Great Pics.

I was looking into moving to San Diego and the only way you can join Rancho Santa Fe CC is to live a specific section of Rancho Santa Fe called "The Covenant".  Does anyone else know of a course that has a specific geographic limitation on were their members must live?  Other than real estate development type courses, I can not think of any.

The Covenant has some the highest home values in the country and strictly controls growth and home changes through the "Art Committee".  

The course has 680 members!  I asked if the course was crowded and the golf staff told me that it was not, that most members were old, non-golfs and/or partial residents.

One of the great things about the course was that walking was fine, which is not the case in most of San Diego private courses I looked at.

The Power of An Uneducated Green Committees, Ignorant remodel work by done by one of Modern Golf's First Families and what ever else floats your cork.

TN- Did you catch the SNL bit on cork soakers? Janet Jackson could hardly distinguish.

Is this place accessible? How's your May shaping up? I wanna enroll, or at least audit.

Rick,

    Stillwater Country Club in Stillwater, OK, a Don Sechrest/Mark Hayes course and home of the 1973 NCAA's won by Ben Crenshaw will take your money right now.  

Great Pics.

I was looking into moving to San Diego and the only way you can join Rancho Santa Fe CC is to live a specific section of Rancho Santa Fe called "The Covenant".  Does anyone else know of a course that has a specific geographic limitation on were their members must live?  Other than real estate development type courses, I can not think of any.

Palos Verdes GC in Palos Verdes Estates, CA requires that members be residents of Palos Verdes Estates, a city where the median home price is probably upwards of 600 or 700k....

And the soaking corks was probably one of the funniest SNL skits I have seen in years....

The geographic limitation is based on owning a residence in "The Covenant", which is now starts around $2M and goes up rapidly.  

So you are right, Wade Hampton would be an analogy.    

Tommy, Tommy,
Where were you when you were needed?  Dye Designs, Perry Dye, altered this course many years ago.  It is much different than when I played it in the early 80's.  I think the course got ruined then.  Had there been no changes, the old course would be ranked among California's top 20.  It has lost it's character.  It is gone, like Max Behr.  Unfortunately like so many others.  Maybe Harbottle can bring it back.  Ha, Ha.

Lynn, One of the major problems that Rancho Santa Fe now suffers from is Bunker Front Left/Bunker Front Right mentality that the Dye Designs (Perry) people brought to the table. Combine that with an over-excessive and repetitive bunker scheme, I can only imagine what the really unique scraggily grass faced bunkering that used to exist there, felt like.

Shooter's got it right. In the right hands, this place would be amazing. I think far better then 20th in the state, the fairway movement is that good, as well as the fact that Behr's genius can still be found here with the simple elimination of trees, reclaiming of mowing lines and most of all--a membership that has the knowledge and open mind to do it. I don't know much about them, but given the fact that the course isn't more screwed-up, maybe there still is hope!

Aside from 13 (left imitation Fazio sidewalls ) and 18, the fairway contours are just about the same as when Behr had the native vegitation removed to create the course.  There was very much a minimum amount of earth moving--some around the green complexes.  18 still has the right fairway intact, but the picture in Golf Architecture #7 (Sutton Bay cover) beautifully displays the natural alternate fairways that made this hole perhaps one of the prrememinant risk/reward holes ever built.  I like a lot of Doak's ratings, but I think he must have been way too wiped out from the beyond numerous architectural adventures he experience while working to build the Farms golf club, that he did not get a good feel for the flow of the course.  He saw it pre-Dye and pre-generic 2003 mess up.    RSF is publicly accessible--not cheap--The RSF Inn was a founding member and has guest rights.  You stay at the Inn and play after 1pm for unescorted guest fee.  Eat dinner evening before at Delicious or MIlle Fleur and you might meet a member and be invited to play earlier.  By the way, the above mentioned restaurants can hang with Manhattan's finest!  The majority of members might not realize the the great course they possess,but they are mostly low key really nice people.  I've been in the wilderness for ages trying to enact restoration type improvement, but I am not a member though I live across the street.  There are some members who are not happy about the changes.  Wait to you see Tommy's pictures of the 5th and 13th!  The average member age is near 60, and it won't be long before someone gets hurt badly getting in/out of a bunker.  I pray that this is corrected before an injury.  Also, this course has produced a lot of great players and demands great shot values for the accomplished player--hence Phil becoming a dues paying member. Dennis Paulson shot the course record in January--64.  Considering that Stadler, Littler, Pavin, and Phil have been members this is a fairly high course record.  The most pertinent question--Was this course the architectural template for ANGC?  Mackenzie was probably well appraised of this layout.

Robert, Does it seem like I'm smitten?

I did not work on the project at Rancho Santa Fe Farms; it was built 2-3 years after I left the Dyes.  I made two trips, one to work on the routing plan, the other to visit Jim Urbina for a day on my way to Australia in 1988.

I did not have that great a look at Rancho Santa Fe GC when I was there in '85.  Several people had told me it was "top ten in the west" so I was expecting something much more grand, and I was surprised that it looked like just another eastern parkland course.  If it was in Boston or Toronto it wouldn't have turned a lot of heads.

If Max Behr's work was extremely subtle then a lot of it could have gone over my head.  I didn't play the course that day (since I wasn't invited) and I was probably not in the right place mentally after a year or more without seeing many great courses.  [Working for the Dyes in Denver was a bit of a letdown after my year in the UK and Ireland.]

So, my thoughts on Rancho Santa Fe should probably be left out of the equation.  But being the best course in San Diego does not count for much!

Huck,
Absolutely! Thought of you many times while I was there!

Tom Doak,
As a penalty for my mistake, next time in SoCal I have to walk around the course with you looking and each and every feature. The penalty will be swift and just!

Forrest,
? ? ? ? ? ?

More shots:

As per Robert, the 13th, which I omitted taking any of the mounds (In Forrest-speak: Landforms) in fear of ruining my camera.  This is a double fairway number that was simply ruined by this insidious bridge. It's strategy was simple--Play for the island and have a legitmate shot into the green or play around it in a somewhat Cape-like fashion to get on the green in three.


The 15th green


The short 17th

the camera does not do the flow of the slopes justice.  When the course is playing firm--which it did most of this winter ther is tremendous ball movement in the fairways--9,11, 15, 18 usually are good for 20yds on average.  In addition, the greens that were not altered by Dye have great subtle humps and bumps.  Though the course has been severely compromised over the years, it is still capable of being an elite architectural gem.                                                   Tommy,  I am not surprised you enjoyed the layout.  Its kind of fun visaulizing what once existed and what still could be.   Tom Doak,  Sorry about the Farms mistake--Somebody in the Dye organization must have suffered migranes from that experience!  I really am surprised that you did not see any hint of greatness at RSF.  When I played Stonewall I thought of RSF on how much fairway ball movement occurred.  Plus, there really was very little earth moving at RSF--the generic bunkers betray what was once a very natural flowing course.