The New & Improved Bodega Harbour?

[Kalen Braley]

 But it is the best course on the Pacific between the Meadows and Bandon Dunes.

While there are only 10 or so courses in between Bandon Dunes Resort and BH, half of which are 9 holers, I'd bet Bandon Crossings is better.   

[Aidan Bradley]

"and of the misleading marketing about this golf course"

What is it about a lot of you people on this site? Why do always have to find the negative in everything instead of enjoying and embracing the positive? Will you introduce your girlfriend or wife to your friends first thing in the morning or will you gladly show her off in the evening? There is nothing misleading in this courses marketing, they are just highlighting her finer and more salient features. How many of you play on courses that are surrounded by homes and never complain about it? It's so easy to tear down, anyone can do it.

There are many delightful holes on this course and not just the final three. It's not Pebble Beach and has no intention to be so. Why not judge each course on its merits and enjoy it for what it is instead of always comparing it to something else. Someone earlier in this thread said it was "out of the way". Isn't that the idea, to get away from it all and have a little quite fun far from the madding crowd.

The drive from the nearest  city is fun, scenic, and peaceful. The area around the golf course is charming. A great place to go with another couple for golf and romantic couple of days. Fine dining and a stroll on the beach, keeps everyone happy. Recently there has been a lot talk about putting the fun back in golf. This is a place where you can go and have a relaxed game of golf, enjoy the views, sample some local sea food and a bottle or two of your favourite plonk.

It's a new year folks, stop bellyaching. Find the positive and enjoy it............

[Kyle Henderson]

One of my favorite shots is of my dad teeing off on #5.

[Reef Wilson]

My feeling is that it's a bit overpriced for what one gets... and the competition in high-priced seaside golf is rather steep. 

FYI, great deals can be had out there. You can regularly find prices below $40 or $30 per person with cart on ezlinks.com. Says a lot about how busy they must be. Having said that, at that price I have still only made it out there once which speaks to how remote it really is. I did really enjoy it out there.

I've been meaning to get back out there, I imagine those new greens are nicely grown in by now.

Aidan, Fabulous pictures, are those recent?

Reef

[Reef Wilson]

One of my favorite shots is of my dad teeing off on #5.

Great pic!

And for people that haven't been there, that's an iron being used off the tee of a par 5 and that is a smart play for that hole.

[David_Tepper]

Scott Weersing -

I would choose Sea Ranch as a better course than Bodega on the coast south of Bandon.

DT

[Aidan Bradley]

Reef,

Images shot August 2008.

Aidan.

[Tom Huckaby]

Aidan:

I meant to compliment you, not offend.  But you have to admit, if you only saw your pictures of the golf course, well... it does give a misleading picture of the entirety of what is there.  You did indeed accentuate the positive, as is your job - and you did it VERY well, as always.

There are a lot of positives at Bodega without a doubt.  Accentuating these is a good thing.  If you will read back, you will notice that I have said I always enjoyed my time spent there.  Accentuating the positive is rather the way I live my life.

However, the question here was not about that.  The question was, why doesn't Bodega get more favorable reviews / attention / love.

And I have been speculating as to reasons why.  One of those may indeed be that your pictures do show ONLY the positive, and when one sees all the house-laden holes, one comes back disappointed.

All the best, my friend.  Your picture of the one good hole at THE RANCH AT SILVER CREEK hangs proudly in my office.  Talk about accentuating the positive....
 

TH

[Aidan Bradley]

No worries Tom, no offense taken.  My remarks were meant more as a generalization as opposed to personal. I understand what you mean about the homes but if you take home the pretty girl from the bar you have got to put up with her snoring in the middle of the night! Caveat emptor.........

[Tom Huckaby]

No worries Tom, no offense taken.  My remarks were meant more as a generalization as opposed to personal. I understand what you mean about the homes but if you take home the pretty girl from the bar you have got to put up with her snoring in the middle of the night! Caveat emptor.........

LOL!
Well said.

TH

[Kyle Henderson]

Was it not the great Kyle Phillips (who is receiving so much positive press right now with regard to his work at the Cal Club) who designed the front nine at Bodega (years after the back nine opened) during his days as an associate if RTJ Jr.?

I thought the nines felt rather incongruent.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I too find the area interesting and having a special allure. Aidan pictures always make one want to thank the lord for giving us this day to live. I have only looked at this course and Sea Ranch. I hope both are improved for it would make life for the golfer better.

[Jed Peters]

Was it not the great Kyle Phillips (who is receiving so much positive press right now with regard to his work at the Cal Club) who designed the front nine at Bodega (years after the back nine opened) during his days as an associate if RTJ Jr.?

I thought the nines felt rather incongruent.

Yes, it was.

However, note that he was GIVEN the land to work with, within the housing development--a la RTJII's firm's MO.

[Scott Weersing]

Scott Weersing -

I would choose Sea Ranch as a better course than Bodega on the coast south of Bandon.

DT

I will have to defer to your choice as I have not played Sea Ranch.

As to courses with homes on them, Bodega is still a nice course because the homes are mainly one story and are painted in a variety of gray.

[Tom Huckaby]

Concur on the superiority of Sea Ranch to Bodega.

And yes, Bodega is a nice housing tract-type course, for sure.  But the question was why isn't it more highly praised... and a reason has to be the omnipresent houses, particularly on the front nine.

TH

[David_Tepper]

Scott -

Do try to get up to Sea Ranch some time. I think the course is better and, for the most part, the houses are very much less intrusive than at Bodega.

The locals also claim that the summer weather is much nicer (much less fog) at Sea Ranch than at Bodega.

DT

[Rich Goodale]

BH was one of my favorites when I lived in the Bay Area in 1976-1987.  I was only 9 holes in those days, but what great holes they were!  Somewhere in that period Johnny Miller said that if you could link up BH and Sea Ranch you could play an Open there, and he wasn't far from the truth, particularly in those dark days of non-GCA...... I haven't played the Bodega 18, but I have done both the original and the expanded Sea Ranch and I think it is a slightly better design.  However, the bunkering at SR, which is the depth and consistency of a gravel parking lot really lets that course down.

All that being said, both Bodega and Sea Ranch give one a taste of what the California coast used to be.  Forgetting about the golf, both and particulalry the latter, are as fine a romatic getaway as one could ask for.

[Tom Huckaby]

Rich:

I wonder if your take would remain the same if you played Bodega now... the newer nine and the influx of houses really tears it down from what it once was, I think.  As for Sea Ranch, my take my be dated as I was last there three years ago though, but at least then, the bunker conditioning problems you mention were long gone.  Oh it was no manicured palace, but I thought of that as a good thing... the rustic feel remained, but it was very very playable.  The first time I played it (as a 9holer back in the mid-80s) what you described about the bunkers would have been a correct way to assess it.

And yes the north coast is a fine site for romantic getaways.  I have an Uncle who did such a few times and then never left!  He has lived in Elk for at least 25 years now.  He really does have life beaten.

TH

[David_Tepper]

Tom H. & Rich G. -

I was up a Sea Ranch for 3 nights a month ago and played the course once. Rich's comment regarding the gravel-ish sand in the bunkers is still valid. No blinding white Pebble Beach sand in the bunkers at Sea Ranch!

My suggestion would be to leave your front line sand wedge in the trunk of your car and play SR with one of your spares.

DT   

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks, David for the confirmation.  As Huck is so straight (and short) that he never gets into bunkers I always discount anything he says on that topic.

[Tom Huckaby]

LOL
What sucks is that I am still short, but no longer straight.

Now re the bunkers at Sea Ranch, funny I didn't remember them as any downgrade.  Perhaps it's because I enjoyed the rustic-ness of the place (rusticity?).

In any case, David obviously their condition was not enough to make you downgrade Sea Ranch so as to put Bodega superior... so they must not be that big of a deal, correct?

TH

[Kyle Henderson]

Was it not the great Kyle Phillips (who is receiving so much positive press right now with regard to his work at the Cal Club) who designed the front nine at Bodega (years after the back nine opened) during his days as an associate if RTJ Jr.?

I thought the nines felt rather incongruent.

Yes, it was.

However, note that he was GIVEN the land to work with, within the housing development--a la RTJII's firm's MO.

Absolutely. He was gagged and bound. Housing corridors. Steep, windy porperty. Heck, #5 zig zags along the boundary line because there wasn't enough room for a proper hole. I actually prefer the front nine despite the fact that it lies on the toughest part of the site. No knock on my brother Kyle.

[David_Tepper]

Tom & Rich -

As best I can recall, I don't think I was in any bunkers myself at Sea Ranch last month.

Yes, the bunkers are on the shallow side (I prefer to think of them as minimalist! )
Yes, the bunker sand can be on the gritty side (I prefer to think of it as being as rustic! ).

However, I don't think either condition detracts from the overall golf experience in any meaningful way.

DT

[Tom Huckaby]

David - excellent - we are copacetic on this for sure. 

TH

[Bill_McBride]

No worries Tom, no offense taken.  My remarks were meant more as a generalization as opposed to personal. I understand what you mean about the homes but if you take home the pretty girl from the bar you have got to put up with her snoring in the middle of the night! Caveat emptor.........

LOL!
Well said.

TH

...........not if she doesn't get to sleep!