Images From The Bridges

[Tommy_Naccarato]

I don't have a lot to say about this place other then the clubhouse is as every bit as beautiful in person, as it probably is on TV. It is also one of the more dramatic places to place a clubhouse given the terrain of the area. It's design is based off of the actual floor plan (with some extras added of course) of a Tuscan Villa complete with water wheel and moat. At the base of all of it is vineyards where I'm told the main guy actually bottles and sells to the club.

The golf course is a complete different deal. This is pure Robert Trent Jones Jr. emulating the Fazio style and substance. Don't get me wrong, there are some fun holes to play here, but none of them are memorable or as memorable as standing in the middle of the fairway on #10 and looking back at the cluhouse and saying to yourself, Wow! is this cool!

[A_Clay_Man]

the Fazio style and substance.

Huh? What's that?

[Andrew_Roberts]

It is unfortunate they didn't show more of the 10th because they switched the sides.  At least I can say from T.V. that I was slighty more impressed with this course than Bighorn.

Tommy how much is (was) it to join?
1 or 2 million?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

When I played it the pro told me $250,000. In this morning's paper they are saying $375,000.

I thought the course was pretty boring. Not really an interesting hole on the front other then #3 or 4. I thought the Superintendents shack had much more interest. Supposedly it cost 12 Million to build it. I think that might be a slight exaggeration, but it is pretty cool looking, matching the architecture of the clubhouse while being some distance away from the clubhouse. There was much more theat was going to happen there also around the range, which I have to say was a pretty weird configuration. It looked as if they found a corner to put it in, and thats where it was going to stay. Frommy recollection it was confining and clumsy. They had plans to build a pool house and tennis center in the same style architecture, just right of the 9th hole across the pond.

[Chris Perry]

Actually if you look at the website they changed a lot of the holes around for the competition, probably to accommodate the lighting. 16 is actually 9 and 9 is 18, the last 2 holes in the lights are 6 and 5 (reversed) and so forth.

Tommy, your a tough man to please. I'd love to play courses like this. #9 (16) would make a great finishing hole, even if Sergio made it look like chopped liver. I also think, since they played the 17th (6th) from a shorter length they should have moved it up even farther so the guys could have gone for the green with thier drivers, but I digress.

And, does it really get dark that quick down there? I swear the telecast was an hour ahead because by the time it was pitch dark there up here in Vancouver we still had "playable" light for at least another hour and a half 'til 9:30.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Chris,
Its nice to look at in pictures, but this one is as dumb as blond as it gets. I know I'm hard on stuff, but I'll take Rees Jones Santa Luz over this one (as a golf course) anyday, and would probably take the Crosby Club over those two easy. The clubhouse is hard to beat though.

Now about the light:

I didn't see any of last nights telecast as a matter of choice. I like the idea of them doing this event, and I even like the idea of them doing it down there at The Bridges. I just can't stomach Mike Tirico or Curtis Strangle. Put Al Michaels in there and suddenly the event becomes watchable. You can listen to him because he doesn't come up with uneccessary diatribe. In fact, I think you hear more truth fom guys like him or Bob Costas then any of them.

The Bridges is located in some really huge rolling hills of Rancho Sante Fe. It is absolutely beautiful country there, but there is a small set of hills that block the sunset, so its going to get darker there quicker then it is if you were directly due west 3 or four miles as the crow flies in Encinitas which is right on the coast. Your going to have lots of shadows, but beautiful ones, and the highest point of this site is where the clubhouse is. Eveything else is really below it. It is a severe site, but its a "Good" sporty severe.  I wil lay money on it the only reason why they had the nines reversed is because they wanted the 10th to be the hilight, and to ge that clubhouse shot frm the fairway in there. Its pretty spectacular. It literally looks as if the clubhouse is going to slide off of th hill into your lap!

Chris, What school did you go to?

[Chris Perry]

I went to Steveston High in Richmond, just to the south of Vancouver.

And no, I'm not THE Chris Perry, I wish I had half his game.  

#10 would be your second screenshot, correct? I might be wrong but if that is the case they didn't even show that hole on the telecast, I think they started the round there and picked up the feed on the 5th hole they played (which would be 14 on the scorecard I think.)

[Michael Dugger]

Tommy,

I heard that they spent a good deal of $$$$ on bridge work.   Like no duh eh?  Hence the name.  Can you confirm exactly how many of them adorn the property.  It doesn't look especially conducive for a golf course.

I was working for Landscape Unlimited at the same time they were finishing this course up.  I still remember one of their guys telling me how once it was finished this course was going to be really something.  

Yeah, right.  
I guess someone didn't realize that bridges don't really affect the golf.  

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Michael,
If I remember right, I think it is like three, and they look to have cost a fortune, one of them being a REALLY expensive bridge that can handle regular day auto and truck traffic. the funny thing is that I don't think it matched any of the Tuscan-style architecture of The Bridges. It looked more of a French influence. The other bridges that take you through the golf course, well they were probably pretty expensive too, and that was undoubtedly the reasoning of the name was because of their expense.

However, I'll take a guess and say that the name was probably concocted over an afternoon of cocktails at Red Tracten's trying to forget about the cost to build them.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Tahks Chris, that is exactly where I was going with it! You just never know!

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

While I do not disagree with everything Tommy said, the course was shown poorly last night.

To me, nine is the best hole on the front, while 10 and 11 are two of the best on the course. The back nine actually has some interest, the really downhill par four, which Mickelson has apparently driven while playing casually. The long par four on the back is solid too.

I did not asign hole numbers, because I could not figure out by looking occaisionally how they decided on that routing for tv. I assume that it had something to do with lighting, as the other holes may have been too spread out.

Of note on the site, there were actually two construction sites, until the bridge to the 11th green finally connected them.

[Matt_Ward]

Tommy (oh mighty Emperor):

They should have played the event at Santaluz just so that we could have had another 250 post thread. What do you think?

[A_Clay_Man]

It was pretty obvious from the telecast that the config was con funged. Par 5 par 3 par 5 par 3. And shame on those blatant equiptment manufactureres getting all the buzz about swing speeds and distance. How many holes did they have those yadrage markers to see how far the boys missed it?

[Michael Whitaker]

Tommy - Why in the world would you deny yourself the opportunity to watch an event in which you obviously had some interest? Because you didn't like the announcers???

That's why there is a volume control on the television. Turn down the sound and provide your own commentary.

[Rick Shefchik]

Chris -- Having grown up in Northern Minnesota, land of midsummer daylight till almost 10 p.m., I would assume the sun also stays up later in Vancouver than it does in southern California.