Goodbye, Shinnecock; Hello, Pebble Beach

The last putt dropped in the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills about 30 minutes before I started typing this story, and it had been a day. Wyndham Clark, the 2024 U.S. Open champion at Los Angeles Country Club, notched up a wire-to-wire win last Sunday that nevertheless provided plenty of drama in the final round.

I’ll admit, I was nodding off on my sofa mid-round on Saturday, but Sunday’s final round kept me interested. And while Clark is not my favorite player on the circuit, he opened the tournament with a blistering six-under 64 and gutted out a win despite carding a three-over 73 in the final. Chasing down a six-shot lead going into the final round is a tall order, and neither World #1 Scottie Scheffler nor (eventual) repeat U.S. Open runner-up Sam Burns – who turned in a challenging 3-under 67 (after heartbreaking missed birdie putts on 17 and 18) – were ultimately able to take Clark down.

But enough about history; I’m here to talk about the future, and the future of the U.S. Open (at least in 2027) is Pebble Beach.

The ninth hole at Pebble Beach affords the golfer a sweeping view along Carmel Beach. (Image by author)

I am an unrepentant aficionado of Pebble Beach Golf Links. As a kid in nearby Salinas, I grew up watching the Crosby Clambake on TV despite the fact that I didn’t play golf, and didn’t even know anyone who did until I was 13 or 14 years old. I was privileged to cover the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in person eleven years in a row, as well as the Champions Tour event that has been held at Pebble under different names, with different title sponsors; and I had a seat in the media center there for the 2019 U.S. Open.

My first thought on the Open returning to Pebble Beach after its turn at Shinnecock is relief; relief that we will once again be seeing the best in the world playing for the prize at a course that doesn’t look like a desolate moonscape, especially after four days of tournament galleries flattening dead-straw pathways between the fairways; that we will be seeing the U.S. Open played at a course with trees; a course with scenery.

The California coast from the Monterey Peninsula southward to Morro Bay is a majestic sweep of crashing waves washing rocky beaches that lie at the feet of the rugged slopes of the Coast Range mountains, and Carmel Bay – where the Pebble Beach property hugs the coastline – is arguably the jewel of the region.

Of course scenery isn’t the only story – despite the jibes of naysayers who say the inland holes are pedestrian and uninteresting, and that only the ocean holes have anything to offer (1), Pebble Beach is so revered by the USGA that in 2022 it was selected as the third “anchor site” for the U.S. Open, joining Pine Valley and Oakmont in that honor.

Pebble Beach has the distinction of being the first public course to host the U.S. Open (in 1972), when it further cemented its place in U.S. Open history with Jack Nicklaus’ famous off-the-flagstick 1-iron at the par-3 17th hole. Ten years later Tom Watson produced another memorable moment at the 17th hole when, lying 4-under after a bogey at 16, and with Jack Nicklaus already in the clubhouse at 4-under, he chipped in from deep rough left of the green at 17 and followed it up with another birdie at 18 to nip the Golden Bear for the win.

Perhaps most notable of all U.S Opens at Pebble Beach was the 2000 tournament, the fourth of Pebble’s eventual six (to date), when 24-year-old Tiger Woods, at the height of his powers, dominated the field, winning by an unheard-of fifteen strokes.

With its pedigree of six U.S. Opens (with four more to come in the next twenty years), five U.S. Amateurs, and other championships (PGA Championship – 1977; U.S. Women’s Amateur – 1948; and U.S. Women’s Open – 2023, with three more to come), Pebble Beach Golf Links is deserving of its place as a star in the firmament of championship golf, and golf fans the world over should be excited for every opportunity to see the best and brightest contend across this storied landscape.

1 (Most of then have never played the course, or in some cases, I’ll wager, even set foot on the property.)

“Tin Cup” is the best golf movie ever made, and I will brook no argument

The eve of the 2026 United States Open, is, I think, a good time to talk about a movie that I consider to be the best golf movie ever made: the 1996 film Tin Cup. Directed by Ron Shelton, starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo, co-starring Cheech Marin and Don Johnson, with a host of delightful supporting actors, and featuring cameo appearances by pro golfers as well as broadcasters and journalists of the era.

Having been somewhat absent from the game for a while now – I haven’t played or written about it since late March – I wanted to get into the mood for golf as I prepare to immerse myself in the coverage of my favorite golf championship, the U.S. Open. With that goal in mind, I went to the “Golf” section of my movie collection and pulled out my blu-ray copy of Tin Cup.

Tin Cup is an obvious choice for this exercise, of course, because its hero’s journey storyline involves the title character’s pursuit of a spot in the field at the U.S. Open, coming to a climax during the final round of a fictional U.S. Open – but it earns the #1 spot in my list all-time favorite golf movies for a variety of reasons:

1) Writing – Tin Cup has snappy dialog, and an underdog storyline that hits all the right notes without descending into cliché: Former college golf star Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy (Kevin Costner) languishes at a run-down driving range on the outskirts of the small West Texas town of Salome, while his rival from college golf days, David Simms (Don Johnson) lives the high life playing the PGA tour. When Simms’s girlfriend, psychologist Dr. Molly Griswold (Rene Russo), signs up for lessons at the driving range, McAvoy is smitten with her.

The undercurrent of envy at his former rival’s success, both in life and in love, is softened by Roy’s determination to become a better man, a successful man, in order to be worthy of the woman he has fallen in love with, and his road to redemption is the pursuit of the highest goal in American golf – the U.S. Open Championship.

2) Cast – Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, and Don Johnson are the big names in this production, but the supporting cast features actors whom most people will recognize, if perhaps not be able to put names to. Rex Linn, Dennis Burkley, Lou Myers, Linda Hart, Richard Lineback and Mickey Jones – among other – are veteran character actors who flesh out the roster in this film as more than just background faces, and their talents are invaluable contributions to the film’s success.

3) Performances – Kevin Costner shines in the role of Roy McAvoy, a man who has lingered for years in the shadow of his more successful rival, David Simms. McAvoy’s skill on the golf course is underlaid by a deep-seated lack of self-confidence, which he hides behind a bravado public front. He has a high standard when it comes to doing a difficult thing well, which is a key point in the storyline, in contrast to his rival David Simms’s shallow success that has been achieved by doing well enough, but never taking the bold stroke that would raise him to higher heights(1).

Don Johnson is suitable smarmy as David Simms, the flashy, successful, high-living counterpoint to Roy McAvoy’s down-at-heels driving-range pro. Johnson does a great job portraying Simms’s ruthless guile, in contrast to the naiveté that sometimes peeks through with McAvoy (see the scene featuring the 7-iron bet after the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying tournament), as well as his safely cautious approach to golf, which though successful in terms of fame and fortune, displays a certain lack of guts.

Rene Russo, as Dr. Molly Griswold, is delightful as Roy McAvoy’s (at first unattainable) love interest, and muse. Taken on by McAvoy as a guide and counselor to help him overcome the “inner demons” that have prevented him from realizing his potential as a golfer, Russo guides the character through her own journey as she comes to see David Simms for the shallow and unlikable man that he is, and cleaves to the imperfect but striving and growing Roy McAvoy.

Cheech Marin is Romeo Posar, a character who is something of a Sancho Panza to McAvoy’s underachieving Don Quixote. The comedian and veteran actor is a mainstay in the film as the long-suffering business partner, supporter, and caddy of the capricious “Tin Cup” McAvoy. The qualities that Marin brings to the role are as important to the story as any performance in the film.

In the supporting cast, Linda Hart plays Roy’s ex-girlfriend Doreen, a former stripper who owns a strip club in town. She is an earthy (and down-to-earth) counterpoint to Rene Russo’s somewhat flighty Dr. Molly Griswold. The scenes during the U.S. Open when these two very different women bond over their connection with Roy McAvoy are pure gold.

Roy’s backup crew of malingering golf bums are well played by veteran character actors Rex Linn, Dennis Burkley, Lou Myers, Richard Lineback, and Mickey Jones, among others. They are a motley crew, characters of the sort that any longtime muni golfer will recognize from weekends and summer evenings at the course.

4) Setting – A large part of the appeal of this movie for me is the setting. Though I have visited Texas only briefly, I have a family connection to the state, and more to the point, the beginning of my involvement with the game of golf was spurred by reading the classic Dan Jenkins golf novel Dead Solid Perfect. The storyline of Tin Cup is reminiscent of Jenkins’s golf novels, and the motley bunch that hang out at Roy McAvoy’s driving range in the movie would be right at home in Dan’s story The Glory Game, in the collection The Dogged Victims of Inexorable Fate.

With the many champions and famous names in the world of golf that have hailed from Texas; names such as Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Harvey Penick, Ben Crenshaw, and Tom Kite; the state seems like a natural setting for a story that explores the highs and lows, and deep and shallow aspects of the game.

5) Extras – By “extras” I don’t mean just the nameless folks who inhabit the background in various scenes in a movie. A large part of the fun of this film, at least for golfers of a certain age (the movie is 30 years old, after all) is spotting the bevy of pro golfers, golf journalists and broadcasters, and even TV production folks who show up onscreen.

• Craig “The Walrus” Stadler is David Simms’s playing partner in the charity tournament early in the film, and a very young Phil Mickelson is also in the foursome. Peter Jacobsen, Corey Pavin, Lee Janzen, Steve Elkington, Johnny Miller, and Fred Couples – among others – appear in the scenes depicting the U.S. Open.

• Jim Nantz and Ken Venturi play themselves as the 18th-tower announcers calling the U.S. Open; Ben Wright and Brian Hammond appear as color commentators at the U.S. Open and Simms’s charity event, respectively.

• Peter Kostis is the on-course commentator at the charity tournament, and Gary McCord is doing the same in the U.S. Open segment.

• Well-known sports commentator Jimmy Roberts shows up as a reporter querying Roy McAvoy in the press center after the first round of the U.S. Open, and real-life (then-)CBS producer Frank Chirkinian and director Lance Barrow appear in the production trailer as disbelieving witnesses to McAvoy’s 18th-hole meltdown.

The Lowdown

I have heard golfers complain about various golf movies for years, usually nitpicking the swings of the actors portraying the golfers, or sometimes the equipment being used by the actors (2). I am no swing analyst myself; to my eye Costner and Johnson did alright in their portrayals of pro golfers – and an exactingly correct golf swing can only carry a movie so far. The 2015 movie The Squeeze was lauded by some notable names at the time for the purity and correctness of the golf swing of the lead actor, Jeremy Sumpter – who was indeed a talented low-handicap golfer.

The fact that those names, which included Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Phil Mickelson, were all financial backers of the film, did not escape me at the time; the fact that the movie suffered from a hackneyed storyline and terrible performances did escape them. I haven’t found any information on budget and takings for this schlock-fest, but I do know that it failed miserably at the box office.

Look, I love Caddyshack, and I have enjoyed many other very well-made golf movies such as The Greatest Game Ever Played, Tommy’s Honour, and The Legend of Bagger Vance. Caddyshack is a class-comedy that is played out in a golf setting; The Legend of Bagger Vance is a metaphorical fantasy centered on golf as a restorative for a soul injured by the horrors of war. In contrast, The Greatest Game Ever Played and Tommy’s Honour are historical dramas about important people and events in golf’s past – as such they are more about golf than the previous two (especially Caddyshack).

But Tin Cup, is a more human, more relatable story about the love of the game, the fun and frustrations of the game, and the striving for, if not perfection, at least the improvement that we seek in playing the game of golf. The movies mentioned above, and others, all have something to offer (3), but none of them can touch Tin Cup for story, humor, setting, nuance (real PGA Tour golfers!) – and especially appropriateness as we await the opening shots of the 126th U.S. Open.

1 –  (This aspect of the story has echoes in the real world of professional golf, where more than one player on the PGA Tour has become a multi-millionaire without a win on Tour to their credit. Case in point: Bud Cauley, whose recent win at the RBC Canadian Open bumped him off of the list of players who have won $10 million or more without ever having won a tournament.)

2 –  (Years ago I saw a post on social media by a person who said that The Greatest Game Ever Played was ruined for him because the clubs that they were shown using were of a style that was a decade too new for the time (1913) in which the events occurred. That is what I call picking the flyshit out of the pepper.)

3 –  (Except for The Squeeze – it’s awful..)

Wire-to-wire: Hyo Joo Kim brings home the ultimate win at 2026 LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup

“Wire-to-wire” – the phrase denotes the ultimate victory, in which a competitor takes the lead from the starting gun and never relinquishes it, leading the field from start to finish. A wire-to-wire win is what Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim was chasing in Sunday’s final round of the LPGA’s Fortinet Founders Cup tournament – and it’s what she ultimately got, but not without a fight.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim went wire-to-wire to win the 2026 LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup tournament at Sharon Heights G&CC in Menlo Park, California (photo credit: LPGA, Getty)

Kim served notice on the 144-player field on Day 1 when she opened with a 9-under 63 on the par-72 Sharon Heights course. Only a handful of players were within five or even six shots of her first-round tally, and though she fell off of her pace slightly on Friday with a two-under 70, her third-round 66 kept her firmly in control of the lead going into the final round.

It wasn’t as if she went unchallenged, though. Current World No. 2 Nelly Korda stepped up her game in even 2-stroke increments over the first three days of the event, carding rounds of 70-68-66–204 on her way to solo second at the end of the third round, five strokes back of Kim’s 17-under 199.

It is in the normal order of things in a golf tournament for players to move up and fall back through the opening rounds, with everyone working to put themselves into position to either be defending a lead, or challenging for a lead, on Sunday. At this level, rounds in the mid- to high-60s are common, and to be in contention for the win on Sunday certainly three rounds of par or better is almost a iron-clad requirement.

Of the top 13 players coming into the final round today, none had carded a round lower than par, and the majority of their rounds were in the range from 68 to 70.

Kim’s first-round 63 was boosted by a remarkable 22 putts, the lowest total of the round and the tournament overall through three rounds – an impressive feat anywhere, but especially on the remarkably subtle (if not downright devious…) greens at Sharon Heights.

Several players had been making moves before Kim and Korda stepped onto the first tee box, but all of those moves were background noise to the main attraction: World # 2 Nelly Korda chasing down H.J. Kim and her five-stroke lead.

Korda slipped a bit with a bogey on the par-4 second hole, but followed it up with birdies on five of the next seven holes, making the turn in 32 and closing to within a stroke of Kim, who could manage no better than an even-par 36 with offsetting pairs of bogeys (holes 2 and 8) and birdies (holes 6 and 7.)

After the turn, Korda tied it up with a birdie on the 10th hole to Kim’s par, but the Korean got the lead back with a birdie at 11 after Korda made a clutch par putt after wedging it close from the front-right greenside bunker.

It was a seesaw battle over the remainder of the back nine, but Korda seemed to have lost the edge that had allowed her to make up a five-stroke deficit earlier in the round. The most crucial moments were her missed birdie putt on 16 after Kim left her par putt well short and pulled a shortie for par, and then a weak birdie-putt effort on 17 which fell well short, followed by a spectacularly poor par putt that slid by on the right.

At the final hole both players took on the right-side fairway bunker on the scenic uphill par-five, and both fell short, in the sand. Korda had better position, further back and away from the lip, so was able to advance her second shot farther, and had a wedge into the final green, while Kim, at 194 yards out, pulled a 4-hybrid for her approach.

Kim found sand again with her third shot, this time in a left-side greenside bunker – her first greenside bunker of the tournament – and then fired a nicely played wedge shot, relatively low and running, to about six feet past the hole.

Korda, in the meantime, even with a wedge in her hands from less than 100 yards, flew her approach well past the hole and didn’t get the roll-back that she was hoping for. When she failed to make the 30-odd foot birdie putt she effectively handed the win to Kim, who had two putts to win – and took them.

It was a valiant effort by World #2 Nelly Korda, and an edge-of-the-seat back nine for her fans – an exciting finish for this event’s first outing at a new venue. Word around the clubhouse is that the Founders Cup will be back at Sharon Heights G&CC for at least the next two years, which will be a treat for Bay Area golf fans who are already missing the now-defunct PGA Tour event at Silverado Country Club & Resort that we have enjoyed for the past several years.

Also on the schedule for the Bay Area is the Hanwha World Crown team event, which will pit eight teams from individual nations against each other in fourball, foursome, and singles matches. It was last held in the area in 2023 at TPC Harding Park; it will return in 2027 to be played at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club, the erstwhile home of the Swinging Skirts and then Mediheal LPGA events, 2014-2017/2018-2021.

Thursday & Friday are about a chance; Saturday & Sunday are about a paycheck

Every day at a professional golf tournament has its basis in drama: Thursday and Friday are about making the cut and getting to the weekend to earn a paycheck; once you have cleared that hurdle on Saturday and Sunday it’s all about how big that paycheck will be.

Because make no mistake, professional golfers play the game for the money. Sure, there’s a lot of talk about “the love of the game” and all that – but let’s face it, despite the pressure, the stress, and the uncertainty of life as a professional athlete, getting paid to play golf beats the hell out of selling life insurance, arranging home loans, driving a delivery truck, or doing any of a thousand other mundane jobs that the majority of people do to make their monthly nut.

A few years ago a friend of mine who was retired from a career as a professional golfer interviewed for a position at a golf-related business. When they asked what other job experience she had she paused, and then replied, “ None – all I’ve ever done is play golf.” How many of us wish that we could say the same thing – but how many of us are prepared to deal with the type of pressure that this profession entails?

During his retirement celebration years ago, Joe Montana, a San Francisco 49ers football legend and one of the professional athletes I most admire, was asked by a local newscaster what he felt that his football career had meant to his fans in the Bay Area. His reply: “Entertainment.”

Despite the fact that they play a game for a living, and are essentially entertainers, life as a professional golfer can be a stressful, pressure-packed way to make a living. There is no life-or-death component to it, as there is for medical professionals or public safety professionals, for example, but it is your livelihood, and your success is directly tied to your day-to-day performance in a way that isn’t found in many other professions.

Just ask Albane Valenzuela, the Swiss national and Stanford Women’s golf alumna. She saw her chance at a paycheck this week at the LPGA’s Founders Cup tournament slip away Friday afternoon as two double-bogeys and a pair of bogeys in her final nine holes dropped her from a somewhat precarious position a stroke or two above the even-par cut line to absolutely out of contention at five over par.

Or ask this tournament’s defending champion, Bay Area native Yealimi Noh, who saw her chances of defending her title effectively quashed even earlier, on Thursday, when a terrible run of bogeys and double-bogeys on her back nine dropped her from even-par to seven over, a deficit that she was unable to recover from as she struggled to a two-over 74 in her second round.

In some ways the weekend rounds might entail less pressure than Thursday and Friday rounds, because a paycheck of some kind is assured, but then both pride of accomplishment, and the desire (and/or need) to maximize income come into play. There’s definitely a different vibe around the course on the weekend than on Thursday and Friday, but it is all part of the attraction of the game, the larger dynamic that brings back fans – and golf writers – week after week.

A psycho scorecard and the cut-line dance: Friday at the Founders Cup

When spring rolled in this morning at 7:46 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, three groups of golfers had already teed off from both the 1st and 10th tee boxes at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club. It’s Friday, sometimes referred to as “moving day” – the day in a golf tournament when things get real, and the cut line on the scoreboard is watched with eagle eyes by players, caddies, friends, family, and fans.

If a player had a good day on Thursday, they want to keep it going; if not, they are grittily determined to step up their game and improve their position and climb higher in the standings – especially if their name is sitting below that dreaded line at tee time.

The Cut-line Dance/Moving Day

When play opened this morning six players with Bay Area connections were at or above the cut line: Minjee Lee (winner of the 2012 USGA Girls’ Junior Amateur at Lake Merced Golf Club) at -4; Stanford alumna Aline Krauter at -2; Lydia Ko (part-time SF resident and 3-time winner of the former LPGA event at Lake Merced) and Stanford alumnae Albane Valenzuela and Rose Zhang at -1; Lucy Li of Redwood Shores and Natasha Oon (LPGA rookie and San Jose State alumna) at even par.

After sitting at even par all morning, in the early afternoon the cut line moved to 1-under, dropping Bay Area native Lucy Li and a slipping Aline Krauter from the weekend field, and putting Lydia Ko in a precarious position. An hour or so later the cut line was back to even par; this is the cut-line dance that drives players – and golf writers who are pre-positioning their stories – crazy.

By the end of the day, though, things had changed a bit, and not everyone went home happy.

Minjee Lee balanced six birdies, including a run of four on holes 14 through 16, against four bogeys to card a two-under 70 for a solid T-3 finish on the day.

Natasha Oon posted a psycho scorecard with one double-bogey, five bogeys, seven birdies, and an eagle (that’s right – only four pars) for a two-under 70, moving up 30 spots to T-30 and a chance to play for a paycheck in her first round as an LPGA rookie.

Lucy Li, Lydia Ko, Rose Zhang, and Aline Krauter hung on just above the cut line at even par to survive to play the weekend, while Albane Valenzuela faded in the home stretch – after an even-par 36 going out (two birdies, two bogeys), she came home in 42 with two bogeys and two doubles to fall below the cut line.

Sadly, Concord native Yealimi Noh, the 2018 U.S. Girls Jr Amateur champion at Poppy Hills and the defending champion in this event, suffered a meltdown on the back nine yesterday and finished the first round at 7-over. That scoring hill proved to be a more difficult climb for her than the physical hills on the course – Noh would eventually close out her 36-hole run at a trunk-slamming (1) nine-over, well below the final cut line.

And, as if to justify the “moving day” moniker for the Friday round, here are some big positive moves that were recorded today:

• Jeeno Thitikul and Aditi Ashok each moved up 57 spots to join Nelly Korda and Karis Davidson (25 spots) in the T-3 logjam with Minjee Lee and three other players.

• Miyu Yamashita moved up 49 places on the leaderboard to T-11 (5-under.)

• Germany’s Helen Briem posted the second-best round of the day, a 5-under 67 (an eight-stroke improvement on her first-round 75), to jump a nose-bleeding 79 spots from below the cut line to T-30 and a spot in the field for the weekend.

With more comfortable temperatures in the mid- to high-70s forecast for the weekend it’s reasonable to predict a continued high level of play along the lines of what was seen today – which should be a treat for fans on course and watching from home.

1 (For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, “trunk-slamming” is a somewhat outdated reference to the move of the player who has missed the cut and can be found in the parking lot tossing their golf bag into the trunk of their car for the drive to the airport or the next event.)

First round at a new venue for the LPGA Founders Cup

The first competitive round on a new course is a unique experience, even for seasoned professional golfers, and today, on the first day of competition at the 2026 LPGA Founders Cup at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park, the ladies of the LPGA got their first taste of this classic Jack Fleming layout for real.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim leads after the first round of the
2026 LPGA Founders Cup with a 9-under 63 (Photo Credit LPGA/Getty)

Elevation changes are the name of the game on this 6,542-yard layout. Tucked into a hilly pocket of the Sharon Heights neighborhood in tony Menlo Park, CA, just up the road from the densest concentration of venture capital firms in the world, the course sits on 130 or so acres wrapped around two pockets of prime Bay Area residential property. If they gave names to the holes on this course the 407-yard par-4 first hole could easily be tagged “Black Diamond” for the 90-foot drop from tee to green; the 535-yard 10th hole has a maximum drop of 76 feet, with a long stretch of 25% slope mid-fairway, and similar profiles are found on the parallel sixth and 16th holes.

Bottom line: this course is a tough walk, and the caddies are really going to be earning their wages this week. On the plus side, the 18th hole, with a net rise of a little more than 60 feet over its 473-yard length, provides a sweeping end-of-round view as it rises back up to the upper level of the property, backdropped by the handsome Sharon Heights G&CC club house.

Weather – its always about the weather

As an outdoor game, golf is always affected by the weather. A month ago there was snow on the Bay Area hills as low as 1200 feet above sea level; now, in the final three days of the winter of 2025–2026 the San Francisco Bay Area, along with most of the western United States, is experiencing a record-setting heat wave. This week temps in the area hit the low to mid 90s, with 86ºF to 88ºF highs here at the course.

Early rounds today, with temperatures in the low 70s, saw seven players go out with scores of from five to three under par on both the front and back sides – but don’t think that this course is a pushover; scores as high as +7 were out there, too. As the day wore on the mercury rose, peaking at 88ºF around the time the TV coverage window opened at 3:00 PM.

Bay Area favorite has a rough day

Defending champion and Bay Area native Yealimi Noh, playing with current world #2 Nelly Korda and Japan’s Chisota Iwai, started her round at 12:48 p.m., teeing off at #1 just as the heat was tipping up into the low 80s. It was tolerable in the shade and when the occasional light breeze would waft by, but by the time the group got to the 9th green – a climb of 70+ feet with a long stretch of 10–12% grade – the temperature was 88ºF. The front nine here at Sharon Heights encompasses the greatest change in elevation on the course; the low point, in the 5th fairway about 100 yards short of the green, is 130 feet lower than the first tee.

Noh had her share of minor issues on the front nine, but was able to scramble her way out trouble – a tough lie in wood-chip landscaping short and right of the 5th green, and a deep lie in the rough left of the 7th fairway – to put together a clean-card front nine 36. She then opened her back nine with a birdie 4 on the 535-yard par-5 10th hole, a drop-away dogleg-right that turns hard about 230 yards from the tee, challenging players to hit a late-turning fade to catch the slope and run, bringing the possibility of a wedge or short-iron approach – and eagle – into play.

Unfortunately for Noh’s chances for a repeat victory, the birdie on #10 and a closing birdie on #18 bookended a string of three double-bogeys and a bogey on holes 12 through 15 and another bogey on 17, resulting in a final score of seven-over 79 which dropped her dozens of places down the leaderboard to a T140 finish for the first round. It will be a tough nut for the defending champion to crack to climb out of this hole and make it to the weekend.

**********************

Among other players with connections to, or history in, the Bay Area, only Minjee Lee, who won the 2012 USGA Girls’ Junior Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club, and six years later battled Lydia Ko down the stretch in the Mediheal Championship on the same course (only to lose by a shot), made a strong showing, finishing the day today T8 with a 4-under 68.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim came out of the mix as the first-round leader, cementing her final-round 9-under 63 with a scorching birdie-eagle finish on holes 17 & 18. Dongeun Lee, also of Korea, tied down second place with a 7-under 65, and Polly Mack, a native of Berlin, Germany who played college golf at UNLV and Alabama, finished the day tied for third with Korea’s Jin Hee Im at 6-under.

In the final analysis, heat may have been a factor in the scoring today, as seven of the top 11 at the end of the day were players who started in the morning wave. Whether it was player fatigue from the heat or a change in conditions as the turf dried due to heat and low humidity there isn’t enough information to determine, but it will be worth watching the stats tomorrow, when the start times are switched, to see how this effect plays out.

The good news is that temperatures are forecast to be 10 to 12 degrees lower on the weekend for the players who survive these two first hot days to make the cut.

Wednesday at the 2026 Fortinet Founders Cup

Wednesdays at a professional golf tournament are not something that the fans usually experience. Before the applause and cheers of the competition rounds there is a buzz of activity and lots of quiet hustle and bustle. Players and caddies are arriving; if there is a pro-am event (an important networking and fund-raising activity, especially for smaller tournaments) there will be amateur players, local celebrities or business people, arriving for that – it’s a subtle, humming beehive of low-key activity, a prelude to the real thing.

Even after 14 years of attending a wide range of these events – from U.S. Men’s and Women’s Opens to USGA Junior Amateur championships, it’s always interesting to me to see the practiced, professional way that the people behind the event go about their business. Everything from course care and set up to catering, and everything in between: parking, hospitality, media infrastructure – it is a huge logistical undertaking. All of this activity is in support of a field of 144 players vying for a spot in the Top-65-and-ties field that plays the weekend for a paycheck, and the fans who come to watch them vie against the course and each other.

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This tournament has a special spirit, honoring as it does the thirteen original founders of the LPGA, the pioneering women who started it all in 1950, barnstorming across the country in their own cars, hustling up sponsors and venues, sometimes playing for prizes of canned goods and household items – a far cry from the cash purses of the current tour. Though worlds removed from the purses on the PGA Tour, the modern LPGA Tour has come a long way from the days of car caravans and playing for canned goods. In a quick press conference this morning after her nine-hole appearance in today’s pro-am event, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, when asked to comment on the meaning of the event and its recognition of the founders, said, “It’s our duty to carry the Founders’ spirit”, and characterized event honorees Meg Mallon and Juli Inkster as the “cool aunts” of the current generation of LPGA players. It is a special feeling that is unique in professional golf – the sense of gratitude and recognition that pervades the LPGA’s organization and membership.

The venue for this event, Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park, is an attraction, too. Tucked away in the angle formed by I-280 and Sand Hill Road in the lower Peninsula, this private club and its hilly, circuitous golf course will be a new experience for the players, and is likely to be unfamiliar to the majority of the fans that come out to watch the event, too.

The course at Sharon Heights was designed in 1962 by well-known Bay Area/NorCal architect Jack Fleming*, a protégé of Alister MacKenzie. Extensive renovations in 2023, carried out by architect Todd Eckenrode and Origins Golf Design, removed hundreds of non-native trees, but the course still features MacKenzie-style bunkers, sweeping fairways with an abundance of challenging lies, and 18 subtly devious greens. The next four days will be a great test of the skill and endurance of the players in the field, and a testament to the enduring spirit of gratitude and recognition that the Founders Cup embodies.

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*(For more info on the Fleming family and their Northern California golf legacy, see https://blog.ncga.org/all-in-the-family

LPGA returns to the Bay Area March 19–22 with tournament honoring Tour founders

The LPGA is returning to the Bay Area March 19–22, after an absence of five years with The Founders Cup, a tournament honoring the 13 founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

The 15th edition of this tournament, which is second only to the five majors on the LPGA schedule, has a new sponsor—Sunnyvale-based Fortinet, a leading cybersecurity firm, and a new venue—Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club, in Menlo Park.

Bay Area golf fans have been lacking the spark of the distaff tour since 2021, the last year that the Mediheal LPGA Championship was played at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City. Not only is ladies’ professional golf returning to the area, but a bevy of players with Bay Area connections will be in the field, including Concord native Yealimi Noh, the defending champion in this event.

Noh notched her first win on the LPGA Tour at the 2025 edition of The Founders Cup at Bradenton Country Club in Bradenton, Florida. Bay Area fans may remember her as the winner of the 2018 USGA Girls’ Jr Amateur Championship at Poppy Hills, the home of the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA), in the Del Monte Forest near famed Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Other players in the field who have Bay Area links include Lucy Li, of Redwood Shores, San Jose State standout Natasha Andrea Oon, who is making her first appearance as an LPGA member in this event, and Stanford alumnae Aline Krauter, Albane Valenzuela, and Rose Zhang.

Li came to national attention in 2014 as the youngest player, at age 11, to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2023, Lucy has notched six career Top 10 finishes and 20 Top 25s. Rose Zhang, who also joined the Tour in 2023, was the 2024 champion in this event, and also put up a W in her first year out, at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open.

Another notable name in the field that Bay Area golf fans with long memories might recall is Minjee Lee of Perth, Australia, who won the 2012 U.S. Girls Jr. Amateur at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City.

Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club is tucked into a scenic corner of the mid-Peninsula where Sand Hill Road meets I-280. The course plays at around 7,000 yards from the tips; not long by many standards, but it is a strategic course which will challenge the players this coming week with right- and left-hand doglegs, uphill and downhill fairways and wickedly subtle greens.

First-round play opens Thursday, March 19th with 7:25 a.m. tee times. Tickets are available at https://seatgeek.com/fortinet-founders-cup-tickets.

San Jose’s Katherine Zhu is Co-Medalist at 2025 Women’s Mid-Am Championship

Three (maybe four) NorCal players advance to match play

San Jose’s Katherine Zhu came out of an up-and-down day on the MPCC Dunes course tied for medalist status, sharing first place with Jessica Spicer of Williamsburg, Virginia after posting a 2-over 74 in the second round for a 36-hole total of 141. Zhu, starting on the first tee at noon, went out in 3-over 38 with bogeys on holes 3, 6, and 7. Three birdies on the back nine, on holes 11, 12, and 15, helped offset the front nine deficit, but bogeys on 13 and 14 dropped her to 2-over for the round. Erica Whitehouse, of Mechanicsville, Virginia was tied with Zhu and Spicer for the medalist spot until her last hole, #11 (she started her round on the 12th hole), where she carded a double-bogey six in the failing evening light.

This four-legged local resident seemed unperturbed by the action during the 
stroke play rounds of the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Championship at
Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Among the other Northern California players in the field, Jennifer Wang, of Menlo Park, put herself solidly into the match play portion of the tournament at T28, with a stroke play score of 76-73–149. Lara Tennant, of Pebble Beach, brought it home safely at 9-over to make match play, while Boulder Creek’s Jennifer Serbin, who earlier in the day looked like she might be missing out on further play in the event with a 10-over total of 184, will be part of a playoff tomorrow morning to finalize the match play field after the cut moved from +9 to +10 in the final hour of Round 2.

Wild swings (in scores) on final day for the full field

Golf is a crazy game. If you play, you know – and nothing brings out the craziness like competitive golf. Case(s) in point: Mackenzie Tyler, of Hampton Bay, New York shot 90 on Saturday in the first round of stroke play: seven pars, seven bogeys, four double-bogeys – and today she sailed through her first nine holes at even par, with seven pars, one birdie, and one bogey. Two more bogeys in her final nine holes dropped her to a 2-over 74; she improved her score by sixteen strokes over the first round, but still missed the cut by 10 strokes. Alison Trevino, of San Antonio, Texas, put up four pars, two bogeys, two double-bogeys – and a hole-out eagle, on the 294-yard, par-4 fifth hole – on the front nine today. Her two-round total of 86-76–162 missed the cut by eleven strokes.

Significant swings in scoring from the first to second round, both good and bad, were not uncommon this weekend. Thirty players shot a score five or more strokes higher on Sunday than Saturday; fifteen players improved their score by that amount. Consistency from Round 1 to Round 2 was not necessarily an indicator of success, though – four of the six players from T1 to T3 shot a higher score in Round 2 by five strokes or more, and of the sixty players who made the cut at +9 or better, fourteen shot a higher score, by five strokes or more, on Sunday, while only seven improved by five strokes or more. Go figure…

Big playoff set for Monday morning to finalize the Top 64

A not-uncommon feature of tournaments in this format is a playoff to determine one or more final spots in the match play field. When it’s one spot being contested it may be over quickly: One player gets a hot hand and birdies the playoff hole while the others make par or worse – boom, it’s over. It gets more complicated when there are two or more spots being contested, and after the cut moved from +9 to +10 late in the day, the USGA officials at MPCC found themselves faced with a massive 12-for-4 playoff; that is, there were sixty players at +9 or better at the completion of stroke play, and the twelve players who finished at +10 will vie for the four spots required to complete the field of 64 before match play can commence.

One of the local Bay Area players, Jennifer Serbin of Boulder Creek, is among the lucky (?) dozen who will tee it up on the 10th hole tomorrow morning (but no, not as a “twelve-some”; they will be split up in a manner TBD at the time of this writing). We wish Jennifer the best of luck, but our sympathies lie with Sue Wooster, of Australia, who might have been the lucky #13 in the playoff group were it not for finishing her round with a double-bogey on hole 18 to miss the playoff by a single stroke.

Former Cal Golfer Katherine Zhu Leads After Day One of Women’s Mid-Am

The first day of competition in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Championship is in the books, and the current middle-of-the-pack score is between four and five strokes over par. With 132 women in the field and 64 advancing to match play after stroke play concludes on Sunday, players in the top half of the field at this point are well positioned for advancement to the match play portion of the tournament. That being the case, four of the eight Bay Area players in the field are in good position, given an equally good day tomorrow, to advance to match play.

As a matter of fact, San Jose resident Katherine Zhu, a former Cal Women’s Golf player, leads after day one on the strength of a 5-under 67. Zhu, a 2022 graduate of Cal-Berkeley, works in marketing at SportsBox AI, a company that is developing marker-less 3D motion capture and analysis for sports applications.

Zhu is trailed by Jessica Spicer, of Williamsburg, Virginia, at 4-under, with four players at 3-under, and three each at 2- and 1-under par, respectively, for a total of 12 players under par after round one. 

Boulder Creek native Jennifer Serbin, a former San Jose State Women’s Golf team member, lies second among local players and T-13 overall after carding an even-par 72 today. After opening her round with a par on the 351-yard par-4 first hole, Serbin fell back to 2-over with an unfortunate run of three bogeys, on holes 4, 5, and 6. Righting the ship, Serbin put together a long run of pars, with birdies on hole 11 and 17, to finish with an even-par 72.

Serbin played lower-tier professional golf with some success after college, but in 2016 a non-golf-related injury brought the curtain down on her pro golf career. After recovering from the injury, she petitioned for a return to amateur status in 2020, and has been playing in NCGA and USGA amateur competitions since then.

Pebble Beach resident Lara Tennant, who holds the distinction of winning three consecutive U.S. Senior Women’s Open titles: 2018, 2019, and 2021 (there was no tournament in 2020), is third among the Bay Area golfers in the tournament with a 3-over 75. Tennant is playing on familiar ground, as she is a member of the host club.

Finally, Jennifer Wang of Menlo Park, who played college golf at Division 1 Columbia University of New York, carded a 4-over 76 to put herself in a strong position to advance to match play.Stroke play resumes Sunday morning with 7:30 a.m. tee times. Spectators are admitted to the event for free, and as is usual at USGA amateur events, are allowed to walk the fairways behind the players – it is a great way to experience the golf course and see it as the players do.

2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am – For The Love of the Game

The United States Golf Association (USGA) runs seventeen championship tournaments each year, thirteen of which are open exclusively to amateur golfers. The final championship of the year in 2025 is the Women’s Mid-Am, an event that is open to amateur golfers age 25 and up with a maximum handicap of 9.4. Coming on the heels of the Walker Cup, which was held just last month at the Cypress Point Golf Club, the tournament is being held this year at another of the beautiful golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula, the aptly named Monterey Peninsula Country Club, deep in the heart of the Del Monte Forest.

Monterey Peninsula Country Club, owner of one of the coolest logos in golf,
is hosting the 2025 USGA U.S. Women’s Mid-Am tournament this year. 

This scenic, and exclusive, region – which covers eight square miles of the approximately 20 square miles of the Monterey Peninsula – is home to some of the finest golf anywhere: Pebble Beach Golf Links; Spyglass Hill; The Links at Spanish Bay; Poppy Hills, the home and headquarters of the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA); and the Cypress Point Club (the site of this year’s Walker Cup).

“Amateur: one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession”

Home to two courses, the Shore and Dunes, MPCC is familiar to golf fans from its 31 years in the rota for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, most recently from 2010 to 2020, 2022 and 2023, on the Shore Course. This tournament is being contested on the Dunes course, the original course on the property, which was one of the three courses in the rota for the famed pro-am in the “Crosby Clambake” days, from 1947 to 1964. Designed in 1924 by Seth Raynor, the Dunes course was revisited by Rees Jones in 1998 and the Fazio Design Group in 2016.

A field of 132 players ranging in age from 25 to 63 years, from thirty-four states and thirteen countries, will play two rounds of stroke play this weekend, after which the top 64 golfers will enter the single-elimination match play stage of the contest, with the winner determined by an 18-hole final on Friday, October 10th.

The prizes to be won are a trophy, an entry into the following year’s U.S. Women’s Open (and if the winner will be 50 or over, the U.S. Senior Women’s Open) – and a footnote in the history of the game. True to the spirit of amateur competition, while there are perks (as just listed) and a deep sense of personal accomplishment, there is no monetary reward.

One of the most highly renowned golfers in American history, Bobby Jones, was a lifelong amateur, a man who played solely for the love of the game, and the USGA’s amateur events carry on in that spirit.

The two USGA Open championships, for men and women, feature fields that will contain amateurs each year, but mainly consist of professional players. Even the U.S. Amateur and the Women’s Amateur, the two Junior championships, and the international team events – the Walker Cup for men and the Curtis Cup for women – generally feature players at least some of whom have their eyes set on a future in professional golf.

The Mid-Am events, however, are deep with players who are making their way in the world in business or a profession, with golf comprising “a pastime rather than a profession.” The Women’s Mid-Am, which was initiated in 1987, attracts a field of former collegiate players, for the most part, women with a desire for competition who play for the love of the game, for the opportunity to play at beautiful and often private, exclusive courses such as this year’s venue. It is, in my opinion, the purest expression of golf competition.

There are eight competitors from around the Bay Area in the event this year, including former Cal golfer Katherine Zhu and 2002 medalist Lara Tennant. As a bonus for the local golf fan, the event is free for spectators – and if you tell the guard at the entrance to the 17-Mile Drive that you are going to the tournament they will waive the $12.25 entry fee. Come out this weekend or any day through Friday, October 10th.

And now – Napa…

Northern California golf fans have had a couple of real treats in recent weeks; first came the U.S. Amateur in August, in its return to the Olympic Club for the first time since 2007, and then the Walker Cup coming to Cypress Point just last weekend, opening the gates of that hallowed ground to the general public for the first time since 1981. Next up is the Procore Championship, which starts this week at the beautiful Silverado Resort in Napa.

While not quite having the status of the two previously mentioned events, the Procore Championship is a tournament with a long and varied history that has always been a favorite of Bay Area/NorCal golf fans – and this year the event carries a special cachet. Beyond the allure of a beautiful Napa Valley setting, an interesting and challenging golf course, and loads of amenities for fans, with the biennial Ryder Cup competition coming up at the end of this month, ten of the members of the 2025 American Ryder Cup squad will be in the field at the Procore Championship, including current world #1 Scottie Scheffler.

The 2025 Procore Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa
will feature ten members of the 2025 American Ryder Cup team.

Three 2025 American Ryder Cup vice-captains – Brandt Snedeker, Webb Simpson, and Gary Woodland – all of whom have had success in NorCal events, are also in the field. Two of Snedeker’s nine PGA Tour victories came in Northern California in back-to-back years (2013/2014) at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am; Webb Simpson won the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, and Gary Woodland was the U.S. Open champ when it came to Pebble Beach in 2019.

In addition to those distinguished names, four past winners of this event are returning to Napa for 2025: 2024 champion Patton Kizzire, 2023 winner Sahith Theegala, back-to-back winner (2021, 2022) Max Homa, and 2019 winner Cameron Champ, a NorCal native from Sacramento.

The Procore Championship has always had a lot going for it, with typically terrific Northern California weather, plenty of fan amenities, and its beautiful Napa Valley setting on a golf course that fans can actually come and play (let’s face it – it’s a lot of fun to watch golf at places like Pebble Beach, the Olympic Club, and Cypress Point, but the latter two are private clubs where most of us will never get the opportunity to tee it up, and Pebble is, well – really, really expensive…), and this year’s super strong field previewing the play of our upcoming Ryder Cup heroes make the 2025 event even more special.

To purchase tickets or learn more about the 2025 Procore Champion-ship, visit ProcoreChampionship.com.

The NCGA’s all-new Poppy Ridge debuts May 31

Very few AGAs (1) in the United States own and operate their own golf course; in fact, only four (the NCGA, and the Oregon, Washington, and Colorado AGAs) do so, and of those four only one—the Northern California Golf Association—owns and operates two courses. Those two courses—Poppy Hills, in the Del Monte Forest on the Monterey Peninsula; and Poppy Ridge, in the midst of the vineyards and golden hills of the Livermore Valley in Contra Costa County—present two very different golf experiences encompassing the wide range of landscapes that comprise “NCGA territory”.

Poppy Hills, which opened in 1986, was the first course in the country to be built and operated by an AGA. The wooded property, which is also home to NCGA headquarters, underwent a major renovation in 2014 that improved drainage across the entire property, reduced irrigated acreage, and replaced the late-1980s-vintage irrigation system with a modern system. Now Poppy Hills’ ten-years younger sibling, Poppy Ridge, which drapes across a rolling landscape of golden hills and lush green vineyards southeast of the City of Livermore, is reopening after an even more comprehensive reworking that has resulted in what is essentially an entirely new course.

The 17th green at the new Poppy Ridge gleams in “golden hour” sunlight, overlooked by rolling hills and the soaring wind turbines that line a distant ridge. (photo credit: Joann Dost)

 

 “If you were to ask people what is a postcard of California wine country, this would be it – Jay Blasi

The new Poppy Ridge will be an eye-opener for players who were familiar with the 1996 Rees Jones layout. The original 1996 design was made up of three nine-hole loops—appropriately named Chardonnay, Merlot, and Zinfandel. This configuration allowed flexibility and variety for the golfers who came to play there, but suffered from compromises in routing and terrain that made walking the course untenable for most golfers, and could lead to time-consuming rounds of golf. The new layout, designed by course architect Jay Blasi based on guidelines provided by the NCGA, has what I consider to be a more sensible use of 27 holes of golf; it now consists of an 18-hole championship layout and the Ridge 9, a nine-hole course with seven par-4 holes and a pair of par-3s.

“We basically started over, and we built a new golf course on top of a site that used to have a golf course.” – Jay Blasi

The new layout is so different from the 1996 design that even longtime course employees have had to relearn their way around the property. Players familiar with the old Poppy Ridge will note that the 18-hole course is laid out over territory that comprised the Zinfandel nine and part of Chardonnay, mostly north of the clubhouse, while the Ridge 9 encompasses part of what used to be the Merlot nine and some of Chardonnay.

Toned Down, But Still Challenging

One of Jay Blasi’s main goals for the redesign was to improve walkability on the new 18-hole championship layout. While still a hilly course, walking 18-holes at around 6500 yards (the blue tees) is now some 2,000 yards shorter than the original setup, with 400 feet less elevation change overall.

Reworking the routing to tighten and smooth the transitions between holes involved moving some 250,000 cubic yards of soil. In many cases moving that volume of earth is done to add, or increase, contouring, but in this case that work was done, as Blasi told me, “…to soften the property, to make those transitions more manageable and easier to walk. We weren’t moving dirt to make things more exciting; the landscape was already big and beautiful and exciting—we were doing it to kind of tone it down a bit and make it more suitable for golf.”

There’s no denying that the Poppy Ridge property is a dramatic and dynamic piece of landscape on which to build a golf course. It is a property of rolling hills on which some holes rise to meet you, some lay out in front of you in full view, and others test your faith with a blind second shot. It is also criss-crossed with deeper cuts, such as the area where the drop-off-a-cliff par-three 17th hole was built. Playing at distances ranging between 154 yards from the championship (orange) tees to a mere 67 yards from the most forward tees (green), the vertical aspect of this dramatic little one-shotter will challenge a player’s club-selection skills. Its neighbor, the par-three 14th, teases with an uphill carry—more so from the forward tees—over an area of native growth; a friendly hillside to the left of the green is a safe aiming strategy for the daring carry on this hole.

Another of the goals for the new course was to make it fun and playable for all levels of golfers. Compared to the old course there is less water in play, and less sand in play. The fairways are wide and accommodating, but careful attention to placement for the approach shot will pay off, and most of the greens are open at the front to allow the ball to be run up onto the green—flying it high and landing it soft will not be the only option for hitting and holding greens.

That’s not to say that the course will be a walkover for the more highly skilled player; once in position to go for the green, careful inspection of the contours around the greens will show that there is usually a safe side and a risky side, so skillful placement of your drive or second shot will often be key to having a safer approach.

A good example of this is the par-four 6th hole, the first hole that I played during the recent preview day scramble. The fairway is wide and confidence-inspiring, as most of the fairways on the new course are, but you must be mindful of where you place your tee shot. A drive to the right side of the landing area yields an inviting approach to the green, while landing too far left leaves your approach shot blocked by mounding that leaves you facing a blind shot (2) to a (thankfully), generously sized green. In turn, the mound on the left side forms a backdrop that can help direct an overcooked approach shot, even from good position in the fairway, back onto the green.

The greens at Poppy Ridge are well-contoured, with challenging but not drastic shaping. An interesting design feature that applies to the greens as a whole is that their size relates to the difficulty of the approach shot—holes that are likely to require a long-iron approach have larger greens; those that are going to be taken on with a wedge or a short iron give the golfer a smaller target to aim at. It is risky to judge the greens of a brand-new golf course; they will always need some bedding-in time before their true character is revealed, but I think that golfers will find the greens at Poppy Ridge testing, but fair.

Teething Problems?

As I mentioned above, the new course is intended to be fun for all skill levels. Each hole features five teeing areas accommodating a range of standard yardages from 7,010 (orange) to 4,225 (green).While good in theory, my group—with one playing from the tips and three from the golds—found that the forward tees were stretched so far ahead of the longer tees that staying connected was problematic, and that, when playing from a cart, getting from the cart path to the gold or green tees often required trekking through native areas.

Another new-course teething issue that we encountered was confusion about the location of the teeing areas in the corner of the course where the 13th green, 14th tees, 18th green, and 17th tees are all clustered within a small and quite hilly area. Better signage and better definition of the teeing grounds themselves would go a long way toward eliminating confusion for players that are new to the course (as everyone will be in the near term.)

A Strong First Impression

Even with only one round on the new layout under my belt, I have already selected a favorite hole—the par-five 4th. This uphill three-shotter plays longer than the scorecard yardage thanks to the elevation gain, and while fairly straight, hands you a peek-a-boo second shot that teases the possibility of getting onto the green in two. A low, running shot with a fairway wood or hybrid might get you there if you thread the needle between a trio of smallish but well-placed bunkers placed right-left-right along the way to the putting surface. I hit one of my better 3-wood shots in recent memory on this hole and just caught the first, and largest, of those bunkers or I might have found myself, maybe not on the green in two, but certainly within Texas-wedge territory.

Windy conditions will be a testing proposition at this somewhat exposed course. It is dotted with native oak trees, but not lined with the fairway-defining rows of tall trees of a typical parkland course that would protect play from the wind. The green of the 4th and the entirety of the 16th hole are the highest points on the course, I believe, and special attention to the strength of the wind, especially in the afternoon, is warranted there.

“If you are an out-of-town guest, if you’re coming from the Midwest or the East Coast, I would venture to guess that two of your three best public options in Northern California are Poppy Ridge and Poppy Hills.” – Jay Blasi

Course designer Jay Blasi, the NCGA, and everyone associated with the creation of the new Poppy Ridge can be justifiably proud of this new course. It is a property that will take some familiarization to come to terms with, but I think that the variety of the golf holes, and of course the newness of the layout, will tempt players back again and again to build course knowledge and test strategies for assaying its dramatic landscape. It’s a good thing, then, that 60% of the NCGA’s membership lives within 60 miles of this stunning new addition to the bounteous variety of Northern California golf.

Poppy Ridge opens for play on May 31st, and the tee sheet is already full a few weeks out, but I urge everyone in the region to experience this new course as soon as they can.

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1) Allied Golf Associations, the local golf associations that collaborate with the USGA to support the game of golf in the country.

2) Despite a bit of friendly advice from the guide who led us out to the tees at #6, this is exactly what I did...