, shot angles and the like. “Heads up!” is more than a warning to beware of errant balls here—it’s an imperative that helps you remember the wonders of a golf outing in this part of the world.

Perhaps nowhere is Mt. Diablo more present than on No. 6 at Shadow Lakes, a 572-yard uphill par-5 that plays into prevailing winds with the mountain behind you, multiple bunkers and a world of challenge ahead. It’s a beautiful—and very physical—hole. Make par here and you’ve earned the right to Twitter your friends about your astute shotmaking. You’ll face the opposite situation on Deer Ridge’s gorgeous 16th hole, shooting from an elevated tee where you can behold endless farmlands and the mountain—yes, that mountain—framing the 521 yards of long narrow fairways and green. Both courses are lauded by players and media alike for their tremendous conditioning, Deer Ridge more recently honored as “Best Overall Value” in the Bay Area by Greenskeeper.org, which uses course conditions combined with price as its main metric. The finishing holes here, Nos. 15 through 18, show off those conditions to maximum effect, with the rolling topography of native grasses and scattered oaks framing playing areas lovingly maintained by longtime course superintendent Jose Flores and his crew.

A blind tee shot on No. 17 leads to the lake bordering a large chunk of the fairway right, extending around three sides of the green that is further protected by bunkers. The risk is high here. No. 18 is a visual pleasure as you lift your tee shot over the lake’s finger and angle yourself gently dogleg right around the lake’s back side. More bunkers await you on the green. It’s a gorgeous and challenging finishing hole, just the right tone to get you primed for what awaits.

While Shadow Lakes is no walk in the park (which, handily enough, you can find almost next door to both courses at 4,500-acre Cowell Ranch State Park and its miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails), redemption can be found here in both small and big ways. No. 13 is a par- 4, 439-yarder that helps the 220-yard drive it requires off the tee by angling slightly downhill. No. 17 is only 178 yards but all over water. That nicely sets up the finishing hole, 559 yards with reasonable chance for a par if your drive can utilize the plentiful room on the right to bypass a ravine, and you later use some care to negotiate the bunkers fronting the green. With daily fees in the decidedly low-to-midrange of Bay Area pricing ($38 at Deer Ridge weekdays, $50 at Shadow Lakes), the picture gets even better for regular golfers, with annual membership for both courses as low as $2,150 (weekdays, $3,200 everyday, carts included).

That represents barely 20 plays at a number of courses in the region, so pricing would seem to be right in line with the trend toward economic modesty in these chastened times. Combine that with the sundry pleasures of a two-course golf tango under a storied mountain, and you’ve got yourself just the prescription for a healthy and invigorating recreational program heading into the second decade of the millennium.

Golf Plus

A Great Course Comprises Just Part of the Picture at
Cache Creek’s Yocha-De-He Golf Club

by Andrew Hidas

Blueprints, strategic plans and marketing programs always form the foundation of any new golf resort, but when the last plan is approved and the last blade of grass is smoothed over for opening day, the course simply has to deliver with the magical—and sometimes elusive—“fun factor” that ultimately spells the difference for every venue. Happily, that factor has revealed itself in spades since the Rumsey band of the Wintun Indian tribe opened Yocha-De-He Golf Club in January, 2008 as part of the Cache Creek Casino Resort in the lovely and tranquil Capay Valley.  Brad Bell was the architect who got to behold the rolling mountain terrain between Sacramento and the coast and fashion a golf course out of it after the Rumsey band established the resort complex on their ancestral lands. The destination resort component got some distinctive uplift when the course opened for play, set a full mile from the casino amidst the hills and meadows and open sky and wildlife abutting Cache Creek.

Yocha-De-He means “spring home” or “spring camp” in Wintun, a testament to the predominance of sun-splashed days that seem to bathe this area with the perpetual promise of spring. The Rumsey group added to that promise by making a full-bore commitment to a first-class golf venue for both casino resort visitors and day-use golfers coming up the hill from Sacramento on one side and the Wine Country and Bay Area on the other. The result is an impeccably designed and conditioned course that didn’t require Bell or the operators, Scottsdale-based Troon Golf, to make the kind of compromises reflective of pinched budgets.

The uncompromising approach continues today with 15-minute tee times that provide a peaceful easy feeling for players while doing the same for the landscape—all with modest daily rates of $85 including cart and other amenities. With a rating of 74.9 and a slope of 136, Yocha-De-He is no casual pitch-and-putt. The course is well-bunkered throughout its 7,334 yards, and a large (19-acre) lake used for irrigation and visual drama makes for some very intriguing decision-making on Nos. 10, 17 and the challenging finishing hole. Five sets of tees offer relief for willing takers, with the more forgiving gold tees at 6,907 and furthest forward white tees at 5,426 yards. One of Bell’s goals was to honor the dramatic legacy of the area, and he wasted no time doing so by welcoming visitors with one of the most memorable first holes in golf. With each hole given a name in native Wintun, No. 1  is Sul San—“Eagle Eye.” Think the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony here: DA-da-da-dum! There before you, from your elevated and regal perch 170 feet above the distant—as in 454 yards away—cup, you can behold all 18 holes of the course, along with rolling farmlands, vineyards and mountains. Here is the world laid out before you in visionary fashion.

Big hitters can hit away for all they’re worth on No. 1’s relatively straight vertical trajectory. They’ll get to do so again and again with holes of 563, 548 and 541 yards, along with another nine holes over 400. Matter of fact, No. 2 picks right up on the distance element with its 548 yards, this one incorporating a dogleg right to a green defended by bunkers left, right and rear. No. 6 does more of the same with an exquisitely designed, mostly vertical hole of 541 yards that incorporates rough halfway through and a large depression ready to host your ball if it veers short and right of the green. All that and eight bunkers make this hole one you might see fit to ponder while nursing your drink back in the clubhouse or casino bar. The aforementioned lake makes its presence felt in no uncertain terms on the last two holes.

A blind tee shot on No. 17 leads to the lake bordering a large chunk of the fairway right, extending around three sides of the green that is further protected by bunkers. The risk is high here. No. 18 is a visual pleasure as you lift your tee shot over the lake’s finger and angle yourself gently dogleg right around the lake’s back side. More bunkers await you on the green. It’s a gorgeous and challenging finishing hole, just the right tone to get you primed for what awaits.

The resort setting here includes the casino (with 2,400+ slots, 150 table games including a 28-table poker room), a 200-room luxury hotel and spa, eight restaurants, swimming pool, and enough nearby outdoorsy adventures in hunting, fishing, hiking and whitewater rafting to keep you contentedly busy for weeks.
Casinos also mean a robust concert/nightclub business, here including the likes of Keith Sweat, Mel Tillis, Imelda Papin, and a couple of true throwbacks for golfers of a certain age: the  mothers Brothers and Grand Funk Railroad. Let’s see: first-class golf. Gaming, eating, drinking. Concerts, massages, lounging by the pool. Just over yonder for winetasting or rafting. Yep, life is a challenge up at Cache Creek. It’ll take everything you’ve got to sort it all out and establish your priorities. Ready, set, DA-da-da-dum…

By Air, Land & Sea

Perched on San Francisco Bay, Metropolitan Golf Links Sports Picture-Perfect Approachability

by Andrew Hidas

Taking up substantial swaths of precious land as they do, golf courses are judged on a very basic level under the real estate industry’s guiding mantra Location! Location! Location! On that score, Metropolitan Golf Links, set down amidst the natural cathedral of San Francisco Bay, is the type of property that is always coveted, in good times and bad, fair weather or foul. Completed in 2003 on land just to the south of Oakland International Airport, “Metro”, as insiders quickly come to call it, shows designers Johnny Miller and Fred Bliss at their most approachable and natural. A straight-ahead pure links layout means virtually no trees and thus unobstructed bay breezes that distinctively shape every round you play. Fast and true greens won’t mess with your mental game. The setting calls for solid fundamentals and attunement with the time of day, the season, and how your own performance is shaping up on any given outing.

Metro’s oft-noted approachability also includes the purely geographic element of easy access from all over the East Bay, San Francisco, and even the North- and South Bay. The course enjoys one of those “no more than 45 minutes from everywhere” reputations. Once you arrive, you’ll behold such an abundance of bay, sky, mountain and bridge that you’ll be tempted to pat yourself on the back for your supreme good sense in choosing this day, in this place, to be pursuing the ancient ritual of a damn good game of golf. (Truth be told, being bayside on the links in wintry overcast with the incredibly tame temperatures of the prevailing Mediterranean climate can be pretty darn wonderful as well.)

At 6,959 yards from the tips (down to 5,099 on the last of the five tee placements), Metro will give you a workout on a merry quartet of par-5s. Nos. 3, 6, 10 and 17 all go in excess of 500 yards, and 10 par-4s will also stretch your game. Two exquisitely balanced 9s both finish at the clubhouse, with the back nine slightly more challenging in both length and shotmaking requirements. The course launches you kindly enough through the first three holes, with No. 1 a short par-4 that should give you plentiful landing room as long as you avoid the swale at the back of the green. No. 4 will challenge your grit at 469 yards, with an open landing area and no bunkers perhaps deluding you into dreams of an easy par. Not so. A dogleg left and then a wavy green will place your ball in peril from beginning to end on this difficult hole.

No. 14 is regarded as the signature hole, a 428-yard beauty that sees a bunker left and native grasses right requiring a true tee shot, then a crucial choice of irons that will carry you (or not) over an estuary fronting the green. Negotiate that and you’ll confront another seriously contoured green to help you finish this hole with all your senses engaged. With an estuary running through half a dozen holes late in the course, two sizable lakes and a pond accompanying four holes, water is a factor, right in tune with the surrounding bay. On days that water dumps from the sky, a state-ofthe-art drainage system includes two feet of sand that keep the course highly playable. Metro is a certified Audubon course featuring recycled water use,native plants and animal-friendly habitats that befit its Bay Area identity. Vistas stretch to the San Francisco and Oakland skylines, the Oakland hills, Mt. Tamalpais, the Peninsula and the Bay Bridge.

This is a superb and inviting walking course for those so inclined, with very few hills to get you out of your rhythm. Disabled, injured or elderly players enjoy a single person cart option for a mere 10 bucks ($6 for nine holes), reservations required. Course fees top out at $40 weekdays, $50 on Fridays and $62 weekends, with steep discounts for Oakland residents, seniors, juniors and off-hour play. It is not for nothing that Metropolitan is one of only two Bay Area courses to earn a Golf Digest rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Some of the allure is in what accompanies the course: an all-grass driving range, a fully fleshed out short game area with a main green and two hole locations, a practice bunker, and two target greens. A large new banquet facility accommodates up to 250 people for weddings and other parties, business meetings and more.

The Metropolitan Golf Academy offers lessons from half a dozen teaching professionals at varying prices, some with half-hour options. A women’s club, junior club, and the premier offerings from the ‘Membership Links Club’ help keep the calendar full. It’s also the home course of the Cal Bears, with notable alums and other Bay Area sports figures helping to liven up the proceedings. Five years after its debut, Metro is living up to its name as a kind of centralized urban golfing hub, the buzz of activity as relentless as the breezes that have helped shape it from its very first day.

Vine Country Experience

It’s Not All About Grapes At Eagle Vines—But They’re Never Far Away

by Andrew Hidas

Sure, sure, we’ve heard all about well-established Australia, up-and-coming Argentina, and almost unknown Bolivia. These days, they’re even promoting Mississippi and New Hampshire, just to list two among many domestic upstarts, as scenic Wine Country destinations that you can sandwich around long rounds of golf and other aspects of the Good Life that modern man and woman hold so dear.

But come on, now.

If you’re anywhere west of the Atlantic Ocean and your dreams are churning up images of golf and vines, why would you not be stepping onto a plane or warming up your car for the most direct route possible to Napa Valley?

Fortunately for Eagle Vines Golf Club, there’s no good response to that question. Once you’ve glimpsed—via your own experience, or in pictures, the written word, or the oral testimony of your neighbor—the many charms awaiting you in this most hallowed part of the wine-and-recreation world, the only logical response is to indulge.

Yes, the delicious sights and flavors of Wine Country drench the entire milieu around Eagle Vines, and legendary golf pro and designer Johnny Miller didn’t shy away from capitalizing on it. From beginning to end of his nicely sprawling, 7,200-yard (back tees), par-72 layout, you’ll get enough sights and scents of the surrounding vineyards to know (and appreciate) exactly where you are.

Back in 2002, ten premier holes of the former Shakespeare Course from the nearby Chardonnay Golf Club were sliced off to form the nucleus of Eagle Vines. Miller then set about designing eight new holes and weaving them together for the course’s May 2004 debut. The reviews have been glowing ever since.

Vineyards need water, of course, and Eagle Vines follows in the same spirit with water features playing a prominent role throughout. There are water hazards on eight holes and environmental hazards (wetlands) on the remaining ten.

Major water fun begins on No. 5 with a good-sized lake on the left, balanced by a bunker right. Thread the two with a good drive left center of the fairway and you can maintain your equanimity on this 450-yard test. Then comes the sloped green. Par would be an accomplishment.

This is Eagle Vines’ signature hole, and the signature reads, “Wow…”

No. 6 is a particularly lovely version of a water-drenched hole. A waterfall serenades you on the tee as you gaze down to an island green just 163 yards away. Every one of those yards is bejeweled with trees and grasses and blue sky, vineyards and mountains slightly in the distance, a nifty footbridge showing the way to your ultimate destination.

No. 11 brings two lakes connected by a creek into your picture frame. This is some more beautiful real estate, 565 yards’ worth, and it also gives you a peek up to the waterfalls flowing from No. 18 once you’ve approached your landing area. You’ll thank your gene pool here for the gift of sight.

If you’ve played St. Andrews, you may have one of those little dizzy moments when playing through No. 14. There in front of you lies what for all the world looks exactly like Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course. Yes, Johnny Miller is a major fan of St. A’s. Enjoy your traverse of the creek!

The beauty of Eagle Vines can sometimes obscure its many difficulties. (Or perhaps it simply engenders a forgiving attitude among players.) There’s something for just about every kind of difficulty here, from sheer length (try 610 yards on No. 16) to multiple sloped greens to plentiful water hazards to tricky p.m. winds that have been known to act like a slightly unpredictable uncle who lends so much intrigue to important family gatherings.

With ratings and slope of 75.3/140, the course’s difficulty is not exactly a closely held secret, but it became even tougher to gloss over those numbers recently when San Francisco Business Times rated Eagle Vines the “Fourth Most Difficult Course in the Bay Area,” trailing only Ruby Hill, Spyglass and Wente Vineyards. So yes, you’ll get a nice little golf workout at Eagle Vines. Everyone does-including the two Pro Shop dogs, Stoli and Maverick, black labs who keep over-abundant geese and other avian hoi polloi on the run via major chase games several times a day. This organic form of bird control is proving to be quite the hit at Eagle Vines, helping to keep the dogs in shape, the geese appropriately scarce, and the grounds much cleaner than they would otherwise be.

Prices are in the mid-range of California courses-$65 weekday, $80 Friday and Sunday, $90 on Saturday (carts included), with drastic reductions at twilight, super twilight, and for seniors. So it won’t be green fees taxing your pocketbook at Eagle Vines. If you do make a weekend or longer out of it and pursue other Bay Area options just a short drive away, the toll could mount accordingly, of course. But with a fabulous day of golf under your belt at a world-class locale, you’ll likely be in the mood to treat yourself generously. The advice from here is to go ahead and give in to the temptation.

Once you’ve glimpsed- the only logical response is to indulge.

Living the Life At Peacock Gap

Marin’s Bayside Classic Does the Renovation Thing With Stunning Results

by Andrew Hidas

Anyone keeping pace with Northern California culture knows the phrase “only in Marin”—it’s a fantasy, a caricature of the well-heeled county and its idiosyncrasies. Fortunately for Marin golfers and others close enough to get there on any given day, “only in Marin” achieves a luminous, deeply appreciated reality when applied to the fully renovated Peacock Gap Golf & Country Club.

In this sumptuous setting perched on the low coastal hills and marshlands abutting China Camp State Park and San Pablo Bay, this classic Billy Bell (of Torrey Pines fame) course was definitely showing its age at the turn of the millennium. In April 2005, new owner Golf Solutions USA (Petaluma’s Adobe Creek is its closest other property) arrived to hatch plans for a comprehensive renovation under Operations Manager Ed Peplinski. Phoenix-based architect Forrest Richardson oversaw the design.

A two-phase process saw the practice areas and holes 2 and 9 redone in 2006, followed in April 2007 by a course closure that allowed for a major reworking of the remaining 16 holes, bunkers, greens, drainage, and pretty much everything else that wasn’t nailed tightly down. The course is now complete and wide open for public play, though member sales are proceeding for what Peplinski and Golf Solutions envision as a total lifestyle membership club, complete with a remodeled 30,000-square-foot clubhouse, 10,000-square-foot spa/exercise facility, Olympic-size pool, and activities such as yoga, Pilates, massage, pedicures and all the rest. Target completion date for all the amenities is early 2009.

“In the ’60s and ’70s, this was a major social and recreational hot spot in Marin,” says Peplinski. “Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood—they all came out here when they were in the area. Billy Casper was the touring pro, Johnny Miller won the state high school championship here, Ray Floyd still holds the course record (63), and on the tennis courts, we saw Pancho Gonzales, Rod Laver, and the club’s touring pro Ken Rosewall, who was ranked No. 1 in the world. We had swim teams, rugby teams.

Says Richardson, the author of three thinking-person’s books on golf course design: “We wanted to honor the original vision of Billy Bell, keeping the positives while updating the course to make it a more interesting and less predictable play.

“All that fell away over time, but our goal is to bring it back, with the rebirth of a tradition. We’re 15 miles from downtown San Francisco, but with generally much better weather, in a gorgeous location, with a walkable and challenging course. The time is right for more of a wholefamily, whole-life kind of golf club.”

“Bell was known for his great routing schemes, which we kept largely intact. We focused on removing trees, varying bunkers, and other features to make it less formuladriven. The idea was to make a statement about greens and approaches, more along the lines of classic European or Eastern U.S. courses, blending it all with the surrounding landscape.”

Once all the greens were redesigned and holes 5 through 8 and 17 were rerouted, the course was again ready for prime time in late November 2007. By then, Richardson had accomplished one of his most important and overt goals, which was to refashion a venerable course that is now better played, in Bobby Jones’s oft-cited phrase, “between the ears.”

“It’s more about the greens and the short game now,” Richardson says. “Golfers have a lot more choices here than they used to have, but members tend to hold the cards, because they’ve worked on and solved a good number of the puzzles that perplex public players and guests.”

Like all other artistic endeavors from symphonies to novels to movies, golf courses require varied pacing, Richardson continues. “We wanted to create differences in intensity and rhythm, with lulls followed by crescendos and conflict. Just like in movies, which can’t be all car chases or romantic scenes or snappy dialogue. Early in the course here, players can feel kind of peaceful and almost secure. Then at holes 6 and 7, we hear them saying, ‘Geez, where did this come from?’ That’s when we know they’re fully engaged.”

A new fishbone drainage system has already kept Peacock Gap open this winter on days that would have left the former course looking pretty much like the swampland it had been in the 1700s, when Miwok Indians ambled over to gather shellfish, clams and mussels from their nearby abodes in what is now China Camp.

Artful, well-drained new bunkers have replaced the seasonal ponds the old bunkers used to become in winter, and a computer controlled, weather-sensitive irrigation system now keeps (just the right amount of) water going where it’s needed.

A fourth tee placement now sees the course playing from 4,800 to 6,261 yards. Tricky “potato chip” greens range from 7,640 feet on No. 6 down to 4,650 on No. 11. The NCGA (for men) and WGANC (for women) recently updated their ratings on the course, to (black tees) 70.0/122 for men, and 73.4/130 for women. Both groups will re-rate the course in spring, 2008, based on actual play.

What hasn’t changed are the multiple generations of golfers who continue to test themselves against what the course’s own literature describes as its “purposefully devilish” nature.

That angels dance close by, ready to assist in every golfer’s strenuous efforts to reach the Kingdom of Par, serves only to reinforce the widely-acknowledged fact that golf and theology are hopelessly and forever intertwined, traveling buddies on the long and undulating road to salvation.

The happy news is that Peacock Gap is once again a major feeder into that road.

Three Nines, Surrounded By Vines

27 Holes and a Feast for the Senses Await You at Napa Valley’s Chardonnay Golf Club

by Andrew Hidas

You’ve got your Ocean Golf, your Mountain Golf, your Desert Golf, comprising a kind of Mt. Rushmore of iconic natural venues for your game. All good. But oh, to be among the vines, 150 acres of them, on a course called “Chardonnay,” in the heart of Napa Valley, drinking in the sights, sounds, and most certainly the tastes of the continent’s premier wine region—is there any doubt that “Vineyard Golf ” deserves to be right up there in that elite pantheon of venues that no icon-respecting golfer should miss?

Under new private ownership since late 2005, the Chardonnay Club has long embraced the concept that, in the words of Head Pro Monte Koch, “The right number of holes for a golf course is 27, period.” The more-is-better orientation is based on multiple factors, including improved pace of play, greater variety for golfers, more available tee times, enhanced tournament opportunities, and from the grass’s own selfish and preservationist point of view, an opportunity to give each nine a rest one day a week. (You can almost hear every blade—and every groundskeeper— exhale in relief.)

The trio-of-nines approach gives golfers a satisfying range of options, depending on their mood and day of the week. The first opening nine rotates daily, with that course’s action getting underway at 7 a.m. Let’s say that’s the Vineyards Course, so named because, ta da…it has the most vineyard backdrop of the three (not that any of them are lacking in that department).

Vineyards players proceed on to the Lakes Course (yes, it’s characterized by…lakes!), for their second nine, while at 10:40, play opens on the Meadows Course, (think “meadows”), from where players proceed to Vineyards for their second nine.

If it sounds like you need a spreadsheet to follow all that, fear not. The management team, headed by GM Roger Billings and Koch (with all due bouquets to Course Superintendent Gary Cozart), have the whole system wired so well at this point that their cell phones play the chorus from Beethoven’s Ninth every time someone sneezes and holds up play for more than five seconds. (Small joke there, but not all that exaggerated.)

The result is a semi-private course (members and visitors always welcome) of not only spectacular setting and varied challenges, but of exquisite structure and organization. That frees Billings and Crew to focus on all the ancillary functions that round out the golf experience today—service quality, food and beverage, tournaments, banquets and weddings. (The regal century-year-old oak tree on No. 1 of the Vineyards Course has seen more couples tie the knot than your average church.)

“We really push our bag drop,” says Koch, elaborating on the service orientation “We have a crew that understands and endorses ‘The Chardonnay Way.’ They know what hustle is. That means lifting bags out of and back into trunks, cleaning golf clubs, the whole experience. Even with a great course, little service things matter a lot. It’s the same thing in our restaurant, golf shop and banquet room.”

That perspective also infuses Chardonnay’s approach to tournaments, which comprise an important source of both revenue and reputation for clubs in the fiercely competitive golf industry. Chardonnay is rare in having one professional, Rick Voigt, solely dedicated to tournament sales and coordination, rather than glomming tournament duties onto a “day job” he holds elsewhere in the facility. That creates the polar opposite of a vicious circle, with highly professionalized tournament service creating great buzz and plentiful repeat business, which in turn helps improve the service yet again.

Once out on the nines, players encounter complementary but distinct course profiles. While the Lakes nine is the most challenging of the three, it plays in combination with Vineyards to produce the lowest slope rating of 136 from the furthest of four tee placements. Meadows-Lakes comes in at 137 and Lakes-Meadows at 141.

Vineyards is the gentlest, perhaps to better allow you to gape in wonder at the quite literally surrounding Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah vines that are environmentally sensitive “lateral hazards” in everyday play. After abundant grape accompaniment through No. 5, your driver will get a stern test in clearing a large lake on No. 6, followed by more water on Nos. 8 and 9 from another Chardonnay Club signature: Fagan Creek.

Meadows also features vineyards and the creek, along with a greater abundance of the stately oaks that compel your attention at nearly every turn. No. 5 here— with elbow tees fanning out from 110 to 175 yards—features an “island” green with surrounding vineyards rather than water. For sheer views, it’s hard to match Lakes No. 1 and its elevated tee, offering 360-degree vistas of the Valley’s astonishing, seemingly forever-vineyards and surrounding mountains. With the occasional home glimpsed far into the distance, this is where you can fully appreciate that none of the 27 holes of Chardonnay Golf Club share real estate with a residential neighborhood. In this oasis, golf alone prevails, with all its associated charms.

“I’ll look around sometimes in the fall, gold-yellows in one direction, burgundy in another, burgundy and bright red in another, and I think, ‘Wow, who needs Vermont?’” says Koch. “Our colors are in vines instead of maples, but they’re just as intense, and they last a month or more. It’s a pretty place to work, a pretty place to play.”