For anyone who thinks that great golf course architecture is found only at old, stuffy private clubs, the 2010 Golfweek’s Best lists should be an eye-opener… Link to rest of article.
Golf Week’s Best Classic Courses Before 1960
54. California Golf Club 7.25
(60, p) South San Francisco, Calif.
1926, Vernon Macan; Alister MacKenzie (1928); Kyle Philips (2007)
Golf Week
March 2010
Brad Klein
2009 Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses
THE CLASSICS before 1960
60. California Golf Club 7.11
(NR; p) South San Francisco, Calif.
1926, Vernon Macan; Alister MacKenzie, Kyle Philips (2007)
http://top100.golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest/article.asp?ID=1608
…The runaway winner of “Comeback of the Year” is California Golf Club in South San Francisco, Calif., which appears as No. 60 on the Classic after a yearlong shutdown and massive restoration/renovation project. Bay Area golf aficionados always had
respected the 1926 Vernon Macan design, especially after it was treated to highly-stylized bunkering by Alister MacKenzie. But the course suffered a clumsy partial rerouting in the mid-1960s.
California GC enjoyed the national rating limelight for one brief stint at No. 92 in 2003, and then fell off the Classic list as tree problems, a nematode infestation and poor drainage took their toll.
Starting in August 2007, architect Kyle Phillips, working closely with
course superintendent Thomas Bastis, undertook a gutsy project: five retro
holes created, the practice range moved, two clumsy ponds filled in, 450 yards added and the old fairway widths and bunkering restored. Along the way they also dealt with eucalyptus and pine trees that had overgrown the grounds.
The boldest move was utilizing a virtually abandoned l7-acre dump site on a hill overlooking the bulk of the course and using it for California GC’s seventh hole, a
stunning, wrap-around 402-yard par 4 where the fairway clings to the edge.
Golfweek
Bradley S. Klein
www.golfweek.com
As one of the Bay Area’s oldest and most respected private clubs, California Golf Club of San Francisco reopened to its members this summer in grand fashion. The first event at the newly renovated course was highlighted with a 6-hole exhibition by PGA Tour player Arron Oberholser and former U.S. Open Champion Ken Venturi hitting the ceremonial first ball.
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