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.