I played Harding Park on Friday 8/29. I had really looked forward to seeing it, being a Bay Area public course player I had always imagined what Harding might be with some TLC...
Well....
It is one hell of a tough course, as fine a "test of golf" as we have anywhere around here, public or private. Oh yeah, I'm not kidding about that... grow the rough a little more, narrow the fairways even further, use the black tees which seemed to me can stretch to app. 7300 yards, call it a par 70 (make 9 and 10 par 4s, easily done), then par will be protected there very well, thank you. As it was, from the 6825 yard blue tees, relatively light rough, and at a par of 72, the Old Man was not challenged by anyone in my group, yours truly included!
Conditions are a night and day improvement on what was there before, as expected. My it was nice to have actual fairways and be able to putt on greens.... The mandate to "restore" Harding was completed with fantastic success. It is one hell of a beautiful, challenging test of golf and people will love it.
All this being said, I did come away feeling sort of cold... The comments of Gyro and Neal M. do make great sense to me. There is just no "soul" there... Oh, as I say it is a wonderful test of golf - and what they did with 18 is very cool, moving the green back and left - that is one hell of a fine golf hole now - but outside of that, there is really nothing there to make me want to play it again, at least not often. Conditions truly aren't THAT great - though worlds better than they were before, fairways and greens are both pretty soft and pretty slow... I guess I just expected better, especially considering the high fee we paid (as non-SF residents)... And there really just isn't much there of any real strategical interest... Hit it hard, hit it straight, get rewarded; don't, get punished - severely. If you're into having your game tested, you'll love Harding - it will reveal faults. But if you want your MIND tested, well... There's not much strategic thought required.
I had only played Harding a few times over the years - mainly due to the horrid conditions previously - so I don't really know, perhaps the course was always this way.
I just can't help asking what more could have been done... why not move 10 green farther left, as 18 was? Why not put 13 green all the way back to the cliff edge, then shorten 14 a little? Why not add a central fairway bunker or two - any number of holes would be really neat with such... These are just obvious amateurish thoughts, but they did occur to me as I played... I know, that wasn't the mandate. But damn it now is really easy to wonder what might have been... Would this have caused prices to be even higher? If so, I can understand it...
Oh well. As I said way up above, nearly everyone who plays it will be ecstatic, just because it is so much nicer than before. The tree trimming makes it a bit more playable also, which is appreciated. The Tour won't tear it up, not at 7300 par 70 which is what they ought to do....
I know this is all very vague, my apologies, I just can't really pinpoint what I found missing, other than the "lack of soul"...
TH