DESERT GREENS
Desert Greens - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Desert Greens | |||||
| By: Andrew Marshall, Pictures By: Paul Marshall, Issue 30 – Autumn 2007 | |||||
| (California and Nevada, USA) | |||||
| ON A ROAD TRIP WITH A DIFFERENCE YOU CAN HIT THE TARMAC FROM LOS ANGELES TO LAS VEGAS IN SEARCH OF SOME OF THE BEST PLACES TO SWING A CLUB. THE TOUGHER THE ENVIRONMENT, IT SEEMS, THE MORE SPECTACULAR ARE THE GOLF COURSES BUILT IN IT. | |||||
| Road trips in the States don’t come more quintessential than Los Angeles to Las Vegas via Death Valley. All the classic imagery is there in abundance; film locations, rollerblading Californian blondes, lone roadside motels, highways stretching to infinity, buzzards circling cloudless skies and diner breakfasts. And for serious golfers, this is a true place of pilgrimage. From Trump National Golf Course at $264million (the most expensive golf course ever built), to the world’s lowest level golf course and some of the best desert layouts on the planet – the sheer quantity and variety of golf courses in California and Nevada is astonishing. After loading our clubs into our spacious Alamo SUV at LAX, my brother Paul and I cruise north along palmfringed Pacific Highway 1, passing through Santa Monica, Malibu and Ventura en route to the picturesque beachside town of Santa Barbara, dubbed the American Riviera thanks to its lowslung red-tiled roofs, white stucco buildings and gorgeous sunsets. Santa Barbara makes a good base for our first tee off at the Rancho San Marcus Golf Course, about a 30-minute scenic drive north-east up Highway 154. Set in a gorge in the Santa Ynez Mountains among century-old oaks on land where cattle once grazed the historic San Marcos Ranch, this heavily bunkered Robert Trent Jones Jr. course features slick putting surfaces, blind tee shots and two contrasting nines. The hole names – Eagle’s Nest, Old Headquarters, Stagecoach and Davy’s Stables – reflect the history of the ranch. | |||||
| ZEN GOLF | |||||
| From Santa Barbara we follow Highway 33 into the golden hills of the Los Padres National Forest and the Ojai Valley where we have an appointment at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa’s historic 1923 course designed by master golf architect George C. Thomas. Standing outside the Spanish Colonial-style clubhouse wearing a Zengolf baseball cap is Dr Joseph Parent, the author of best-selling book Zen Golf. With a PhD in psychology, a background in stress management, Buddhism and meditation, he’s amply qualified to instruct the mental side of the game. We ignore his topped drive with a rescue club, putting it down to first-tee nerves. “Zen Golf is the expression of insights I’ve developed through my teachings combined with the Buddhist state of mind,” says Dr Joe, as we stroll the course’s eucalyptus-lined fairways. “I sent out advance copies of the book to several pros and Vijay Singh really liked it. We worked intensively for a couple of years between 2002 and 2004, then Vijay won a handful of tournaments and didn’t need me anymore. What do you say to a guy like that, apart from keep up the good work?” Old wooden bridges lead over gurgling brooks, ancient oaks and sprawling pepper trees stand sentinel along fairways and greens as Dr Joe continues. “I basically teach golfers how to get the most out of their game that they have developed so far. During golf, the mind tends to wander into the past and future, its all about staying in the present,” he says. “Plus, the closer you get to the hole, the more the mental game kicks in.” | |||||
| DESERT DRIVE | |||||
| Saturday morning, and there's golf to be played at Pete Dye's Lost Canyons before the long desert drive to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park. Widely regarded as one of the best golf experiences in California, Lost Canyons features two distinctly different 18-hole, par-72 championship courses routed through canyons and along ridges in the pristine Santa Susana Mountains north of the Simi Valley. The course's renowned architect, Pete Dye, called the area “the best-suited and the most naturally-beautiful land that I have ever had the opportunity to design upon.” With its majestic terrain, The Sky Course features holes that meander across rolling hills, along dramatic ridgelines and the floor of a hidden valley. The Shadow Course follows Dry Creek Canyon and affords breathtaking views of White Face Mountain. Leaving Lost Canyons behind, we head north to Mojave along roads flanked by distinctive Joshua trees. When we reach the desolate outpost of Randsburg, low on gas, it’s like entering a Wild West movie set, with tumbleweed blowing down the main street. It’s late afternoon and the sun still beats down like a hammer on Highway 178. Heatwaves peel off the sweeping line of ashphalt that stretches forever towards distant snowcapped mountains and Death Valley shimmers far below in a haze. Death Valley is one of one of the hottest and lowest-level places on earth. As we near it, the names on our crumpled road map take on an ominous tone: Furnace Creek, Desolation Canyon, Starvation Point, Hell’s Gate and Stovepipe Wells. Death Valley National Park’s headquarters are situated within the welcoming oasis of Furnace Creek where a plantation of 1,800 date palms was planted in the 1920s, creating a scene that wouldn't look out of place in the African Sahara. From Furnace Creek's verdant 18-hole golf course, a network of well-maintained roads lead to the socalled Devils Golf Course, in reality a vast and surreal expanse of gnarled and jagged crystalline spires – not somewhere we or any other golfer with sense would think of teeing off. | |||||
| THE ROAD TO LAS VEGAS | |||||
| It's twilight along Highway 160 when the infamous Las Vegas Strip looms into view, four miles of pulsating neon signs and a surreal skyline made up of the Eiffel Tower, an Egyptian pyramid, a Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty and an exploding volcano. Love it, loathe it, or both, Vegas is cheesy, artificial and completely over the top. It’s changed direction and reinvented itself more times than David Bowie crossed with a chameleon, and each time it emerges with a better and classier product, becoming one of the world’s luxury resort destinations. Over the past ten years, the number of immaculately-conditioned golf courses within a two hour drive of the city has increased to more than 60 and many of these, such as Reflection Bay and the forthcoming Rainbow Canyon, are topflight tracks designed by some of the biggest names in golf including Nicklaus, Palmer, Dye and Fazio. The desert landscape has offered them an amazing canvas from which to create their works of art – swathes of emerald green fairways in a sea of red rock. Admittedly, golf doesn't come cheap here and you will be hard pressed to find green fees under $100, although there are some public access courses, too, including Bear’s Best, Bali Hai Golf Club, Primm Valley, Rio Secco, Paiute Golf Resort and Badlands. Seventeen miles from the Las Vegas strip, two great golf courses await: The Falls designed by Tom Weiskopf and the Golden Bear’s Reflection Bay. Our bagman at The Falls is Mike Schreck, one of 75 caddies who ensure every player’s round here is a memorable experience. The caddie program was unveiled in February and head pro Greg Brockelman has been happy with the response so far. “About 85 percent of players take a caddie and the guest comment cards have shown people really enjoy it” he says. The caddies are part psychologist (“It’s 185 yards to the pin, probably a smooth 5-iron the way you’re swinging”), part groundskeeper (“I’ll get that divot”), and part morale-booster (“You’ve nailed that shot”). After our tee shots on the first, Schreck, dressed in white overalls that make him look like a painter and decorator sprints down the fairway to our golf balls, faster than a cheetah on caffeine. Although the front nine is good, it’s the back nine where seeing is believing. The 12th, 13th and 14th holes could easily become one of the most talked about stretches of golf in ‘Glitter Gulch.’ The 553-yard par-5 12th ascends to the highest point on the back nine, via a blind second shot through a narrow pass. On the other side awaits a two-tiered green perched on the side of a cliff and one of the best views of downtown Las Vegas, especially at dusk with a sea of flickering lights in the background. At the 388-yard, par 4 13th, a drive from an elevated tee box has to find the left side of the fairway, otherwise you are looking at a behemoth rock outcrop that takes the green totally out of play. Weiskopf typically includes one drivable par-4 in his layouts, and the 336-yard par 4 14th plays the part in dramatic fashion. From the member tees, the green sits just 279 yards away from a tee box that is over150 feet above the fairway. After our encounter with the Falls, our golfing egos have taken a real beating, with more snowmen (8’s) to be found on our scorecards than in British back gardens on Christmas Day. There is still the inspiring Reflection Bay to look forward to, however. When it opened in 1998, it was the first public resort course in Nevada to be designed by the legendary Jack Nicklaus. Sculpted from the desert’s natural contours and surrounded by stunning lake and mountain vistas, highlights include five eye-candy holes that run along a mile and a half of shoreline. The following morning we find ourselves inside the office of Dream Car Rentals on the Strip, surveying the list of exotic vehicles for hire. We want to add a little ‘vintage’ to our US golf tour and plump for a 1959 Cadillac Convertible, whose specifications make interesting reading: length, football field; width, boat; engine,V8; horsepower,300; max speed, who cares?, 0-60, you’re kidding! We rumble onto the main drag. Even in 'anything goes' Vegas, the birthplace of bikini bull riding, the car still manages to attracts a fair bit of attention from pedestrians. Ah, this is the life – two high-handicap golfers in a fire-engine red convertible with fins, driving down the Strip towards eighteen glorious holes at one of the most amazing newcomers on the Nevada block Wolf Creek Golf Club. There are some overused words when it comes to describing a golf course – spectacular, dramatic and golf on a grand scale – which makes it difficult to describe Wolf Creek in an original way as it's all of these things and more. Set high above the desert floor among red-rock canyons, teeming waterfalls and glistening creeks, it looks as though strips of green velvet have been laid out on a lunar-landscape. There are precious few courses that can generate a genuine sense of awe for several holes at a stretch. Exceedingly rare is the layout which can sustain the feeling for an entire round; Wolf Creek Golf Club is such a place. Developer Doug Clemetson was determined to leave the distinctive natural landscape in place, accepting that a number of non-traditional golf holes would be the result. On the 2nd tee box, for example, 90 granite steps lead up to the driving area, which is located some 11 storeys high. The 215-yard par 3 3rd hole plays uphill to one of the highest points on the course with 70-mile views and the 5th is a short par-5 that makes a rather abrupt turn left through the rocks before heading up to the green. Another classic is the par 3 11th, an island in a sea of red rock and typical of Wolf Creek’s dazzling visual appeal. As we prepare to hit our drives from the elevated tee block of the17th hole, the sun casts long shadows across canyon walls, gullies and surreal dried-earth formations, which glow red, pink, and gold in the late afternoon light. Leaning on our drivers we take a moment to take in this classic desert scene – one that provides a fitting finale to our American golfing odyssey. | |||||
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