I finally had the privilege of playing a course I have been longing to see near my college hometown. And I have good and bad news......the good news is that it was one of the most enjoyable and challanging rounds of golf I have played in a long time.....but the bad news is that I forgot my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures to share, which I really wish I had because some of the movement, especially on the greens, along with some quirky (but mostly superfluous) details would have been fun to share and talk about.
Monarch Dunes is located in Nipomo, CA on the Central Coast, nestled in dunes just a few miles from the beach and within an hours drive of several other great Central CA golf destinations. Between Hunter Ranch, Cypress Ridge, this course and La Purisma the Central Coast is really making a name for itself as a worthwhile golf destination. The course has already received many accolades, but deserves more here as I feel many on this site would thouroughly enjoy playing here.
Designed by Pate & Pascuzzo (I'm not very familiar with their work but now would love to see more), the course is as near pure links style as any I've found in CA (of course you have to disregard the houses that lay a wedge's mishit off most of the fairways). It's the conditioning in harmony with the design that really does the place justice.
The greens are solid.....firm enough to leave nothing more than a trace of a ballmark on a high wedge shot, and fast enough to bring all contours into play and really make you think about not only every putt, but every approach shot and chip as well. There are only a few groves of towering eucalyptus to get in the way of the aerial game, but plenty of mounding and dips and climbs to make you use about every club and shot in your bag.
I will admit that there are a few very quirky elements that the place could have done without, like bunkers 10 yards in front of tees or 100 yards to the right of a 110 yard par 3, numerous bunkers you can barely fit two feet in let along try to play a shot out of (but they've supplied bunker rakes should you attempt to try!) and a green so massive that the sprinklers all lie within the green margins and the whole right side should just be mowed as surround because there's no way any pin or putt can be had on it. But these distractions are small and even humorous and the excellence of the course and it's playability far exceeded my expectations.
I really encourage further comments from anyone else that's played it (I hope Art Fuller responds because I know he's a Men's Club member out there) and stress that anyone remotely close to the area make it a must-see on their intinerary.
I'd love to get back and play again and again......just wish it wasn't a 5 hours drive from my home.
http://www.monarchdunes.com/layout9.asp?id=163&page=2754