In early May my wife and I traveled to California and had the pleasure of golfing at Pacific Grove, Pasatiempo, San Juan Oaks, Monarch Dunes, Sandpiper, Oak Quarry, Desert Willow-Firecliff, and LaQuinta Mountain.
San Juan Oaks is a Gene bates/Fred Couples design. We had previously played another of their courses, Circling Raven in Idaho, several years ago, and was curious about this course. Out of the 8 courses played on the trip, it was probably 7th or 8th of our favorites, primarily because of several holes which were cart-path only golf, which I absolutely hate. Invariably it leads to taking the wrong club, even though you've carried 3 or 4 clubs across the fairway. We also started on the back nine, which also seems to mess me up whenever that happens. The back nine was our favorite of the two nines at San Juan Oaks, so finishing on the front nine was a bit of a letdown.
Perhaps on a different day, perhaps walking the course, might result in a change of heart.
Onto the course. Yardages are 4,770/5,785/6,342/6,712/7,133 yards.
Tee shot on #3, a dogleg right par-4 of 359 yards
#3 fairway
Tee shot on #4, 431 yard par-4
Hole #4
From behind the 4th green
Par-4 5th hole, 425 yards
Par-3 6th, 204 yards
Author John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California
Par-4 407 yards 7th hole
8th hole, par-3 179 yards
9th fairway, 513 yards par-5
Looking back on #9, our last hole of the day
Par-5 11th hole, 543 yards, doglegs right around the trees
Par-3 12th hole 182 yards
13th hole, 462 yards par-4, #1 handicap hole, sliding downhill around to the right
Looking back up hole 13
This is the split-fairway 14th, a par-4 of 397 yards. The fairway on the right is higher and wider than on the left, but has a forced carry on the approach. The power carts must stay on the path on the extreme left, so anyone choosing to play the right side must carry clubs/extra balls.
This photo shows the height of the right hand fairway and the angle into the green from the narrower left side
Looking back on hole 14
The par-3 16th, 166 yards downhill to a wide green
Par-4 17th, 487 yards
Tee shot on #17
Since we were leaving the Monterey area the next morning for a drive down the coast, we decided to do the 17 Mile Drive after our round at San Juan Oaks. A few pictures of Pebble Beach...
Cheers,
Jim