The lifelines of every club are new members. With them, you are fine. Without them, little good ensues.
That said, suppose the credentials of a private club could be distilled as follows: ‘Eighteen hole course situated on great land. Thirteen holes built during the Golden Age of architecture. The other five holes don’t belong and were built during a different era. Too many trees exist, which means the course plays slow and wet most of the year.’
Who would join?
Perhaps those who play golf occasionally. They aren’t attuned to golf (good or bad) and certainly not the nuances of golf course architecture. If they can drink, play cards, and have fun with friends, their needs are satiated.
However, golfers that cherish the most time honored virtues of the game would be underwhelmed by such an offering. Life has taught them that places that celebrate the great game – that put golf on a pedestal - attract very fine people and that an atmosphere is created that draws them in. Essentially, they want to spend their precise spare time at such places.
Many grand clubs with proud golfing heritages have faded over time, diminished by the soft demands placed on them by social or occasional golfers. The character and special design features of Golden Age courses tragically disappear
under lax stewardship. Reversing the culture at such clubs is a rare occurrence.
Now consider the following:
‘Eighteen hole course situated on great land. Superlative golf holes laced throughout, many built during the Golden Age of architecture. Wide playing corridors, lots of short grass. Conditions: Firm. Trees are well back from play and cypresses provide handsome backdrops. Walking is highly encouraged.’
Who would join? Golfers, of course, the very people who become the life blood of a GOLF club!
This month’s Feature Interview with Allan Jamieson tells such a story. It’s about a noble course that had disappeared from most people’s radar and fell outside of a thousand courses that you would like to play. It has been ingeniously resuscitated and emerges in a form that may make it the best in the greater San Francisco area. All the Golden Age design tenets are in full force: width, playing angles, well-placed hazards, acres and acres of short grass, fast running surfaces, all capped off by first rate and varied green complexes.
Looking down the length of the eleventh fairway at the clubhouse with the San Bruno mountains in the distance.
Was it expensive? Yes. How daunting was it to bring in five thousand truckloads of sand
so that the course would not only look right but play right? Very! Closed for only 15 months (and not one employee was laid off during that time), the course – which is any golf club’s primary calling card - went from mundane to a type of firm, bouncy, thought provoking playing experience rarely found (especially on the west coast).
It was worth it because golfers are smart and quality eventually wins out. Here is a course that is now fortified for the foreseeable future. It is attracting young golfing members (25 last year) who are enthralled by the playing conditions. Some say that nearby SFGC is its equal for short grass and sprawling bunkers but to get comparable kick and run, you may have to travel to Melbourne, Australia! No wonder that Ian Baker-Finch loved the California Golf Club when he played there last September.
Al Jamieson was the chair of the committee to renovate in 2005 and club president in 2006 when the debate was held and it was voted to proceed. The course shut in April 2007 for Kyle Phillips’s broad reaching plan to be implemented. Rarely has there been a more fortuitous circumstance than Al on the board at the Cal Club at that very time. While there were sharp differences of opinion within the club, everyone will tell you that Al and the board acted in the club’s best long term interests. His commentary is always genuine and heartfelt. Words like ‘I’ and ‘me’ are mercifully absent from his vocabulary. Among our correspondence over the past four years, Al once wrote (and I reprint it with his permission): “The game is bigger and better than all of us. The integrity of the club is more important than the parochial interests of any member or group of members. Like all great clubs, it will endure and continue to enrich the lives of all who respect the game and nurture her.”
Wow! If leadership promotes those sentiments, sign me up! Along with Sleepy Hollow (I haven’t seen LA North and Pinehurst No.2 always had its greens) this is the greatest course transformation of which I am familiar. See if you agree. In any event, this is an insightful story of accomplishing something special within the framework of a private club, related by a standup guy.
Hope you enjoy this month’s Feature Interview.
Cheers,