Is there potential here?

[JSPayne]

#10 - Par 4 (Approach)

#11 - Par 5 (Tee Shot)

#11 - Approach

#12 - Par 4 (Tee Shot)

#12 - Approach

#13 - Par 4 (Dogleg Right, Tee Shot)

#13 - Approach

#14 - Long Par 3

#15 - Short Par 3

#16 - Par 5 (Dogleg Left, Tee Shot)

#16 - Second Shot


I'll leave the rest out because I personally find them mostly uninteresting, but this particular string of holes has stuck with me throughout my life more than almost any other course. Curious as to what others see. You'll obviously have to look past the mainteannce. It was much better kept at one point in time and this back 9 is actually closed now, leaving a struggling course with only a mediocre front 9.

[Mac Plumart]

It sure looks like there is a ton of potential there to me.  What is the soil like?

[JSPayne]

I can't honestly say. Probably a bit of a rocky clay-loam. But I don't think it prohitibitive to growing good grass. Like I said, the course used to be in much better shape. The lack of maintenance is due to lack of resources (spec: low budget from low revenues).

[PThomas]

might it be too steep in places??

and nice cart paths

[JSPayne]

It is extremely steep. I walked it for HS golf back in the day and felt like a mountain goat. But that was half the fun, and yes, they do have paths and provide carts, as much as that may distract from the "ideal" experience. What I used to do actually is walk the front 9 (pretty flat) then take a cart just for the back. The #16 downhill par 5 dogleg left is 604 from the tips but all down hill......that and the severly canted fairway on the short par 4 #12 make for quite the rollar coaster ride!

[Jed Peters]

Is that the course up in marysville/sierra buttes?

[Steve Salmen]

Is this Southridge?  I only recognize the long, downhill, dogleg left 16th but that hole is quite unique.

[John Moore II]

Yeah, course looks good to me. Got some good elevation changes and seems to have some good interest. They just need the funds to make everything work out.

[JSPayne]

Yes, this is Southridge, for your NorCal guys who may know it. I like leaving course names out to remove any printed bias people may be able to discover via research once they Google the course. But it is what it is right now, from a business standpoint, it just always intrigued me as a bit from the design of a few of the holes and the location. But I guess the location is also a detriment to reliable customer traffic.

I can't pull an aerial at work, and don't know if that would help, but am still interested in hearing thoughts about the visual merits of the holes from the medicore pictures I've taken. These were taken Feb. 2009 by the way......I'm sure the conditioning is significantly worse now since they've pretty much abandoned the back 9.

[RJ_Daley]

JS, what are your terms of need to ask if there is potential there?  I'd have to assume that if there is a market of golfers at a certain price point, and the funding from a willing developer to remodel; the only limitation is the question of if there is enough land, water available at a workable price, and a good construction/design entity to make it happen.  It certainly doesn't look like an impossible site to design something interesting.

[JSPayne]

My real question about potential is whether it looks like a site or architecture worth saving. From a business standpoint, it may be rough, I don't know enough about the finances and liabilities of the course to determine how viable the model is. But if the course seems largely uninteresting, goofy or not worth dumping some money in to to try and rehabilitate, there's no point in even looking at the business side of it.

So my question for this forum is purely about the aethetic, visual, architectural and hole layout aspects as depicted in the photos. Does this look like a course that, with a little TLC input on the conditioning, would spur enough of your interest to make you want to go play it? Is the architecture intriguing?

[John Moore II]

JSP-Yeah, it lookes interesting enough to play on a daily basis and drive a little ways to play. However, I have to ask a few questions about the location, I did look it up on google maps. How far is it off I-5? How far is it from Sacramento? Certainly this place will have to draw people in from outside. It all depends on how far it is from these major places.

[J Sadowsky]

Looks like great topography, but you'd need to bring in an architect for a complete redesign to make it work.  Not sure if financially it would be worth it, particularly in this economy.