Granite Bay GC, CA

[Ran Morrissett]

Has anyone heard of this place? Is it any good?The reason I ask is that Josh Taylor recommended a book called "Golf as it Should Be" that is baiscally a promo of this course. HOWEVER, throughout the book are 150 or so paragraph quotes from the architects of the Golden Age. It was compiled by Mark Parsinen, of Kingsbarn fame.It is a fanatastic promo piece for Granite Bay but far more important, it is just a well done little text that summarizes a lot of what we discuss in between two covers.

[THuckaby2]

I believe Mark Parsinen built Granite Bay before he moved on to Kingsbarns fame.  I have yet to personally play the course, but from all accounts it is excellent.  It is located somewhat near Sacramento, California, USA. Private course open to the public on Mondays... some day I will get there.Tom Huckaby

[JohnV]

My father has recently moved within 5 or 10 miles of it so I hope to play it when I'm down that way sometime early next year and will report back.

[George P.]

Granite Bay was designed by Kyle Phillips while he was with the Robert Trent Jones II group prior to starting his own golf design firm in Granite Bay. According to Mark Leslie's article in Golf Course News Kingsbarns, St. Andrews is Kyle Phillips first solo design. He supposedly found the site while doing other work in the UK and introduced it to Mark Parsinen one of the developers of Granite Bay. From what I understand Mark Parsinen is not a designer or golf course architect but certainly has an eye for good golf properties.

[Eric Shortz]

Ran:As a Cal. kid with extensive experience with RTJ II, this is probably his best in the state -- the routing intricate, the bunkering the most artistic of anything I have seen from Junior, and with some rather exciting approach shots.More generally, this course is east of Sacramento in the footshills and studded with live oaks and on rolling terrain -- always beleived such a canvas is an excellent place to create an interesting course.