Kudo's to Pete Galea, Pajaro Valley

[David Stamm]

I just wanted to congratulate Pete and the set up of the course for the Apple City tournament. The course conditions were wonderful and I think most who played Fri would agree, those were some of the best greens I have ever played on. They were absolutely perfect!!! It was the first time I had played the course, which is very, very solid, and I must say that I am ashamed for never playing it before. Well done, Pete!

[Evan Fleisher]

100% agreed.  Pete had the palce rocking, and I'm really anxious to know how those that played this past weekend's tournament fared...anyone have the details?

The course was a blast to play, and Pete served us up a diabolical set of pin placements.  Kudo's to Pete!

[Tom Huckaby]

We keep trying to get people to Pajaro... as I think I said the other day, no one ever plays there are regrets doing so.  Lots of competition around for sure... but man is that course fun - ESPECIALLY when Pete has it rocking firm and fast like it was the other day.

I pity the poor guys in the Apple City... Pete said he was gonna double cut on Sunday morning... and guys, we actually got quite a few of the EASY pins on Friday....

 

[Adam Clayman]

Pajaro is an excellent case to understand just how important the Meld truly is.
 Prior to Herr Galea's arrival, the place was barely memorable. Since his diligence and practices the place really shines as this thread illustrates.

[Tom Huckaby]

Pajaro is an excellent case to understand just how important the Meld truly is.
 Prior to Herr Galea's arrival, the place was barely memorable. Since his diligence and practices the place really shines as this thread illustrates.

PERFECTLY STATED!

Playing wet and mushy with bumpy greens as it used to years ago, well... I still thought it was a decent course, but I never really sought it out or anything.  During the Galea era - and especially NOW - one of my largest golf regrets is I don't get to play Pajaro enough.

On top of everything it is a darn good bargain... man this has to be NorCal's answer to Rustic Canyon or Wild Horse or others in terms of bang for the buck.

TH

[RJ_Daley]

One of my lasting great memories is spending time with Pete on (a) course (Half Moon) listening to Pete, who was the grow-in super, talk and demonstrate his turf management ideas and techniques.  I haven't been back since to see Pajaro.  But, from my observations about Pete's passion for his job and skills, I'd bet you could put Pete on any golf course, and with water, weather, and fert, you'd have the maximum best that the venue could yield.  Pete really is 'super'.   

[Kalen Braley]

Pajaro is an excellent case to understand just how important the Meld truly is.
 Prior to Herr Galea's arrival, the place was barely memorable. Since his diligence and practices the place really shines as this thread illustrates.

I'll 2nd this as well.  The fairways were brownish and running firm.  The greens were just unbeleive and if you don't think they were tough just ask Steve P about his chip when he went over #11....    And to boot, Pete reallly murdered us with some tough tough pin positions that were suck right behind bunkers and tough to reach spots. 

Anytime you have a chance to get in the area, it is indeed a must play....

[JohnV]

Sorry I missed it this past week.  A few weeks ago in the Saturday Skins game, I had some serious putting woes on the greens there.

From 5 through 10 I had:
4 putt, 3, 2, 4, 3, 3.

I was feeling very bad and humbled until I saw Pete 5 putt the 17th.  If they can get him, I can't feel too bad about my game.

[Joel_Stewart]

I played Pajaro yesterday for the first time with some other GCA followers.

Even though I grew up on a muni I know admit I'm a snob and pretty much play private courses.  Driving in to Pajaro it can look fairly rough.  Lots of cars in the parking lot, not much service in the pro shop and the range had virtually no grass.  The first tee looked very ragged with about 100 broken tees laying around.

The 1st hole didn't look that interesting, but the condition was brown with a slight tint of green.  There was no rough.

When I reached the green, it was in perfect condition, as good as most country clubs.  It was stimping about 11 and rolled perfectly.

Same condition on the entire golf course.  The greens are brilliant, often severe with fantastic contours. 

I can't ever remember playing a public course, that was a typical muni in muni condition that had perfectly manicured fast greens.

Good job Pete.

[Mike Benham]

Also of note, Pajaro has done an excellent job of adjusting prices to a.) the economic times  b.) supply and demand ... making it the most affordable place to play in the Monterey Bay area.

I find the Pro Shop staff and product to be quite appropriate for a muni course ...


Can we get a consensus on the correct play from the 16th tee?

[Tom Huckaby]

Joel:  that's what we've been trying to tell people for several years now about Pajaro... best damn greens in the entire greater Bay Area.  Ok maybe that's a stretch, but if so, not by much.  It is worth going there just for the greens.


Mike:  I can't see any good way to play 16 other than to bash it long and straight.  Not even Spaulding can get to the far side of the valley such that the 2nd shot is not blind, and if you lay back to near side, that's 220 in.  I say hit it long and straight, take your medicine, blind shots aren't that bad.

But then again last playing there I made a 3 from the left trees.  So perhaps I just have less fear of blind shots.

 

[Kyle Henderson]

Having joined Joel on Sunday, I whole-heartedly concur. Pajaro Valley is a perfect example of how to make the most of a shoe-string maintenance budget. Fast & trues greens, browning fairways, shaggy tee boxes and dry spindly rough. With wet greens, the round would have been an non-compelling  slog, but Pete really challenged our short games.

[Jordan Wall]

I had a lot of fun at Pajaro.  The course itself was maintained very well.  The fairways offered plenty of roll for a tee shot and the greens were fast and firm.

I'm not one to always agree that a course needs to be brown, fast, and firm to be excellent with regards to conditioning but at Pajaro it worked very well and made the round very enjoyable.  The fact it played so firm brought out the big slopes in the fairways and made shots be precise to really get the best angles to the green, which in turn was important as one could not stop the ball near the pin with the greens playing as they did.  Kudos indeed to Pete Galea for a job well done at Pajaro Valley.

Cheers,
Jordan

[Jason McNamara]

Can we get a consensus on the correct play from the 16th tee?

I can't find any pics on the web site - does anyone have a view of the 16th for show and tell?

__

And I apologize for being such a snot about this, but besides the fact that plurals do not get apostrophes, kudos is a singular noun. 
Kudos is due Pete for his work.

[David Stamm]

Can we get a consensus on the correct play from the 16th tee?

I can't find any pics on the web site - does anyone have a view of the 16th for show and tell?

__

And I apologize for being such a snot about this, but besides the fact that plurals do not get apostrophes, kudos is a singular noun. 
Kudos is due Pete for his work.

Snot.

[Jason McNamara]

Snot.

Guilty.   

[John Mayhugh]

I had the opportunity to play Pajaro on Sunday with Joel Stewart, Kyle Henderson, and Jordan Wall. 

I really enjoyed the golf course.  While Pajaro won't win any beauty contests, it plays very well.  The green complexes are very good.  Greens are sited really well on the property, with sand or hill or short grass "hazards" all around.  The greens rolled very well and consistently and you did not want to find yourself on the wrong side of the hole.  The land has a decent amount of movement.  The course is compact, on maybe 120 acres and is easy to walk, though the routing does have a few green to tee hikes that seem like they could have been shorter. 

Pajaro seems a good example of what an affordable golf course could be.  I would love to play it again.

Here are a few photos. Sorry I didn't take more, but it's hard to get a lot of great photos there and I was involved in a spirited match.

#3  187 yard par 3.  Looks like you can run it on from the right side, but not that easy in practice.  Sorry for the awful photo.


#5  298 yard par 4.  Reminded me a little of the 17th at Crystal Downs, though nowhere as scary.  Green perched up by itself is tough to hit.


#7  153 yard par 3.  An opportunity to avoid the bunkers on this shallow green by bouncing it up from the left side, but risky as there is OB left.  As well as long.




#11  180 yard par 3.  This green is perched on a little rise and the front part especially is pinched in by bunkers on each side. 


#13  441 yard par 4.  This green is pushed up onto the hillside behind.  A really tough approach.


#15  498 yard par 5 that goes uphill.  You have to carry a hill on the left or flirt with tall grass on the right.  Two lost balls on this hole, but surprisingly mine wasn't one of them.




And from 15 green looking back towards the tee. 


Great maintenance meld, Pete.

[Bill_McBride]

Mr. Mayhugh says, "Here are a few photos. Sorry I didn't take more, but it's hard to get a lot of great photos there and I was involved in a spirited match."

Could we please have the teams and the results?  You know, just in case there were any side bets. 

[John Mayhugh]

Mr. Mayhugh says, "Here are a few photos. Sorry I didn't take more, but it's hard to get a lot of great photos there and I was involved in a spirited match."

Could we please have the teams and the results?  You know, just in case there were any side bets. 

Stewart/Henderson defeated Wall/Mayhugh 1 up with a clutch par by Joel on the 18th. 

If Joel had putted every hole like he did the first 5 or 6, they would have closed us out by the 12th hole.