Claremont CC

[Padraig Dooley]

I'm pottering around California at the moment. I spent the last three days playing at Claremont CC in Oakland. It is the nicest surprise for me this year. I knew it would be nice but nowhere nearly as good as it is.

It's MacKenzie, par 68, 5500 yards and built on 80 acres. If you don't have your finesse game with you, you could easily walk home with your tail between your legs. There is great movement on the greens and proper positioning on the greens is tantamount to scoring.

It is a true reflection of MacKenzie's genius that he designed such a good course in such a small, slightly hilly property.

Here are some photos.

1st, Short Par 5



Approach on 1



2nd, Long Par 3



3rd, Short downhill par 3



4th, Medium par 4, don't be above the hole!



5th, Short par 4, almost driveable, green runs away from the player, real precision required for the short approach.



6th, Short par 4, about 260, anything short of the green can run back 70 yards.



7th Medium par 4, great view of the Bay Area from the tee. MacKenzie was never afraid of crossing holes. The 7th fairway crosses in front of the 5th tee and 4th green.



8th Downhill Par 3



9th Medium par 4, easy to get stuck behind the redwood on the right off the tee.

[David_Tepper]

Padraig -

Thanks for the pics. I hope you will post the back-9 as well. The course underwent a significant restoration several years ago and now looks & plays great.
 
For a "short course," Claremont can play plenty long at times, especially with two par-3s over 200 yards. If you are still in the Bay Area, feel free to get in touch via e-mail (tcmnav@aol.com) or IM.

DT

[Padraig Dooley]

On to the back nine

10th medium par 3, slightly elevated tee shot



11th Medium par 4, elevated tee shot and approach to an elevated green, again stay below the hole.





12th longer par 4, semi blind tee shot



13th Long par 3



14th Short par 4, driveable especially when the tee is forward.



15th Medium par 4 with a right to left fairway cant and creek on the left.





16th Medium par 4 tight with the creek on the left again.



17th Short uphill par 3 another devilish green



For some reason I don't have a photo of the par 5 finishing 18th but it's just about 500 yards nice right to left sloping fairway, very important to leave the second shot in the correct position in order to gain access to the flag.

In conclusion Claremont is a great little course, really fun. They have just finished renovating the bunkers and quite a few trees have come out with more to come. If you get a chance to play there, take it, otherwise it would be a missed opportunity.

[Joel_Stewart]

It's not really a Mackenzie, although Mac polished it up and did the bunkering.  They can thank Jim Urbina for some of the recent work.

[TX Golf]

Wow.... I spent a couple summers caddying out there a few years ago and the bunker / tree work is really quite impressive.

The third hole looks completely different without the grove of trees behind the green. It's also nice that you still aren't able to see the road behind the green.

It seems like a course anybody should be able to tear up, but as mentioned earlier, there are many subtleties as well as double bogeys waiting on every shot.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Where have our Bay Area friends been on this one?  It looks like a hidden gem.

From where on earth did this club get the good sense to hire Urbina?

Great pictures.

[Jim Eder]

Thanks for the pictures, wonderful. I love the bunkers and the use of the elevation changes. And the 13th, there is just something about that one I really like. And 3, 6, 9, 10, 17, just delightful. Sure looks like a course that tempts and as Robert suggests, one where you walk off with a higher score than one thought. It looks splendid. Thanks!!

[Tom_Doak]

From where on earth did this club get the good sense to hire Urbina?

Great pictures.

Lynn,

Jim was working for me at the time, although I only made one or two visits at the very beginning, and told them they would be dealing exclusively with Jim.  I think it was Dave Wilber who recommended us for the job.

[JC Urbina]

Lynn,

I have enjoyed my relationship with the group at Claremont CC.  The committee and especially Jay the pro at Claremont have been very supportive of the Mackenzie restoration.  I flipped back and forth between Pasatiempo and Claremont over the last several years.   I have spent a lot of time working on both of these projects.

It's great to see the final product enjoyed by many.  But really all I was doing was taking the old  B/W pictures and painting out lines in the dirt from the photos.   


Joel,

Thank you for the acknowledgement.  But in fairness to all who have been involved, the work was a team effort including help from George Waters, Brian Schneider, Kye Goalby on several occasions, Kyle Franz and Tony Russell.  No Egos involved with this group just a bunch of guys doing cool stuff.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Jim and the rest team Doak, great work. My  I cannot wait to get over the bridge and see this in person. Padraig, thank you for the pictures.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Bravo to Claremont for hiring Doak and "his boys."  I would love to hear more.  Was it just bunkers?  Was there tree removal?  Are the greens the originals?  Who at the club initiated this?

Jim, driving from Santa Cruz to Oakland and back.  Welcome to California, you now have a sense of real traffic.

[JC Urbina]

Lynn,

The project started by working on the 7th, 11th and 12th greens and bunkers respectfully.  The 7th green was changed years ago by someone else  and visibly not in character with the rest of the golf greens.  Jay Macdaniel the pro was instrumental in hiring us and I still  remember the first interview process. My slide show must have impressed someone, I know I was a little anxious.

The bunkers were redone on the 7th hole during the same time period.  When we moved over to the 11th hole and those bunkers were restored the club was convinced that "the boys"  were more then capable of helping out with the clubs long term goals.

The greens were all original except for the 7th.   Some of the bunkers had been modified over time and you know as well as anyone how bunkers morph with age.  The club  had pretty good documentation and I spent a lot of my time in the Claremont history room where the OLD photos were stored.   All of the bunkers  have been restored except one and that one is located real close to the Tennis Courts  so we mutually agreed it wasn't worth restoring even though the thought process by either Mackenzie or Hunter was a pretty cool feature.

Claremont CC will host the Mackenzie Cup in 2011 and I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Mackenzie enthusiast think about the 5 crossover holes in place. 

Tiger,

Thanks,

 It was  a labor of love.

[Padraig Dooley]

Bravo to Claremont for hiring Doak and "his boys."  I would love to hear more.  Was it just bunkers?  Was there tree removal?  Are the greens the originals?  Who at the club initiated this?

Jim, driving from Santa Cruz to Oakland and back.  Welcome to California, you now have a sense of real traffic.

Lynn, there was tree removal, some flower bed removal and some more tree removal to come.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Claremont, it is coming back to me, wasn't this the home club of Robert Hunter?

[Tim Leahy]

If you liked Claremont, try Sequoia CC and Mira Vista CC in the Oakland hills! Great old golf courses lost in time.

[JLahrman]

Padraig, I live right down the street from this place, you might have seen me walking my dogs on the bordering roads!  Thanks for the pics, I have not played it myself but looks like fun.

These pictures were obviously not taken over the weekend, the winter rainy season got off to an early start.

[Mike Benham]

Where have our Bay Area friends been on this one?  

That man Spaulding was in town a year or so ago and a small group of NorCalers played Claremont, there was a topic on it back then.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,28326.0/

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Thanks Mike.

And thanks to the SoCal guy Spaulding for coming up and making the NorCal guys aware of Claremont.

[Padraig Dooley]

Padraig, I live right down the street from this place, you might have seen me walking my dogs on the bordering roads!  Thanks for the pics, I have not played it myself but looks like fun.

These pictures were obviously not taken over the weekend, the winter rainy season got off to an early start.

Pictures were taken last Wednesday.

[JC Urbina]

Lynn,

Hunter was a member at Claremont for years.  It was also the club that hosted Mackenzie and Ross for a round of golf and a pint of beer.  Jay has a picture of the both of them sitting at an outside bar toasting a brew.  Really the only time I have seen Ross or the Dr  with a beer in the hand.  The famous Old Dead Guys rarely had pictures taken while they were enjoying a cool one.  They usually were shown pointing at nothing for photo Ops.

 That is why I am so fond of the picture.  I have it framed in my office as a testament to the simplicity of the craft.  We tend to make them out to be more then what they were.

[John Keenan]

As a native Nor Cal I would venture to say that many in the Bay Area are not aware that Claremont exists. If they do they may think it is related to hotel/resort in Berkley

I have had the opportunity to have lunch there on many occasions and agree it is a beautiful facility.  If memory serves you are required to wear long pants and take a caddy. Is that correct. Given the location long pants are probably a good idea no matter.

Last it is most definitely the home to many Old Blues!

John

[Bill_McBride]

Lynn,

Hunter was a member at Claremont for years.  It was also the club that hosted Mackenzie and Ross for a round of golf and a pint of beer.  Jay has a picture of the both of them sitting at an outside bar toasting a brew.  Really the only time I have seen Ross or the Dr  with a beer in the hand.  The famous Old Dead Guys rarely had pictures taken while they were enjoying a cool one.  They usually were shown pointing at nothing for photo Ops.

 That is why I am so fond of the picture.  I have it framed in my office as a testament to the simplicity of the craft.  We tend to make them out to be more then what they were.

JC, I saw Donald Ross's home in Pinehurst yesterday and stepped into his tiny office where our host told us he kept a table with drinks in the corner for entertaining clients.  Our host showed us an original hand colored routing from 1915 of a course in Ohio.  So I guess he did drink, as a good Scotsman should!

[Chris_Blakely]

Thanks for sharing the pictures.  The bunker restoration looks great.

Chris

[Ted Cahill]

Padraig- thanks so much for the pictures.  I lived in Oakland for a year and would drive by the course squinting for a glimpse.  It's nice to get a look at it.  For those familiar with Oakland, it is amazing that a course this impressive is so close to some pretty rough urban neighborhoods. 

[Joel_Stewart]

Had the chance to play here yesterday with two other GCA people and it was a wonderful treat.  I've played here a few times but the restoration effort has really produced a gem of a golf course.  The course has character, is challenging and lots of fun which is just about everything you could ask for in a golf course.

I'm not sure who the super is but he does a really good job and the staff is wonderful.