Though absent from this august group of distinguished golf design thinkers, aficionados, ragamuffins and bon vivants for some time, I am pleased to return to throw down my thoughts on Gib's Redan Hills.
In many ways, the best results in all fields come from those people with, seemingly, little in common. In golf, I doubt that CB Mac and Seth Raynor spent too many drunken evenings together discussing, well, anything. Yet, they put together a pretty decent string of courses together for the very reason that one of them was the mad visionary and the other was the principled and diligent disciple who knew how to make the vision reality.
Some of you out there know both Gib and me, and probably scratch your heads at the very thought of us being friends. Not to mention how or why or if we would ever conspire to actually find a client willing to allow us to make their project our very own laboratory of odd landforms. Landforms that both funnel and deflect golf balls in a way that all would be tantalized by.
So, it was that nearly a decade ago we both did manage to stumble onto this very odd little course hard by the Paso Robles airport that was, and still is, the very personification of hard scrabble. Where once sand-filled pot bunkers sat, now only lonely wee grassy pits lie. Lovely in their decrepitude, beguiling in their I-don't-give-a-damn attitude. A routing that was, in turns, sublime and rank amateur. A setting that features long views of surrounding central coast hills but in a location that allows the summer sun to blaze away. Of course, we were enchanted. And at once knew that if Redan Hills would or could ever be realized that this was as good a candidate as any.
Cut to now, and from the latest aerial I see that the scrub separating the holes have been shorn in favor of vineyards, all the better to help feed the cash cow I suppose. Yet, the holes are all still there, none of them uncomfortably close to once another laterally yet with greens and tees suitably adjacent for a good walk in the park. And those formerly sand-filled bunkers, yes, still mostly grassy pits waiting for some love and attention. And there is a generously sized plot of land behind the current double-wide clubhouse that is just waiting for the right kind of structure, the kind that Gib described with appropriately vernacular agrarian architecture and wide porches to help shield out the beating sun and to provide a home for rows of rocking chairs. You know, the kind you see outside of Cracker Barrel's, except with leather-skinned golfers sporting farmer's tans from wearing golf shirts and Patrick Reed-like starched white foreheads from having ball caps permanently affixed to their heads. And they would be holding appropriately weighted glassware containing a dram or three from the well-stocked bar inside that makes no distinction between lovers of Speyside or Highlands or Isle of Skye whisky's. And it is wine country, so of course there would be a fine selection of those to choose from. So....maybe not exactly like Cracker Barrel.
And the best part of all of doing this project, of resurrecting this real hidden gem, is that it would truthfully be a realization of the hopes and dreams and aspirations of many who only could have known each other from this very discussion group. Thanks Ran. For in addition to me and Gib leading the charge (I am a golf course designer for those of you who are probably wondering who the hell this guy is, formerly a member of the ASGCA until I decided that I work better as a lone wolf), we would be in charge of a design collective that would embrace the ideas of a certain Mr. Tommy Naccarato among many others here. And our lead shaper would be another individual from this group, though also in the past, a certain Scot Clem who has cut his teeth working on courses for David Kidd, Kyle Phillips, Andy Staples and....oh yes, me. Think of this as a symphony orchestra: The final results are not merely the iron clad design ethos of a single individual but, rather, a designer who acts as conductor with the supporting cast as the first violin, timpani player, and yes, even the overlooked triangle. They all play a role. This is a course that can and should benefit from the studied observations and experiences of many, the common thread being GolfClubAtlas.