The Beauty In Getting To Know A Golf Course

One of the golf blogs I have come across is this guy that goes by "Golf Nomad", with "Bogeys Across America" being the name of the blog. He has played an insane amount of courses, the last time I checked it being over 700.

One of the things I realized this year was that the traveling I was doing was pretty exhausting. The last time I checked I was gone two-thirds of the weekends since February. Keep in mind, I live less than a half mile from the beach in La Jolla Shores. I truly live in paradise but somehow still have the itch to explore on my weekends. I am approaching over 60 rounds of golf this year and I believe there are 10 or so times that I have played an incomplete round but still made my way to the course. I would say half of them would be made up of three courses (Torrey North, South & Silverrock).

Silverrock Resort - Hole #2 - Par 5

Now with that being said, what is a true golfers ambition? Is it playing as many courses as possible? Is it having a nice home course with an annual golf destination trip? Ever since being a member at El Niguel for a couple years in High School, I have grown to appreciate the beauty of getting to know a golf course.

I am incredibly fortunate to have Torrey Pines be my home courses in La Jolla and Silverrock be my home course when I am in La Quinta.

Torrey Pines can play so many different ways. For starters, you have 36 holes of golf. Prior to the renovation by Tom Weiskopf, the north played easier but had really intense greens. On the 9th hole, you actually would be better off chipping from 10 feet off the green than to have a 5 foot putt downhill. With this renovation work finalizing, it appears that the greens will be much bigger with several different pin selections to make the approach shots that much more interesting. The other thing about Torrey Pines is that the wind can make a dramatic difference on your round. Club selection at sea level with a steady breeze coming off the ocean will really get you thinking.

Torrey Pines North - Hole #6 - Par 3

Silverrock was truly a blessing. It is one thing to have such a great resident program with San Diego and Torrey Pines, but to have another with the city of La Quinta and Silverrock is phenomenal.

The difference between Silverrock and Torrey Pines, is that Silverrock will one day never be the same. They are on the cusp of building this high end resort and in no way do I see them forking over those glorious weekend morning tee times to the city residents that pay a quarter of the off the rack rate. Silverrock also has pristine conditions in season, while Torrey is year round golf and can be hit or miss.

Torrey is a more traditional seaside course where it is feasible to hit driver on every tee shot, as Silverrock combines mountain, water, and sand, which in turn requires precise tee shots and focus throughout the round. It is likely that you will hit a Driver, 3 wood, hybrid, and iron on various tee shots.

So what is the beauty of getting to know a golf course? You know the right play and you also know where you absolutely can't hit it. It is up to you to put together the shot.

Conquering Top 100 Lists

I never read books. If someone had asked me what my favorite book is, I would have to go back to the third grade when I read a biography on Joe DiMaggio. I think that was one of the few books I have ever read.

It's not that I don't like reading because I spend countless hours reading up on course reviews, as well as my favorite sport teams, I think it has just been the lack of interest. There was always a lack of interest until recently one of the most well known golf bloggers wrote a book entitled "How to Play the World's Most Exclusive Golf Clubs", with the title obviously catching my attention.

The book is written by John Sabino, who has played the world's top 100 golf courses. This, of course, is a goal I believe many golfers out there have. After reading the book with great interest, there was less about the "how" and more dedicated stories about the experiences.

The biggest takeaway without a doubt is to always network. You never know who you will come across and what connections they have.

I now see people on Instagram that are sharing the same goal. They make websites about how many they have knocked off their list, write reviews, as well as provide insight on how to get on the courses.

Last week I was thinking about buying a pegboard with a list of the "top 100 courses you can play". One by one the goal is to eventually conquer the list in it's entirety and come away feeling like an accomplished golfing legend. However, I feel like I have a bit of a different take.

What makes golf so great are the experiences. It's the feeling of making birdie on the first hole at a course you've been thinking about for months. It's the feeling of being out there with your Dad and both striping tee shots as the starter warns you about the difficulty of the tees you have selected. With that being said, my goal is to create more golfing experiences. If I knock off some top 100 courses along the way, great. For the time being I am more focused on destinations and from there researching and playing the best courses in that area.

My Philosophy on Golf Course Architecture

Let me start off by saying that I can be a bit of a golf "snob". Not in the sense that I get frustrated if the cart barn guys don't sufficiently clean my clubs after my round, or that I complain if my Arnold Palmer beverage doesn't have the right mix of lemonade and ice tea, but more in the sense that I truly appreciate nice golf courses. When I spend 4 or more hours of my weekend out on a course, I want it to be somewhere that I am inspired, not somewhere that is unimaginative and poorly maintained.

In May of this year, I played the Canyons Course at BigHorn Country Club in Palm Desert and immediately crowned it as my all time favorite golf course. It was the type of golf course where you want to take a photo on every tee box because of the sheer beauty. Every detail of this course is thought out. I would even argue that every blade of grass is thought of. They probably have sit down meetings with blades of grass to make sure overall course morale is at all time highs. But let's not forget what it takes to be a member at this course, a $350k initiation and over $30k a in anual dues. This isn't for the 1%, this isn't for millionaires, this is for multi-millionaires and billionaires.

The Canyons Course at Bighorn Golf Club - 11th Hole

Aside from being an incredibly exclusive club, the overall design of the course was what really stuck out to me. It was a Fazio masterpiece. From the opening hole to the 18th, every shot was intriguing.

The following day I played Stone Eagle Golf Club, which happens to be across the street. This course is a Tom Doak design and is almost completely different than any Fazio design I have seen. At Stone Eagle, I was paired up with a golf design enthusiast and I began to boast about how phenomenal the Canyons course was. The playing partner looked at me completely unemotional and said, "you like Fazio, huh?".  I really didn't know how to respond, other than to say yes, but I was more curious as to why he responded that way as I felt it was an odd response.

He went on to talk about Coore and Crenshaw and Doak as if they were on a completely different level than Fazio. I really couldn't say much because I hadn't played a Coore and Crenshaw, and we were only a few holes in on the Doak designed Stone Eagle.

Stone Eagle Golf Club

Following the round, I went online to see what the knocks were on Fazio, if any. I felt Planet Golf had an interesting outlook of his work, instead of oohing and aaahing over the top 100 courses, they will provide some critique which I respect. They claim that golf connoisseurs "blame him for escalating course construction costs", and that "at times his layouts start to look fairly similar".

Tom Fazio is the most awarded active American architect in the game.  He as more top 100 courses than any other modern architect. In a game that has so much complexity, I feel that Fazio does an incredible job to relax the mind on the golf course. I have had my most enjoyable rounds of golf playing his courses.

Now that I have played one of Coore and Crenshaws most highly touted golf courses, Streamsong Red, as well as two of Tom Doaks designs, Streamsong Blue and Stone Eagle, I feel that I would have been better equipped to rebuttal my playing partner.

Streamsong Red Course - Coore and Crenshaw

I think I would have asked him, "do you like Blondes or Brunettes"? There is no right answer, they are both great, it just comes down to preference.

The main difference that I have found is that at a Coore and Crenshaw or Doak design, you are dealing with a minimalistic appearance, with a tremendous amount of strategy. It is essentially golf's version of a rubik's cube. You are picking targets and your heart doesn't stop thumping until the final putt goes in on 18.

With Fazio, you must keep your camera nearby because you will never know when you will come across a picture perfect view. The course also sets up with many shots where you are licking your chops.

In the end, what makes golf so great is that it is up to the golfers interpretation to judge.