Classic Course Epiphany--UMBRSF

[Tommy_Naccarato]

UMBRSF: The University of Max Behr at Rancho Santa Fe

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to post right now, but felt I needed to say the following.

There is a classroom, probably better then any classroom I know of where a Student of Golf Architecture can go and learn everything they need to know about Golf Architecture, Max Behr's ideas of Permenant Golf Architecture, Insane, if not tasteless tree planting, The Power of An Uneducated Green Committees, Ignorant remodel work by done by one of Modern Golf's First Families and what ever else floats your cork.

That place is Rancho Santa Fe CC in North County, San Diego. I don't know if any of you can get access there, but whatever it takes--do it. You will not be disappointed.

I would play this place anytime, on my belly crawling if neccessary, thats how GREAT of a golf course it is. The degree of movement in the fairways is one of the most impressive aspects of the course--just an amazing place--no wonder Bing wanted to hold the original Clambake's there.

Pace of play is requested at 4 hours or less, but I think most play it in 3:30 tops. Membership seems to be mostly a walking membership,. The degree of earthmovement is so vast, while it may not replicate a certain course in Northeast Georgia, Phil Mickelson is in fact a dues paying member here.

I rank RSF the best in San Diego, and to think if the membership had a clue as to what they had, and how they could probably have a lot of the original intelligent design back, it would surely be in the Top 10 of the West. (That's my opinion)

Special Holes: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, and a restored 18th if they would have the cahonies to do it!

When viewing the pics below, please do check out he movement in the fairways which makes this place pretty special.

View of the approach on #6

#11 a sporty and quirky number that features all sorts of deception in front of the green.

View of that deceptive green of the 11th

The approach in on the ULTRA COOL 16th

[Odd_Job]

Great Pics.

I was looking into moving to San Diego and the only way you can join Rancho Santa Fe CC is to live a specific section of Rancho Santa Fe called "The Covenant".  Does anyone else know of a course that has a specific geographic limitation on were their members must live?  Other than real estate development type courses, I can not think of any.

The Covenant has some the highest home values in the country and strictly controls growth and home changes through the "Art Committee".  

The course has 680 members!  I asked if the course was crowded and the golf staff told me that it was not, that most members were old, non-golfs and/or partial residents.

One of the great things about the course was that walking was fine, which is not the case in most of San Diego private courses I looked at.

[George Pazin]

Great photos. I think it is really difficult to capture fairway movement in 2 dimensions. As I harken back to a recent thread started by Jeff Brauer questioning what features are slow to reveal themselves, I think that fairway movement like this is something that is sorely missing from many modern marvels, and its beauty and utility is only revealed through multiple plays. I'd be curious to know how much was created. When was the course built?

[A_Clay_Man]

The Power of An Uneducated Green Committees, Ignorant remodel work by done by one of Modern Golf's First Families and what ever else floats your cork.

TN- Did you catch the SNL bit on cork soakers? Janet Jackson could hardly distinguish.

Is this place accessible? How's your May shaping up? I wanna enroll, or at least audit.

[Rick Shefchik]

John Sestak --

Stillwater Country Club in Stillwater, Minn., has a fine old course open only to residents who live within 10 miles of the clubhouse. The initiation and dues are, by any standard, very inexpensive -- which is why the club has a 15-year waiting list.

We built a house in Stillwater in 1992. We're hoping to get in by 2006.

[Craig Van Egmond]

Rick,

    Stillwater Country Club in Stillwater, OK, a Don Sechrest/Mark Hayes course and home of the 1973 NCAA's won by Ben Crenshaw will take your money right now.  

[Rick Shefchik]

Sounds like a great track, Craig, but the commute would be a killer.

Of course, I could hit Wild Horse on the way out and back.

[rjsimper]

Great Pics.

I was looking into moving to San Diego and the only way you can join Rancho Santa Fe CC is to live a specific section of Rancho Santa Fe called "The Covenant".  Does anyone else know of a course that has a specific geographic limitation on were their members must live?  Other than real estate development type courses, I can not think of any.

Palos Verdes GC in Palos Verdes Estates, CA requires that members be residents of Palos Verdes Estates, a city where the median home price is probably upwards of 600 or 700k....

And the soaking corks was probably one of the funniest SNL skits I have seen in years....

[BCrosby]

John Sestak -

Is the geographical limitation on where you live (which can be hard to define) or where you own land (easy to define)?

There are lots of clubs that condition membership on owning land in a development. Wade Hampton is one. But I've never heard of a membership that is limited by residence.

What if someone spends a couple of years in Paris? Does he lose his membership? What if he has a house in San Diego and a couple of other houses in other locales? Is he outta there?
A strange notion.

Bob

 

[Odd_Job]

The geographic limitation is based on owning a residence in "The Covenant", which is now starts around $2M and goes up rapidly.  

So you are right, Wade Hampton would be an analogy.    

[Will E]

Couldn't agree more that this course could be incredible. I cant think of a course that would score better in the "walk in the park" criteria.
As great as RSF is, it's equally sad in what could be. The bunker work and tree planting has tarnished a gem. Killing #13 with the new tee and the containment mounds almost brings me to tears. Fortunately the fairway slopes and greens (not the green complexes) are among the best I've seen. Is there a better candidate for restoration anywhere?

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Tommy, Tommy,
Where were you when you were needed?  Dye Designs, Perry Dye, altered this course many years ago.  It is much different than when I played it in the early 80's.  I think the course got ruined then.  Had there been no changes, the old course would be ranked among California's top 20.  It has lost it's character.  It is gone, like Max Behr.  Unfortunately like so many others.  Maybe Harbottle can bring it back.  Ha, Ha.

[Thomas_Brown]

John Sestak - Look up Pat Duncan.
He will help you.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Lynn, One of the major problems that Rancho Santa Fe now suffers from is Bunker Front Left/Bunker Front Right mentality that the Dye Designs (Perry) people brought to the table. Combine that with an over-excessive and repetitive bunker scheme, I can only imagine what the really unique scraggily grass faced bunkering that used to exist there, felt like.

Shooter's got it right. In the right hands, this place would be amazing. I think far better then 20th in the state, the fairway movement is that good, as well as the fact that Behr's genius can still be found here with the simple elimination of trees, reclaiming of mowing lines and most of all--a membership that has the knowledge and open mind to do it. I don't know much about them, but given the fact that the course isn't more screwed-up, maybe there still is hope!

[ForkaB]

Tommy

I like those pics.  Did Behr create or find those neat movements in the fairways?

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Aside from 13 (left imitation Fazio sidewalls ) and 18, the fairway contours are just about the same as when Behr had the native vegitation removed to create the course.  There was very much a minimum amount of earth moving--some around the green complexes.  18 still has the right fairway intact, but the picture in Golf Architecture #7 (Sutton Bay cover) beautifully displays the natural alternate fairways that made this hole perhaps one of the prrememinant risk/reward holes ever built.  I like a lot of Doak's ratings, but I think he must have been way too wiped out from the beyond numerous architectural adventures he experience while working to build the Farms golf club, that he did not get a good feel for the flow of the course.  He saw it pre-Dye and pre-generic 2003 mess up.    RSF is publicly accessible--not cheap--The RSF Inn was a founding member and has guest rights.  You stay at the Inn and play after 1pm for unescorted guest fee.  Eat dinner evening before at Delicious or MIlle Fleur and you might meet a member and be invited to play earlier.  By the way, the above mentioned restaurants can hang with Manhattan's finest!  The majority of members might not realize the the great course they possess,but they are mostly low key really nice people.  I've been in the wilderness for ages trying to enact restoration type improvement, but I am not a member though I live across the street.  There are some members who are not happy about the changes.  Wait to you see Tommy's pictures of the 5th and 13th!  The average member age is near 60, and it won't be long before someone gets hurt badly getting in/out of a bunker.  I pray that this is corrected before an injury.  Also, this course has produced a lot of great players and demands great shot values for the accomplished player--hence Phil becoming a dues paying member. Dennis Paulson shot the course record in January--64.  Considering that Stadler, Littler, Pavin, and Phil have been members this is a fairly high course record.  The most pertinent question--Was this course the architectural template for ANGC?  Mackenzie was probably well appraised of this layout.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Rich,
I sort of figured you would in a Painswick kind of way!

As far as I can tell, they are all part of the naturalness of the site, although some of them in some of the areas--more specifically the 18th--is actually the small arroyo that crosses in and around the site and that has been grassed-in over time.

Many of these features are, what Tom Paul likes to hilight, Max Behr's Permanent Architecture--where convex features are utilized to accentuate the other features around it.  In fact, After seeing many of the featrures there, it occured to me that either Max Behr was responsible for it at Olympic #1, or he at least accentuated it, that really quirky mound just short right of the green. It must have been a pile of sand or something which to work with, and it hit me like a bus on the street when I saw it for the first time.

I'll also have you note that this maybe another golf course that Tom Doak didn't care for in the CG. I know he must have seen a lot of it because the Dye connection to RSF was made there during the construction of Rancho Santa Fe Farms, which Tom worked on.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Robert, Does it seem like I'm smitten?

[Forrest Richardson]

Am I to assume that the large drain installed in a fairway low point — indeed, the low point itself — is among your favorite land "movements", but clearly was not there originally?

[Tom_Doak]

I did not work on the project at Rancho Santa Fe Farms; it was built 2-3 years after I left the Dyes.  I made two trips, one to work on the routing plan, the other to visit Jim Urbina for a day on my way to Australia in 1988.

I did not have that great a look at Rancho Santa Fe GC when I was there in '85.  Several people had told me it was "top ten in the west" so I was expecting something much more grand, and I was surprised that it looked like just another eastern parkland course.  If it was in Boston or Toronto it wouldn't have turned a lot of heads.

If Max Behr's work was extremely subtle then a lot of it could have gone over my head.  I didn't play the course that day (since I wasn't invited) and I was probably not in the right place mentally after a year or more without seeing many great courses.  [Working for the Dyes in Denver was a bit of a letdown after my year in the UK and Ireland.]

So, my thoughts on Rancho Santa Fe should probably be left out of the equation.  But being the best course in San Diego does not count for much!

[THuckaby2]

Tommy:

Now who told you all about this course three years ago?  Told you you must play it, that it's your SoCal dream course, pictures don't do it justice, etc. etc. etc.  Said person received much crap back for being able to access said intensely private club....

Some day you'll learn to listen to this person.    

Glad you finally got to see it.  It is all that.

BTW, I have a very good friend who is a member there... how much is it worth to you to play it again?

 

Hell yes it's better than 20th in the state.  Whenever I try to compile such, it typically comes out #10 or so.

TH

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Huck,
Absolutely! Thought of you many times while I was there!

Tom Doak,
As a penalty for my mistake, next time in SoCal I have to walk around the course with you looking and each and every feature. The penalty will be swift and just!

Forrest,
? ? ? ? ? ?

More shots:

As per Robert, the 13th, which I omitted taking any of the mounds (In Forrest-speak: Landforms) in fear of ruining my camera.  This is a double fairway number that was simply ruined by this insidious bridge. It's strategy was simple--Play for the island and have a legitmate shot into the green or play around it in a somewhat Cape-like fashion to get on the green in three.


The 15th green


The short 17th

[ForkaB]

OK, Tommy.

You obviously ran out of pictures of interesting holes to show us.  Whose fault are these last gruesome ones--Maxie or (fill in the blank) Dye?

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

the camera does not do the flow of the slopes justice.  When the course is playing firm--which it did most of this winter ther is tremendous ball movement in the fairways--9,11, 15, 18 usually are good for 20yds on average.  In addition, the greens that were not altered by Dye have great subtle humps and bumps.  Though the course has been severely compromised over the years, it is still capable of being an elite architectural gem.                                                   Tommy,  I am not surprised you enjoyed the layout.  Its kind of fun visaulizing what once existed and what still could be.   Tom Doak,  Sorry about the Farms mistake--Somebody in the Dye organization must have suffered migranes from that experience!  I really am surprised that you did not see any hint of greatness at RSF.  When I played Stonewall I thought of RSF on how much fairway ball movement occurred.  Plus, there really was very little earth moving at RSF--the generic bunkers betray what was once a very natural flowing course.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

For the record, Dye may have harmed the course, but the new bad bunkers are the work of a lowpriced landscaping operation.  The real money was spent on the brick work and re-engineering the 13th pond/stream to alleviate the mosquito issues.  Like a great many cubs, the clubhouse aesthetic types are the most actively involved in the control of RSF.  There currently is severe Bridges (incredible clubhouse--if the course were equal to clubhouse it would easily be a Cypress Point) envy.  There is a remodel proposal awaiting a vote.