Sea Ranch GC - What do you think of these bunkers (Pics)?

[Evan_Green]

This past weekend, I had a chance to play the Sea Ranch GC which is one of the more remote courses in CA  which is a 3++ hour drive North of San Francisco on a (sensationably beautiful) but miserably windy and scary section of CA Route 1.

I was struck by the courses' bunkers not because they rival MacKenzies California bunkers, but because they were so different. I'm curious as to what people think of them:

First of all this is what the "sand" looks like. Its more pebbly/gravelly than anything else. The surface is quite firm and the ball tends to "skip." To me it was much more difficult playing out of this stuff than PGA Tour sand (big surprise there ):




While as a group, the bunkers are very flat, the nature of the sand makes the ball skip right up to the edge and cause awkward shots like this:



Here's a few images of the bunkers - notice how flat they are - but given the sand conditions I mentioned above - they play quite differently that other courses with dead flat bunkers. Also notice how many islands there are in the green. As I mentioned before, when the ball skips it tends to end up next to the edges.







Thoughts?

[Bill_McBride]

Who WAS that *&%#@#@ who invented the Sand Pro, anyway?

What I love most about those pictures isn't the bunkers, which are flat indeed, but those marvelous cypress trees.  

Northern California cypress trees have a look all their own.  I guess it's the coastal winds that give them that gnarly, twisty look.

[cary lichtenstein]

Bill:

You beat me to it, I saw the same thing. Must be near the water

Cary

[Bill_McBride]

Right, it's the Sea Ranch!

[Peter Galea]

I like the "sand/pebbles". It's local, like the "shelly" bunkers in Hawaii.
Not like the blinding silica trucked in from 1000 miles away.

[ed_getka]

Evan,
   Were you able to play an explosion shot from that stuff? It sort of reminds me of the "kitty litter" we encountered in Hawaii at the Waikoloa Beach course. Very difficult to control distance for me from that stuff, but otherwise it was playable.
    What did you think of the course overall? How well did the two nines blend together? Is the course worth the drive and green fee?
     How was the 9-holer in Mendocino?

[Patrick Schultheis]

I, too, would be interested in hearing how you liked the course.

I've played it 4 or 5 times, typically in Sept and Oct.  Though it's been 7 years since I played there, I always liked the course.  Low key (like the Sea Ranch itself), decent layout, some fun holes, pretty well maintained.  I really liked that short, uphill par 3 on the original 9 (was it 7? 8?  I don't remember) with the blind tee shot.

[Brad Tufts]

I remember Newport CC having kind of "gravelly" sand when I played there in fall 2002.  I couldn't tell in my limited viewing of the Women's Open if that sand is still used there....it appears to be more fine than that in the pics above...interesting....

[ForkaB]

Those pictures bring back great memories, and Pete G's take is what hit me.  After 1st cursing those bunkers for thier "unplayability/unfiarness" one must agree and admit that they are refreshingly and authentically natural.  So your bladed wedge skips and lands against an edge.  Get over it and hit the next shot!

In the late 70's Johnny Miller famously opined that if you could have joined up the 9-holers at Sea Ranch and Bodega Harbour (1 hour south) you could hold a US Open there.  He wasn't far off the mark, if off the mark at all......

[Evan_Green]

Well guys - I must say I very much enjoyed my round at Sea Ranch. It was a very fun course, and I particularly did enjoy the front nine (which I have to believe is the original nine). The back nine fit in pretty well, but had a bunch of blind tee shots which was tough when seeing the course the first time. Believe it or not on Labor Day Saturday at Noon the course was absolutely empty. Got around casually in less than 3 hours.

Ed- Its not worth the murderous 3+ hour drive for a day trip, but if you are planning a weekend to Mendocino its absolutely worth stopping at on the way, or if you just stay at Sea Ranch for the weekend it would be worth it. Would be worthwhile for someone living in the North Bay as a day trip.

You can hit an explosion out of that stuff, but its a tricky shot, because if its damp (as it usually is out there), the stuff is very heavy. But I really thought it worked well in combination with the flat bunkering because it added some teeth to the bunkers. After all the are hazards, so if you're not going to have high walls, then why not difficult sand?

Following are some more pictures of the course at Sea Ranch:




FROM THE FRONT NINE:












FROM THE BACK NINE:






Ed-  here are some pictures of the 9 holer near Mendocino, Little River Inn. Its a fun course. A couple of the holes have alternate greens to play on the back nine as you'' see below:








The 7th/16th Holes


The 9th/18th Holes

Funny thing is though, when we played Little River Inn this last Monday morning the temperature near the coast was 54 degrees. A 45 minute drive later inland into Anderson Valley wine country to Duckhorn's Goldeneye Winery and the temperature was 88 degrees and the scene looked like this: Gotta love California! (And yes it tastes as good as it looks!)

[David_Tepper]

Evan Green -

Thanks very much for these pixs of Sea Ranch, which I am looking at on our laptop on our dining room table in Dornoch.
While I can't say I would rather be there than here, they do bring back very nice memories, as my wife and I have spent one or two weekends a year at Sean Ranch for the past 20 years.

If he sees this thread, Neal Meagher can comment with authority about the construction of newer nine there, as he was with the Robert Muir Graves group. In between the time the two nines were built, issues in dealing with wetland areas became much more difficult. That is why there are many more forced carries over creek beds and marshy areas on the newer nine. In the "old days," those areas would probably have been drained or filled in or the streams been run thru a pipe and covered over with fairway.

Ed Getka - Sea Ranch is a great weekend getaway place. There are still some two-bedroom cottages there you can rent for $150 or less per nite. It is a great place to play a little golf, do a little hiking or rent a few videos and build a fire.

By the way, Sea Ranch GL has a very nice turf driving range, as well as a nice little short-game practice area. If you are looking for a spot to beat balls and work on your game for a few days, it is perfect for that.

In addition, the Smokehouse Grill, the food service area attached to the golf shop, puts out some very tasty food.

DT

[Tom Huckaby]

I love Sea Ranch!

Thanks for all the pics, Evan - this brings back great
memories for me as well.  I've played it many times,
always loved it.

BTW the front nine is the original.  But I've always
maintained that the addition of the back there is
the best "add-on" I've ever seen in terms of fitting
in for spirit, looks, anything.  To me it looked like
it had been there forever.

I'd agree Sea Ranch isn't worth a day trip - but not
because the course isn't great - just because you're
going to want to play it twice and that makes for
a VERY long day.  David T. is right on - there are oodles
of places to rent....

As for the sand, count me in with those saying vive l'
difference, or however that is correctly spelled.

TH

[Willie_Dow]

We have some of those pebble bunkers up here in New England.  No flop shot, just a healthy blast will sometimes do the trick.

[Tony_Muldoon]

I've played on this stuff

"Glass Sand
Mixed coloured waste glass is collected from bottle banks and transported to our recycling facilities to produce a coarse sand suitable for paving, pipe laying and other similar uses. It is used by many utility and groundwork companies with great success.

We offer a British Standard material that environmentally cannot be beaten as it is sustainable and is sourced locally and therefore incorporates the proximity principle."

It has a sheen from a distance, but up close it looks multicoloured and slightly odd. I found it quite attractive from far away (you can see it from the M25) but most unatural up close.  It drains really well and plays well too.  Sustainability anyone?

[Jim Franklin]

How badly does that sand/pebble stuff ding your clubs? It looks like it would beat up a club pretty easily.

[Tom Huckaby]

Jim, I don't recall much club damage from those bunkers,
but obviously Evan has been there far more recently
than I have so he can give a better answer.

My recollection is it was just like hitting out of dirt....

TH

[Mike Benham]

Remember to bring your old backup sand wedge ...

[Tom Huckaby]

Remember to bring your old backup sand wedge ...

I really don't recall this being an issue.  And I'm as
protective of my sticks as the next man....

Hell wedges tend to get beat to hell no matter what
you do anyway.  But seriously, I don't recall any damage
issues re these bunkers.

TH

[Kevin_Reilly]

Thanks for the pics of Sea Ranch and Little River Inn.  LR could benefit from a redanman chainsaw, but it is a fun little course.  Nothing of note there, GCA-wise, but an enjoyable place to play.

[ed_getka]

From my experience that stuff won't ding your club, but I would imagine it may wear the club down a little faster over the long haul.
   
Evan et al.,
    It appears some of the greens at SR are pretty far from the bunkers. It seems those greens may have shrunk over time. What do you guys think?

Tom,
    A day trip means you get up early enough to be there for the first tee time, play at least 36 holes and then drive home. It is the price we pay for our devotion to the game.

[Tom Huckaby]

Ed:

I've paid that price far too often.  But man that makes for
a LONG LONG LONG day if you're not going to stay.
It's not three hours flying on I-5, it's fighting traffic
to get past SF, then an hour or so of cutover small
roads to the coast, then an hour or so of Highway 1 and
all it's twists and turns - reverse the process to get
home.

I guess my point also is more it's pretty cheap
 to stay there... thus this
place is better to do over at least 2 days.

But then again, I am talking to a man who tends to
drive 5 hours to Rustic, play, come home same day...
so I guess I should answer differently for you!  My
answer was directed at normal humans.

 

Sea Ranch is very cool... I'd say it's clearly
not as great overall as Rustic, but it's at least close.

TH

[Jim Franklin]

Huck -

I'll just borrow yours .

[Neal_Meagher]

These bunkers are all about economics and
practicality.  Economically this golf course
has never been exactly "flush" with excess
cash and that is the main reason why it has
retained a kind of wild and wooly look.  Too
much money usually brings about frivolous
additions to the golf course that tend to
detract over time.

Practically, this gravelly sand does tend to
stay put during the very high winds that the
area experiences, but with the side effect of
putting an exclamation point on the whole mission
of The Sea Ranch to be as low key on the land
as possible.  And that goes for all design elements
there from the road layout to the architectural
standards for all structures.  Originally planned
by Oceanic California (now Castle & Cooke) in
the mid-60's as a 10 mile long housing tract,
the nascent environmental movement of the
time eventually dictated a slashing in half of the
expected homes in deference to the setting.

So, when Bob Graves was given just a wee sliver
of this land in the early 70's, part of his charge was
to make the course itself fit in without too much
superfluous effort.  The bunker design being flat
was obviously a part of that.  As for the islands in
the bunkers, I'm not too sure, but they could be a
riff on Muirfield's following a visit to Scotland by Bob.
Just a guess as I don't recall for sure.

In any event, when we did the new nine in 1994, we
tried like hell to make the new fit with the old which
meant stifling ourselves to a degree.  As is discussed
here often, sometimes the smartest thing an architect
can do when working with an existing course that
has a modicum of architectural character is to supplant
his own ideas du jour in favor of going with what is
there already. So thank you Tom Huckaby for your
reply that we seem to have pulled that part of it off.

And yes, Ed you are right, the greens have shrunken
somewhat, but the bunkers were some distance away
from the greens to begin with.  I can say with some
certainty that this was a nod to mechanized mowing
between the bunkers and the greens.

Finally, as Pete Galea surmised, the pebbly sand is very,
very local and, thus, very cheap in comparison to USGA
penetrometer-tested tres chic ultra white bunker sand.
However, I don't think the folks there would have gone
with that even if we did have more money in the
budget for better bunker sand.  Isn't this the reason why
so many lesser known British Isles seaside courses remain
humble, because they can't afford not to be?

[Evan_Green]

How badly does that sand/pebble stuff ding your clubs? It looks like it would beat up a club pretty easily.

My trusty wedge is pretty beat up on the bottom to begin with, so I didnt notice any damage, but lets say I could think of better places to break in a brand new wedge. But it plays better than it looks from that close up - just a more difficult shot - probably because of the rarity of hitting out of that type of "sand." Probably equivalent to playing out of the desert in Scottsdale.