Fall Tripping on the Central Coast

We enjoyed sunny weather, coastal fog, chilly days as well as rather warm days. The season is full of variety as were the courses we played.

During the last week of September we loaded up the travel trailer and headed to Marina Dunes RV Park in Marina, California which is located across from the ocean and just minutes from Pebble Beach and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This RV Park has all the amenities including full hook up sites equipped with patios, picnic tables, bbq grills, propane service and chimineas. The clubhouse features a kitchen, television, pool table, and arcade games. We hooked up and plugged in, which also means we enjoyed cable TV and free high speed wireless internet connections.

 

A light dinner with sounds of the ocean put us to bed thinking of the wonderfully 'local' golf courses we were to play over the next 5 days. We selected to play Poppy Hills, Pacific Grove, Rancho Canada (East and West), and Laguna Seca Golf Clubs. These are great venues and great value courses that, though not as famous as their neighboring Pebble Beach lineup, presented unique personalities and challenged us fully.

 

Day one found us winding along the famous 17-mile drive along the Pacific Coast then cutting off into the interior of the forest to Poppy Hills Golf Club. Poppy Hills, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. opened in 1986. It is the home of the Northern California Golf Association and is the first golf club in the country owned and operated by an amateur association. The course plays host to 30 NCGA events per year. Located in the Del Monte Forest in the Pebble Beach area it has also since 1991 been one of the three courses in play during the annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Poppy Hills is a world class course that places a premium on accuracy. The course's large undulating greens (many protected by water and not a few bunkers) and its sloping fairways present many a challenge, even to the PGA pros. In fact, Poppy's 5th hole was rated the most difficult par 4 on Tour in 2006!

 

In our conversation with Justin Williams, the head pro at Poppy Hills, he talked about the current renovation to the 2nd green which will be completed by the end of the year. There are 18 holes still open, but par is changed to 71. The renovations include additional bunkering, and changes to the tiers and slope of the green.

 

Our round started with full sun and as we worked our way around the golf course, the marine layer fog started to roll in through the trees. With the deer and other wildlife cavorting through the same trees, it made for a magical scene that we continued to enjoy from the clubhouse patio with a much-deserved adult beverage in hand.

 

Our second day took us to the rolling hills and majestic oaks of Carmel Valley where two championship golf courses await at the Rancho Canada Golf Club.

 

The original 4,366 acres were granted in 1839 by the Mexican government to Lazaro Soto and formed a prized part of the great California Rancho, Canada de la Segunda. The courses were designed by Robert Dean Putnam in 1970 from 270 acres of this land grant and are situated along the cottonwood and sycamore-lined Carmel River, sheltered by the Santa Lucia Mountains. With little real estate development, the views and vistas are stunning and wide open.

 

According to Travis McCabe, head golf professional, the West Course will challenge you as it crosses the Carmel River three different times and will tease you with wide fairways on some holes and considerably narrow fairways on others. The oak trees are definitely the trouble you want to avoid, and accuracy off the tee the mantra you want to embrace. It is also about 300 yards longer than the East Course, which though not by any means easy, is slightly more wide open with fewer trees. The East crosses the river five times and two of those are par 3's at #3 and #13.

 

We found both courses a ton of fun to play and give kudos to the maintenance staff who keeps both courses in fabulous condition. We had a cool morning start to the West course and as the round continued, the sun smiled on us. When we played the East course two days later, we were drenched in sun for the entire round.

 

That evening at the travel trailer we grilled steaks, sipped wine, and fondly recounted our “forest” golf at Poppy and our “valley” golf at Rancho Canada. Consensus was a Grade A experience so far, with a building excitement for our next day: Ocean-front golf at Pacific Grove Golf Club. Since none of us have ever played THE Pebble Beach Golf Resort, the Poor Man's Pebble, as Pacific Grove is sometimes called, would be as close as we have gotten to the experience of wind off the Pacific, sand dunes for a playing ground, and majestic cliffs along the massive ocean.

 

The front nine of Pacific Grove was designed originally by Chandler Egan in 1932. It takes you through inland terrain and has rural old style charm. The back nine was designed by Jack Neville who was the original designer of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. With deer everywhere, views of the Pacific, Lovers Point, Point Pinos, Crespi Pond, and set among Asilomar's natural sand dunes, you feel like you're in golfer's heaven.

 

After our round, we decided to continue around on 17-mile drive to watch the sun go down over the Pacific from the porch of the Inn at Spyglass Hill. We had such a treat….about the time we got our drink, a kilt-wearing bagpipe player began strolling the terrace and playing until the sun set. With the fog misting around him, I thought I was in Scotland.

 

The next day we drove inland through the oak studded coastal hills along the Monterey-Salinas corridor to play Laguna Seca. This is a beautiful 18-hole tract and one of only five that Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and Jr. designed together. Known as “the sunshine course” you won't experience the marine layer fog nearly as often as those courses along the Pacific. It's also a challenging golf layout with left and right doglegs, and elevated tees and greens. For instance hole #9 is a straight away part 4, but the green is 84 feet higher than the tee box. This was a great course on which to wind up our trip. We went back for our last night at the Marina Dunes RV Park and just reminisced about the courses we played and the variety of play they presented to us.

 

Don't pass up a chance to visit the area……you'll Fall in love!

 

 

3200 Lopez Road

Pebble Beach, Ca. 93953

(831) 625-1513

 

4860 Carmel Valley Rd.

Carmel, Ca. 93923

(800) 536-9459

 

77 Asilomar Boulevard

Pacific Grove, Ca. 93950

(831) 648-5777

10520 York Rd.

Monterey, Ca. 93940

(831)373-3701