Joe, I haven't played Sterling Hills in many years either, but I remember it as a housing project course with numerous long walks across or along public roads and with a number of holes where there was little reasonable way to get to the next tee because of natural and/or man-made features. I quick look at their website and at google earth confirmed my memory.
It may well be walkable for some (I think I also walked it, years ago) but it is laid out like a cart ball course for convenience of cartballers, not walkers. At best it is a cart ball course that tolerates walkers who don't mind long treks through neighborhoods. I also did a quick count on walking distance between the previous green and next green (using the approx. equivalent of the blue at each) and the distances to and from the clubhouse, and I don't think your speculation that Rustic is a longer walk holds up.
That said, as you know Rustic is far from a perfect walking course. Most the tees and greens are close, but there is a 110 yard walk from 4 to 5 and longer walks between 9 and 10 (about 275 yards), between 12 and 13 (about 200 yards), and between 17 and 18 (about 200 yards), plus an annoying uphill 80 yard walk between 15 and 16. Three of these cross the environmental area. While it'd be nice if these walks weren't necessary, the course was obviously designed with walking in mind and as modern courses go it is a nice walk. I think we agree on that.
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Bill Seitz, Oak Quarry and Talega are good examples of modern L.A. cart ball courses, but I was going off the top of my head for easily accessible modern courses for me, and I didn't want to expand the radius too much and to turn this into a research project. If we did expand the radius I think we'd get many other modern cart ball courses with perhaps an exception or two like Goose Creek which (if I remember correctly) isn't a bad walk.
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Scott Weersing and John McSweeny,
I agree that there are plenty of older courses which are walkable in Los Angeles, although access can be tough (at publics and privates.)
My comments on this issue have been directed only at trends in golf course design, and particularly
golf courses built in the past couple of decades. Kavanaugh was scolding me and challenging us to tell him where all these cart ball courses have been built. Turns out there are plenty that have been built all around Los Angeles, and very few walking courses built in the past few decades.
Regarding Trump National, I haven't played it since before the changes, but it was mandatory cart then. Do they really allow walking now? Much of the course is stapled to a side of the fairy steep ridge, and there are (were) horrible transitions, so I'd be surprised if they have many walking.
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Tim Leahy, Do you feel the same way about "carts only" courses? Los Angeles has plenty of those. What option do they give?
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Notice how Kavanaugh keeps changing his criteria? He put down the challenge to identify where the un-walkable courses were being built in Los Angeles. Turns out that is about all that has been built, for decades, with a few noted exceptions. So he just finds some lame justification to throw all of these out. First he excluded courses in locations where a tourist might want to play and courses built in what he used to consider a golden age of architecture (apparently the late 1980's/ early 1990s.) Now he excludes public courses, based on some fanciful theory about how all Angelinos are aspiring to join private clubs. (A truly laughable notion in Los Angeles.) If anyone lists courses like Sherwood, Kavanaugh will probably eliminate private courses built after a certain date, too. Soon we will be left with the old privates. I guess his point is that walking golfers with access to the old Los Angeles private clubs have plenty of walking opportunities. But no one has ever said differently.