The Ranch

[Evan_Green]

Jason

You are very perceptive  

Tom-

That last post just cracked me up... especially about the 16 handicapper running out of 2 boxes of ammo by hole 7... I can totally believe it!

[Evan_Green]

Tom

Another tidbit during my round at The Ranch-

My buddy I played it with (about a 5-6 hcp) ran out of balls on about Hole 12 or so and actually skipped a hole to walk though the grass and hawk for balls- I had already given him 5 or so balls plus  I was out the 15-20 balls I had lost (I had taken my shag bag with me and almost depleted it) and only had 3 left at that point so I had to cut him off!
He found just enough to get him through the rest of the round!

[Doug Siebert]

I get the sense some of you don't like the course.

I get the sense they are also suggesting you visit the range before you play and stick a couple dozen of the range balls in your bag so you don't cause the apparently already high green fees to be $100 higher after you knock two dozen Pro Vs out of play

[Mike_Cirba]

Here she is...

Designed by Casey O'Callaghan (can't believe an Irishman is responsible for what I've heard here!)  

http://www.theranchgc.com/

[THuckaby2]

You know what's also sad about the place? All they'd have to do is cut the weeds on many of the hillsides and all of a sudden it becomes somewhat doable... even quirky and fun in a sense... imagine intentionally bouncing balls off of the hillsides where now if a ball goes on them it's a goner....

I suggested this when we did the rating and was told it was too expensive to "maintain" the hillsides.  OK.  So save a little money and have the world's most awful golf course.  Interesting.  And this place can't be inexpensive to maintain in the first place, being on the side of a mountain as it is.... And all it would take is to just leave them as dirt... The other answer to this?  For liability reasons they don't want people climbing on the hillsides to retrieve and/or play their golf balls.  Thus they leave them as waste-high weeds, so no one dares go in.  I guess that makes a certain sense... but all they'd have to do is make them dirt and then the balls would roll OFF of them, so no climbing would need occur....

Sorry for the tangent.

BTW, apparently Tommy knows young Casey and has chastised him to some degree about this (I sort of remember that from previous discussions here).  Hey, I don't begrudge the guy - someone was gonna build the course on this awful land so why not make a buck?  And I do believe he really did the best he could.  The fault here lies NOT with the architect, but with the developer.  This is a site that absolutely never should have been developed for golf.

TH

ps - yes I have played this course twice.  I had to take my two best golf buds, as neither would believe me it was that bad.  They believe now.  Oh how they believe.  

[Nate Mady]

Jason,

In the south bay, there's really only 3 good choices besides Pasa..

San Juan Oaks, 30-40 minutes south, great course, good value

Cinnabar, 10-15 minutes south of SJ, great course, decent value

Santa Teresa, YES a Muni, but one of the best munis in CA

If you want to add a road trip, Hunter Ranch in Paso Robles is well worth it, go another hour south, La Purisma is a beauty..

 

[THuckaby2]

Nate:  concur with all of that - each were in my list of possible alternatives I posted on page one of this.

Interesting you would call Santa Teresa - my home course - one of the best munis in CA.. I sure have never thought of it that way.  Just remember each of Rancho Park, all of the Griffith Park courses in LA, and Torrey Pines are munis... kinda hard to put my beloved ST up with those.

To that end, I also wouldn't call it the best muni in the Bay Area... I think Santa Clara and Palo Alto are each superior... as is Mare Island... Harding....

Sorry man.  I love Santa Teresa for sure... but that's a tall statement.  I'd hate to have Jason go there and come back disappointed.

TH

[Nate Mady]

Yo Tom,

I should have said Nor Cal.. I have not played south of SB.

I still stand to my guns north of SB.. Tilden is firing range, I saw 2 people hit by errant shots on the same day, in a 4 hole stretch.. Worthy choice though...

Santa Clara, I have not played recently, but the course is better known for good food than golf, enough said.. Oh, and the cart girl back in the 90s, RACKSTAR!!

PA Muni, is better known as pickleweed to locals. I played my high school golf here, and a range ratt for 1 year. It's challenging, but one ugly duckling to the eye, not too mention the coot poop everywhere..

Harding is hardly muni these days, unless you have a city recreation card.. $80+ I guess that's not too bad, it's quite nice..

At least we both agree on Cinnabar and San Juan..

Jason,

Make the trek to San Juan, it's the best bang for your buck..

[Brian_Gracely]

Is Santa Clara the course on Tasman, across from Great America?  I've hit balls on the range there, and run past it in the morning, but never played there.  It's right down the street from my work.  Is it worth a try sometime?  

Huck - someday I'm coming out there in the summer and we're playing The Ranch in the morning, and Eagle's Ridge in the afternoon and then drinking beers with my uncle to end the day.  At least one out of three ain't bad  

[THuckaby2]

Nate:

Well you are talking to a 20 year vet of the munis around here, and an 8 year member of the men's golf club at ST, having also played it MANY times before I joined the club... So I'm gonna stick to my story.  Oh, none of these are all great shakes, I'd agree with that... So perhaps it's just faint praise saying ST is the best in NorCal, and maybe in the end you are correct...It's arguable anyway.

The point is I just don't want to give Jason the idea it is all that great, that's all.  Bottom line is if he can play Cinnabar or SJO, he should go to either of those.  And yep, SJO gives a damn fine bang for one's buck.  Only issue there is distance from San Jose - far greater than Cinnabar, obviously.

TH

ps - I believe I do recall a certain cart girl at Santa Clara.  GREAT call there.  

[THuckaby2]

Is Santa Clara the course on Tasman, across from Great America?  I've hit balls on the range there, and run past it in the morning, but never played there.  It's right down the street from my work.  Is it worth a try sometime?  

Huck - someday I'm coming out there in the summer and we're playing The Ranch in the morning, and Eagle's Ridge in the afternoon and then drinking beers with my uncle to end the day.  At least one out of three ain't bad  

BG - you have Santa Clara correct - that's it.  And sure, it's worth a play.  There are some damn interesting holes there.  It's a basic muni, but good fun.  Note 49ers training complex is right across the street, but I'm sure you know that.

As for your plan, sounds great to me.  Hell all three will be fun... just in very different ways.  

[Jason Topp]

San Juan Oaks Sunday at 1 it is.  We only have two so if someone wants to join us, make a reservation and send me an im.

[THuckaby2]

San Juan Oaks Sunday at 1 it is.  We only have two so if someone wants to join us, make a reservation and send me an im.

On the one hand I say to myself:

 "WHEW!  He's going to actually have fun playing the game..."

On the other, I am strangely disappointed that I won't have another take on THE RANCH, and more importantly, the chance to hear from someone who actually tried to walk.

BTW, speaking of that, there are some hikes on SJO as well.  Nothing that's all that big a deal, but just gather some stamina for 15-17.  Particularly if you are playing back tees.

 

[Jason Topp]

It was either the suggestion that I take some range balls or the five yard layup areas that finally did it.    

[THuckaby2]

It was either the suggestion that I take some range balls or the five yard layup areas that finally did it.    

Jason: what's funny, or sad (depending on how one looks at it) is that nowhere in this thread is there any exaggeration.  All statements about this golf course are true. Even the five yard wide layup area.  I know, I measured it during the NCGA rating.  The hole in question is a par 5 on the front nine... I believe it's #7... one hits the latest in a series of heroic tee shots from a raised platform with a huge carry involved (by latest I mean at that point it's about the 4th time you will have done this, and you're only on the 7th hole)... and then if you succeed, you confront a fairway bottlenecking down with death on both sides (hill left, hazard right), and you either lay up to 175 in (where the width is about 15 yards max, and thus meaning a shot of no more than 125 or so for the layup), or anything less than this going all the way up to a greenside lake is 5 yards worth of fairway at most.  

Interesting hole, huh?  Last time I sat there at 235 in and literally had no shot, or no fun or realistic one anyway.  My choices were hit a 60 yard layup into the 15 yard wide area, or a wedge into the 5 yard area, or just go for the green. I just punted and dumped it in the lake.  Oh, a better shot could have found the green, but it has a lake short and right and OB left and long, with a cartpath serving to bounce all shots even 5 feet left of the green off into oblivion.  Quite a lot to expect from 240 yards.  Oh, and did I mention the green has three tiers and there's damn near no way to hold any of them from any distance over 100 yards?

I believe my 16 handicap friend lost at least 6 balls on this hole alone.

And it's not the only hole that's like this.

 

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

When I get back out there, you have to take me to The Ranch (just as dangerous as courses with more than 6 syllables in the name are courses where the "T" is capitalized in "The").

I'm truly captivated.  

[THuckaby2]

Mike:

It's a deal.  Because the more I think about it, the more I ought to ENCOURAGE people to see this course rather than discourage.  It needs to be seen, in a strange way....

And great catch re the capital T.  There's a reason I always type THE RANCH.

 

[Evan_Green]

Bless your heart Tom- the more you spread the gospel about this course, the more folks are just gonna beg you to take them there...

Who knows, if you play it enough you might start to grow fond of the place  

[THuckaby2]

Bless your heart Tom- the more you spread the gospel about this course, the more folks are just gonna beg you to take them there...

Who knows, if you play it enough you might start to grow fond of the place  

Evan - these thoughts had occurred to me as well.  And I will let you in on a secret - shhhhh! don't tell any of the rest of them - but I did hate it less the 2nd playing than the first.

 

[PThomas]

cleaning out my desk and came across a review of The Ranch in Travel and Leisure golf....we all know how magazines are usually over friendly ....here's an exception...not one good word about the design...closest thing to a compliment:" in return for its hoary gauntlet, the course...affords stunning elevation drops and postcard-like views...they'll almost take your mind off all the ammunition you're losing"

the author said he talked to O'Callaghan, and the Irishman asked him how many balls he lost!  

I think the (no caps on purpose!) joins Mike Cirba's favorite course whose name I can't remember and Shivas' beloved Tamarack in the GCA hall of shame...

and Huck, when I told Shivas I thought I should get him a hat from Tamarack, he had the same reaction as you did re my plan to get one from the Ranch..

[THuckaby2]

Great stuff.  And the T&L writer describes the place correctly, and well.  There are indeed nice views and some very unique elevation changes.  The tee shot on 10 isn't one you're gonna experience many other places...

Good to here Casey has a sense of humor about the place also.  It would worry me a lot if he was holding this up as the linchpin of his resume.

 

[Mike Benham]

cleaning out my desk and came across a review of The Ranch in Travel and Leisure golf....

Now why in the name of Bobby Jones would T&L Golf do a review on The Ranch?

[THuckaby2]

That thought had occurred to me as well.  It's not exactly the typical place their readers would frequent.  Maybe they did a "if you have to be in San Jose visiting Cisco or Adobe or another high-tech company, here's where you can play after lunch" kinda thing?

TH

[PThomas]

was on a page entitled"Notable Newcomers"  

[THuckaby2]

Yikes.  Here's hoping that others mentioned are notable for POSITIVE reasons.

 

Which reminds me... the ranch (when I'm pissed they revert to lower case) seem to now be advertising themselves as "nominated for Best New Course by Golf Digest"... shit, that means two things:

a) It's damn near certain I will be assigned to rate it, which means in fairness I need to play it again; and

b) as I understand it, all course needs to be "nominated" is to ask GD to put them on the list.  It sure as hell is no honor or anything... they just get asked to be seen.  Others don't have to be asked, I'm sure... GD lists them anyway in the new courses to be looked at... but yikes, using this as some badge of honor...

TH

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