Aetna Springs Spans Three Different Centuries—and
Some of the Prettiest Landscape on Earth
By Andrew Hidas
In an age when the word “classic” is generally thought to mean “anything that debuted more than five minutes ago and is already descending in Google rankings,” Aetna Springs Golf Course’s roots go back to the second administration of President Grover Cleveland. Yes, that would be 1893, in case you’re foggy on your American history. As Cleveland reclaimed the presidency he had lost four years earlier to Benjamin Harrison, the group of investors who had founded the Aetna Springs Resort 20 years earlier added a 9-hole golf course to their property, thus complementing the hot springs soaking, swimming, hiking and dining activities that had entertained them and their children over many summers in the idyllic Pope Valley, one mountain over from Napa.
On this treasured land of gently rolling, unforbidding hills dotted by oak trees and vineyards, weekenders and seasonal inhabitants pursued the good life with invigorating strolls over a course that even then challenged their burgeoning skills. To say that not all that much has changed in the intervening 118 years is to say that preservation and restoration have been highly prized goals of those who have tended and loved this course over three different centuries. .
Architect Tom Doak and his aptly named “Renaissance Golf” reworked the course to dazzling effect upon its completion in 2008, even uncovering, like good archeologists, a long-buried hole No. 4 that soon became the course’s signature hole. (“What people love most about it is when they get on the green,” cracks General Manager Joel Larson, referring to the 134-yard hole’s imposing rough, sand traps, and requirement of highly targeted shotmaking.)
Few golfers complete the 3,057-yard (back tees) 9-hole layout claiming it as a walk in the park. But that’s certainly what it is aesthetically in this tucked away land, unrimmed by houses or highways, the birds and subtle whispering winds about all you hear in between the solid “thwack!” from your club. Two creeks add their gurgling on nearly every hole during the wet season, and superior drainage put in place during the renovation make the course readily playable when the rain stops.
Aetna Springs is the only course in California known to employ fine fescue and colonial bentgrass, which are only half as thirsty for water as most other grasses and allows superintendent Dick Rudolph to keep the course in immaculate, greener-than-green playing shape through the heat of summer and early fall. So while greens remain gorgeous and true, their small size and bunkering (a new feature of the redesign) require great focus. But before you narrow your gaze to the putting tasks at hand, be sure to enjoy Aetna Springs’ world-class views, highlighted by the elevated tee on No. 8’s par-5. You gaze out here 503 yards from the pin to behold nearly the entirety of Pope Valley and rolling vineyards bearing the Mondavi signature.
The tiny hamlet of Angwin is about all the town you’ll get while visiting Aetna Springs, but St. Helena offers exquisite dining and hotel accommodations 20 minutes away. Calistoga and its mineral baths lie a few minutes beyond. A rebuilt clubhouse and pro shop accompanied the course’s 2008 renovation, offering the opportunity for meetings and soirees both casual and formal.
Having transitioned from private to semi-private in recent years, Aetna Springs has opened its doors more widely to a public who can now walk in and behold what an actual “classic” looks and feels and plays like. If you’re given to golf course wagers, put your money on them making plans to return.
