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Monterey Peninsula News
Could the California Coastal Commission be out of the golf course
ruination business?
By David
R. Holland, Senior Writer
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (Jan. 22, 2003) -- Anyone who has ever played Pebble
Beach Golf Links and enjoyed the awesome, rugged California coastline
must cringe every time they hear about the California Coastal Commission,
the agency empowered to regulate development along the state's 1,150-mile
coastline.
Thank God these folks weren't around to mess things up in 1919 when Pebble
Beach opened.
Ask any golf course architect about building a golf course in California
and they will tell you it is hard work just jumping through the environmental
hoops and dodging delays created by tree-hugging lawsuits.
But wait a minute -- a state court of appeals ruled in early January that
the California Coastal Commission is unconstitutional. Naturally, the 12
members of the commission immediately voted to appeal the ruling. More
red tape.
Stay tuned -- most likely the commission will weasel itself back into the
business of ruining golf course projects.
 It
has been 11 years that developers of Dos Pueblos Golf
Links, a Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore 18-hole design with
the final three holes on the Gaviota coast in Santa
Barbara County, have struggled with red tape and
other environmentalists. A lawsuit stopped the project,
wanting to protect red-legged frogs, monarch butterflies,
white-tailed kites and a rare herb.
For more than 50 years the Dos Pueblos Golf Links projected property site
functioned as an industrial oil and gas production facility. It was closed
off to the public by chain-link fences, locked gates and security patrols.
But this project wanted to provide golf, youth golf programs, increased
beach access and hiking trails as well as eliminating eyesores the oil
and gas folks left behind. Development was to include removal of those
industrial oil facilities and preservation of the natural habitat,
For now the project is dead, but they still have a website up and running
asking for support. Log on to www.dospueblosgolf.com.
San Simeon growth
The beautiful coastal area around Cambria where
publisher William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon is located
on 83,000 acres of the Hearst Ranch also felt the bite
of the California Coastal Commission.
Developers wanted a luxury golf resort with a 650-room hotel, but the final
plan was slashed to a few homesites and a possible Inn in Old San Simeon
Village. More than 850,000 tourists a year pass through here to visit The
Hearst Castle surrounded by the Santa Lucia Mountains.
GPS at Pebble Beach?
GolfLogix has signed an agreement with the Pebble Beach Company to install
the GPS-based xCaddie system at the historic Pebble Beach Golf Links. The
xCaddie system is a small hand-held device that gives golfers instant distance
to the green as well as green depth, distance to major hazards and pro
tips. Bet the real caddies love that announcement.
West Coast Swing
Tiger Woods can't make it, he's recovering from knee surgery, but Ernie
Els certainly looks like he's ready for golf in 2003, after he moved to
No. 2 in the world with his record-breaking 31-under-par victory in the
Mercedes Championship at Kapalua on
Maui.
The 2003 PGA
Tour West Coast Swing presented by The St. Paul company, awards a $1
million bonus to an individual player and supplements the purses of eight
West Coast events. The Mercedes was the first on the swing.
The West Coast Swing has nine tournaments ending the week of Feb. 24-March
2 with the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and
Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
Past winners include Chris DiMarco in 2002, Davis Love III in 2001, Tiger
Woods in 1999 and Phil
Mickelson in 1998.
Here's a capsule look at the California tournaments:
Jan. 27 - Feb. 2, Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, PGA West-Arnold Palmer Private
Course, La
Quinta, Bermuda Dunes, Indian Wells, La Quinta.
Feb. 3 - 9, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass
Hill, Poppy
Hills, Pebble Beach.
Feb. 10 - 16, Buick Invitational, Torrey
Pines Golf Course, South and North Courses, San Diego.
Feb. 17 - 23, Nissan Open, Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades.
Feb. 24 - March 2, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, La Costa Resort
and Spa, Carlsbad.
 Country
Club of Desert name change
The Hideaway, an equity-membership, 36-hole golf community in La Quinta,
is the new name for the Country Club of the Desert.
San Francisco-based Discovery Land Company acquired the project, which
occupies 600 acres in the heart of La Quinta. It includes two 18-hole courses
designed by Clive Clark and Pete Dye. Eighteen holes opened in November
2001, but these holes are being redone. The Hideaway is capping its membership
at 280 members per course, thus ensuring an intimate, low-density environment.
Memberships are priced at $75,000. Meldman's other projects include CordeValle
in San Martin, Calif., Estancia and
Mirabel in Scottsdale,
Ariz., Vaquero north
of Dallas,
Iron Horse in Whitefish, Mont., and Kukio Beach Club on the Big Island
of Hawaii.
 Ventura
Courses set for remodeling
Olivas Park and Buenaventura, two Ventura munys designed by architect,
William F. Bell, are scheduled for facelifts. Forrest Richardson of Phoenix
was hired for the job, which will include multi-million dollar improvements.
The 1932 Buenaventura layout will receive an overall facelift and upgrading.
Olivas Park will get an expansion of the driving range as well as extensive
remodeling of the course. Check out these golf courses at www.venturagolf.net.
 Riviera
Country Club's restoration
Riviera Country Club was aced out for the 2008 U.S. Open, which selected
the renovated Torrey Pines South Course, but Tom Fazio is putting a new
face on the famous LA layout, early home to movie stars and the elite of
Southern California.
Fazio is using aerial photos taken in 1927 to help restore Riviera to that
older look. George Thomas' original layout was blasted in 1939 by a storm
and flood, but the photos show the original features. Fazio will add length
to the course and enlarge some greens. Check out Riviera at www.rccla.com.
Wine lockers and golf -- Mayacama Golf Club
The Jack Nicklaus-designed private Mayacama Golf Club in Sonoma's wine
country is going to have a unique amenity to its $14-million clubhouse,
set to open this summer -- your own wine locker.
 No
other golf clubhouse in the world includes a 48-bottle
wine locker for each member. It is located in an underground
wine cave accessible via a grotto off the 18th green.
A knowledgeable staff will assist members in selecting
the perfect wine for any occasion.
Golfweek rates Mayacama Golf Club among the Top 100 modern courses in America,
and recently rated Mayacama the No. 2 golf course community in the west.
It is located in the heart of Sonoma County wine country, a short drive
from the Shiloh Road exit off Highway 101. It is a one-hour drive from
San Francisco, just south of Healdsburg, and only a few miles from Sonoma
County's jet-served airport in Santa Rosa.
Mountain View Country Club in La Quinta
Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay designed the new Mountain View Country Club in
La Quinta. A tentative opening of November 2003 has been set.
Mountain View Country Club is one of 38 courses designed or remodeled in
California by Palmer Course Design. The private golf course community will
include use of natural arroyos, elevation changes and water features.
Related Links
- California
course guide
- Pebble
Beach Golf Links guide
- The
Dunes at Maui Lani review
- California
golf course reviews |
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