David Tepper is right, I am very familiar with the Sea Ranch Golf Links as I was with the Graves firm from 1988 until 2000. And forgive me if some of this is in earlier posts regarding the golf course.
The Sea Ranch is a 10 mile long development that straddles US highway 1 along the northern Sonoma coast of California and features some of the most beautiful scenery you will find. The company now known as Castle & Cooke which is owned by David Murdock (Sherwood CC) was called Oceanic California Incorporated (or OCI) in the 1960's when the planning for this development began. It also coincided with the nascent beginnings of the California Coastal Commission.
Original plans were for something like 4,000 homes (I think) but with so much opposition to the project the total build-out now is 2,400 homes. Also much more of the property had to be dedicated to public access to the beaches than originally planned but this really is how it should be. Several noted architects of the time were responsible for defining the "Sea Ranch" architectural style that recalls vernacular agriculture buildings clad in weathered and graying redwood with distinct peaked roofs supported by, often, post and beam construction.
While there is 10 miles of wild coastline, the developers allotted only a small portion of the property at its extreme northern edge to the creation of a golf course which would prove to be one of Bob Grave's favorite and most unusual golf courses. While the greens were indeed the "wavy gravy" style, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Tom Doak's Confidential Guide in describing Grave's courses, the remainder of the course was very unique. The bunkers were mostly flattish with small wee islands of turf within many of them. The look worked well with that of the building architecture and with the crashing surf and tortured monterey cypress trees, the course was unique among the Grave's canon of work. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, only the par 3 8th hole ventured close to the edge of the ocean as the developers gave all the prime bluff top sites they could to homes. Pity that. Imagine if they had had even one or two holes that had homes overlooking a golf hole AND the Pacific Ocean........think Pebble Beach on that one. The original 9 holes were completed and opened around 1972-74 and it remained a nine holer until we were finally able to complete the back 9 in 1995 within the corridors that had been laid out by Bob originally.
So David is right that more stringent regulations imposed by Fish and Wildlife and the Corps of Engineers meant that many small tributaries that would have easily been piped in the past had to be left open which did lead to some very, very odd holes with strangely placed layups. Additionally, it was no easy task to try to match up the new work with the 20 year old original. I feel we could have done a better job of that to this day, to at least try to allow one to overlook the wetlands that we had to leave and which do engender a feeling of differentness from the first 9.
The owners had hoped that by completing a full 18 they would finally get a good dose of play, but unfortunately that has not happened. At least as of a few years ago, they are only getting the levels of play that the 9 hole course attracted owing to its very remote location and the low population near there. It is about an hour and a half drive on mostly windy roads just to get to the largest nearby city, Santa Rosa. Consequently, the course has been cash deprived its entire existence which is what has led to the woeful bunker situation with very dark and coarse beach sand being used. Additionally, tree growth has been rampant and has diminished almost completely any sea views from many of the holes. It is now an over-watered parkland style course lined in many areas by too many blocking trees. The homes are not really that much of a bother as they at least are attractive to look at and generally follow Bob's very conservative spacing on building sites relative to golf corridors.
The place could be so much better. It is beyond high time for a reconstruction, renovation, restoration or whatever you want to call it. The "Sea Ranchers" as the locals are called need to get over their tree lust and let the place be reopened up to the ocean, the tees, bunkers and greens could use a lot of love and the overall look of the place would benefit from a fresh approach to maintenance. It should have been Bob Grave's Bandon Dunes but with the real estate driving the train it never had the complete opportunity to do that for him. However, if anyone is ever anywhere near Mendocino or the Marin or Sonoma coast they owe it to themselves to see the place, even if just to see the scenery and how the land plan devised by Lawrence Halprin works so very well to mask the fact that it is a real estate development. It is one, but a most unusual one.