[Lynn_Shackelford]

Early this evening a brush came within a pitching wedge of my house in Moorpark, CA.  It looks okay now, the firemen started a back fire next to everyone's back yard and it went the other way, toward Rustic Canyon GC.  More on that in a second.  So the neigborhood was in a panic packing their cars.  I moved fast, did I forgot anything?
Took my golf clubs
Original copy of Thomas' "Golf Architecture in America"
Negatives of golf course pictures in Scotland and Ireland
Some financial data, notebook computer
Phone numbers of guys I play golf with
Some golf shirts
Pilllows and towels
I am sure I forgot something, it was weird not packing some old UCLA stuff and leaving things behind.  But in the end we did not have to leave.
So tonight I see, from a distance, huge flames, 40 feet high in some cases.  Happy Camp, with its hundreds of oak trees is burning strong, and I suspect it will burn all around Rustic Canyon Golf Course tonight.
Tommy N., from my house it looks like Tierra Rejada Golf Course could be in danger.  If it burns the developers may make out okay after all.
 

[Joel_Stewart]

Lynn:
Good luck with this but you should pack the Bentley with some of the UCLA stuff as well.  Forget the golf clubs.  I live in the fire area in Oakland and know a little about hasty departures.

[Daniel_Wexler]

Hang in there Mr. S.

Down here in your old stomping grounds it's more of a slow burn.....

DW

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Lynn, Please tell the fire to take North Ranch and Wood Ranch with it! (both award winning Ted Robinson designs)

[SteveTL]

Lynn,

That you would post with the fire "nipping at your heels" is awfully thoughtful...  You have demonstrated extra sensibility by leaving UCLA stuff behind to "lighten your load".

The headlines are sometimes numbing, but its a good reminder that these events affect people...!

All the best Lynn...  Unfortunately there are probably enough waterfalls cascading from contrived landforms to provide a reasonable firebreak from Ted Robinson's golf courses.

Let us know how you make out!

[DMoriarty]

Lynn

You should get out of there if it is dangerous . . . but if do decide to stay, for God's sake, get some pictures!

Yesterday morning the santa anas set in and by noon the course was drier than a dust martini.   I was walking  from the 12th tee to the 13th to drop my bag when a gentleman rolled up with a big fat cigar in his mouth and tried to bum a match . . . I was dumbfounded for a moment, but then told him that, while I did not have a match, I thought his plan to light up was great idea-- a wildfire burning from 13 down-canyon would do wonders for getting rid of growths of non-native vegetation.   Creosote soaked telephone poles arent natural vegetation, are they?  

Glad to hear you will probably be able to stay.  Talk to you tomorrow.  
.  

[cary lichtenstein]

Things you may have left behind:

Wife
Kids
Dog

Suggest you pack those first

[Matthew Delahunty]

Quasssi,

The mother-in-law didn't cross your mind?

It's amazing how the golf clubs are first on the list. I once considered the above question and golf clubs were right up there (I don't have a wife or kids so they're the logical first choice).

[Jason Hines]

Lynn,

Two years ago I came home from work on a Monday night and my house was on fire, barely got the puppy out of the basement in time.  To my surprise, the golf “stuff” was the last thing on my mind while my house was burning.  

It was the middle of March and there was still snow on the ground here in Omaha and the clubs made it because I went to hit balls in one of those cheesy golf domes the day before and they were still in my trunk.  However, I did lose irreplaceable golf photos from Europe and special trips etc. but my great grandfather’s hickory putter and niblick made it through.  Be careful out there!!!

Jason

[DMoriarty]

A few pics taken in Simi/Moorpark area from a moving car through the window early this morning.  

[cary lichtenstein]

Ahh, the next question:

What things would you leave behind?

Someone suggested the mother-in-law, any other suggestions?

[Thomas_Brown]

Tommy_Naccarato - Am I reading correctly that you gave excellence awards to Wood Ranch and North Ranch?
-Good for you.

OK - Just kidding.
I'm curious to hear Lynn's follow up on what happened to RC golf course.  If the course's one tree on the corner of 14 is lost, that design could be irrevocably changed.  -For the better say the long hitters?

Tom

[Eric_Dorsey]

my home videos of Ireland & Scotland and my yardage guide of Cypress Point.

Probably would try to snag the dog too.  The cat will have to jump off the balcony.  Hey! my hands are full.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

My wife says we received so many phone calls today because men wanted to know what happened to Rustic Canyon.  I went over there about 2 PM.  They were just starting to turn people away from the entrance because there were so many "looky lews."  All I saw today was the front nine.  The fire burned all the way down to the grass on the left of #5 fairway (big tree still there) and the 6th tee.  That was all I could see.  It looks like the avocado ranch on the east side was untouched.  I see some flames on the 5th hole while I was there.  David Kelly will be disappointed to hear that the clubhouse is probably okay.  I will give you more later, but I bet David M. will post some of the black hills above the course.  See everybody, in Southern California we have seasons, burn,  dust blowing, mud slides and summer.  Unforunately the land of "fruits and nuts" also leads the league in pyromanics.

[DMoriarty]

I'm curious to hear Lynn's follow up on what happened to RC golf course.  If the course's one tree on the corner of 14 is lost, that design could be irrevocably changed.  -For the better say the long hitters?

Tom

Tom,  

One tree?  Perhaps your focus on this particular tree caused you to overlook the Rustic forest?  There is/was the tree directly between the green and the tee on the 12th, the tree behind the 11th green, a few live trees and a dead one behind and right of the 9th green, and short and left on nine,  a big tree left of the fairway on 5, trees lining the entry road, some little trees between the 2nd and 6th trees, some big, branchless, creosote soaked trees lining both sides of the driving range. . . .

Why would the long hitters say that losing the tree on the 14th would be better?  

Interesting to contemplate, though, what will RC be when the smoke clears . . .  

Would the 11th be worse or better off if the tree behind the green was reduced to a burnt stump?  

Might they forget to replace any Christmas stakes lost to the fire?

Wouldn't it be great if cart paths were flammable?  

And could this fire be just the thing Rustic needs to send the course scuttering up the golfweek ratings ladder?   Might the golfweek powers-that-be more appreciate RC if the cart barn, clubhouse, and range all burned to the ground?   Seriously-- ratings be damned-- I hope and pray that the homes along Brad Klein Blvd survive.
____________________

A few photos taken today from the other side of the pass . . .

[Thomas_Brown]

The tree on 14 is the only one I ever think of strategically while playing the course.   Honestly, the trees you mentioned I've never noticed.

>Why that tree is a detriment to long hitters?
I feel I always have to go right of that tree from the back tee.
If it weren't there, I might bite a bit more of the cape off.
I like everything about 14 before the fire.
(Bragging - I birdied it last time).  

I don't think RC will get any help in the ratings dept.

All kidding aside, I watched the news tonight.
The fires have been one of more sad turn of events in So Cal in recent years.

[David Kelly]

As long as everyone was safe and out of harm's way I would say to let the Rustic clubhouse burn baby burn.  Lets go back to the trailer until they could build a clubhouse the correct way (but they wouldn't).

I would miss all of the trees on the course except for the one behind #11 whose absence I feel would improve the green.  I think the depth of the green would be more difficult to discern without the tree behind the green.  

[RJ_Daley]

Lynn what to take in case of fire?  Take some no-doze so you don't fall asleep and miss the last call on evacuation!  I was checking out some of the website coverage on KTLA webpage.  They showed a camera crew knock on some guys door to warn him that the fire was imminent behind his house, and he thought it was a long ways away.  Was he ever surprised.  He beat feet out just in time.  Between earthquakes, mudslides, wash outs and flash floods, fires, riots, and tidal waves, I think I'd rather live in Bagdad.  How can anyone afford the insurance on all those likely perils?  Or, do they spread that to us comfy, relatively safe, uneventful, bucolic life midwest dwellers?

[DMoriarty]

What amazes me about Southern California is that it took until today for all these fires to really break through into the category of big news.   I was trying to find info on the Moorpark fire last night on the internet (still hoping against hope for golf)  and could find little of anything . . .

Now if a 40% chance of 1/4 inch of rain was in the forecast for sometime next weekend we'd have to live through an entire week of Storm Watch 2003 updates and special reports . . . .

David, weve talked about the tree on 11 before, I think.  To my mind, the tree ties the bisecting ridge into the surroundings, as if the ridge was a buckle cause by a big root.  

[Brad Klein]

I recall in the Oakland fires of 1993 or so that golf courses were used as firebreak and staging areas and that thosed use this way kept their irrigation systems going to the benefit of the area.

Any such news in Southern Califirnia? Or does anyone have any photos of fire approaching a course, such as Rustic Canyon or Moorpark Country Club?

If so, please make known.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Lynn, I pray all is well for you and your family. I do love the beauty of your priorities in the heat of the moment. Hurricanes are our curse and usually is not all or nothing on destruction. Although it is happening with sigificant consequences every 3 years or so now.You just move things around and board and tape up.  I probably would add th UCLA things, a few childhood memories, childrens things, parents things etc. I guess one needs a list of things to grab when on the run along with everything else.

[Todd_Joseph]

I also saw that fires were burning at the Barona Indian Reservation.   I assume the Barona Creek course is located in the same vicinity.
In fact, it seems most of the deaths have occured as a result of this fire.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I thought there was a tree between the left side of the
landing zone and the green on #7, but apparently it's just tall
brush, as you can't see the green from there.

Check out the tree coverage and possible burn locations here,
as it looks like #7 is just as vulnerable than #5:

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