The Rose Factor - The Exquisite Grind |
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“Golf is deceptively simple, yet endlessly complicated.” – Arnold Palmer
It was a “buddy trip” if you like, two of the threesome (Rich, my most cherished friend and I) turning 50 and needing a little R&R and a celebration at making a half-Century still upright and healthy. Certainly not a welcome advance in age, but clearly better than the alternative. We all loved golf and since my roots are on the West Coast the only logical choice was Bandon Dunes, which is home to three of the top 100 courses n the U.S. The emergence of Chambers Bay as the site of the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open and now No. 6 on the top 100 list, made this particular trip a no brainer. Chambers Bay
I’m interested to see how the pros will fare on this course. With the Northwest weather in June coming into play, it might look more like The Open Championship than the U.S. Open, but with a little lengthening and maturing of the rough, it should provide quite a show. I’d also love to see Lefty laying his flop shot onto the green off of a 20-foot cliff, like I did on #6 – Deception Point. Just watching him climb the slope would be worth it. 
Pacific DunesThere’s much talk of Bandon Dunes, which is a wonderful, difficult course. (I have to admit that my day on Bandon Dunes was derailed by an indifferent, almost criminally poor caddy and a starter who rushed us after the turn, so maybe that biased my appraisal.) However, the true gem at the resort is Pacific Dunes. Pacific Dunes was our final outing, having followed Chambers Bay with rounds at Bandon Crossings (a wonderful low-priced course that is not part of the Bandon complex), Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails, each of which offered more than we could handle on every shot. Not just on tee shots or an occasional tricky putt, but literally every shot on every hole on each course offered such a puzzle and clear risk and reward that the mental energy required to stay in the hole was something I’d never experienced before. By the time we’d reached Pacific Dunes a new scoring system had been devised (in the hot tub after a round of gin and tonics as I remember), not based on par, which was unattainable and just downright ridiculous. 
With the difficulty of the greens, the bunkers behind
every poor shot and the often extreme elements, we decided that six was
the new four. The Starter at Pacific Dunes all but confirmed our new
system, stating that the caddies tell players to double their handicap
and add 1. That’s the over/under. Okay, so 108 is par for Pacific Dunes. We’d been watching the British Open before and after each round during the trip and we all agreed, our conditions were much harder. At least they could stop the ball on the green. My shots are still rolling as you read this. Let’s just say that I was 4-under “par” for the day. Did the scores really matter. Not really, although I’m happy to be back in the 80s since my return. At the end of the day, after we’d grilled some steaks, toasted the day’s events with a single malt scotch and taken a long soak in the hot tub, the scores were insignificant compared to the company and the experience. It really is about the journey. The Real PointThe real point of this article and really this trip is simple. Life is short. Play golf with people you love. Play golf with your son or daughter, not next weekend, but this weekend. Take a day off and go play with them. One of my most cherished golf moments was walking down the 1st fairway of the first real golf course that my son and I ever played (Northampton Valley CC). I know I got a little misty and I know he felt how special it was too, even at age 10. You can’t get these days back. You have to make hay while the sun shines; and the sun is soon to be in short supply.
If you normally play municipal or city courses near you, then treat
yourself to a special day at a one of the “upscale” course at one end
or the other of the Delaware Valley. If you typically play at the
upscale courses, go to one of the city courses in Philly or out to
beautiful Berks County or Lancaster, PA and see what you’ve been
missing. Go down the shore or up to Bucks County. Make a rota and visit
a new course in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania during
the next month. The main thing is, spend a day of golf with your
buddies or especially your children. Make hay… Golf Magazine’s Top Courses You Can PlayEach year Golf Magazine puts together a list of the top 100 courses in the U.S. that you and I can play, as well as the top-rated courses for each state. The following are the top 10 for the U.S. and the highest rated courses in the Delaware Valley from the September 2008 issue of Golf Magazine.
1. Pacific Dunes (Bandon, OR), The following golf courses that are currently or often featured in Golfer’s Guide made the Golf Magazine “Best Course You Can Play” in each state (Italics denotes that the course appears in this issue): White Clay Creek (Newark, DE), Bulle Rock (Havre de Grace, MD), Beechtree (Aberdeen, MD), Architects (Phillipsburg, NJ), Twisted Dunes (Egg Harbor Township, NJ), Sand Barrens (Swainton, NJ), Scotland Run (Williamstown, NJ), Blue Heron Pines (Cologne, NJ), Royce Brook (Hillsborough, NJ), Sea Oaks (Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ), Vineyards at Renault (Egg Harbor, NJ), Glen Mills (Glen Mills, PA), Wyncote (Oxford, PA), Center Valley (Center Valley, PA), Lederach (Harleysville, PA), Pilgrims Oak (Peach Bottom, PA), The Bridges (Abbotstown, PA). |
“It’s a 3-club wind, maybe 4,” Kurt said as his well struck 6-iron landed oefully short of the green. A 4-club wind? What the heck is that? Stunned for a moment, I turned to the overpriced yardage book. He was right, he shot that normally called for a smooth 9-iron hadn’t nearly reached its target, having been terminally wounded by the 35-mph gusts off the Pacific Ocean. I’d come to expect this, a new challenge to my Lake Woebegon average golf game. This was Pacific Dunes in Oregon’s Bandon Dunes complex, the top course in Golf Digests’ “100 You Can Play” and the fifth course in six days that started with Chambers Bay, near Seattle, Washington. Sandwiched between were some of the most beautiful and challenging courses that you’d ever want to play. At 50, I’d finally learned the true meaning of the term “grinding.”
Looking down from the clubhouse that overlooks a once
working gravel pit turned world class walking-only golf venue, the
course seemed to merge organically from the surroundings. The course
offers wide fairways, craggy bunkers on every side, vast waste areas
and small, hard and endlessly difficult greens. It could have been
Carnoustie except for the view of the Puget Sound, Olympic Mountains
and “the lone Fir,” the only tree on the course (and recent victim of
axe wielding vandals). With holes titled “Hazard’s Ascent,” “Derailed,”
“Beached” and “Cape Fear,” we knew we were in for a wild ride.
Chamber’s Bay is a wonderful test of golf, with no clear “line of
play”, but an endless number of strategies based on a player’s ability
and the weather conditions. The anticipation was high and the weather
picture perfect. Except for my near hole in one (See the Publishers
Page), my golf was less than my best.
