PASATIEMPO GOLF CLUB, USA

hen I tours and personalities and less so, not Pasatiempo grew from the vision of commented nearly enough, on the game’s history a remarkable woman, Marion Hollins, to friends and and course architecture. a US Women’s Amateur champion and fellow golfers When I pointed out that this storied entrepreneur who was a driving force in in Australia, masterpiece was designed by Dr. Alister the founding of the iconic Cypress Point professionals MacKenzie, the creator of Cypress Club nearby on the Monterey Peninsula. and single Point, Royal Melbourne West, Augusta Hollins brought MacKenzie to figure amateurs National and countless others, their America to design Cypress Point and, Dr. Alister MacKenzie has stamped his imprint among them, that I was champing at the bit interest was piqued. in 1928, secured his services again California Wat the opportunity to visit Pasatiempo Golf I drew satisfaction from challenging to design her next major project, on courses far and wide—from Augusta Club in Santa Cruz, California, I invariably them to do a little research on the Pasatiempo. Such was the Scotsman’s drew a blank. “You’re doing what, at where?” course for themselves and once doing love for the course and the area that he National to Royal Melbourne, the gem of They could be excused, I guess, so, their envy of me was soon palpable. lived in a house adjacent to the sixth hole the Victorian Sandbelt. But don’t overlook given the tyranny of distance and a I’m convinced some new love affairs for for the final four years of his life. saturation of mainstream golf media Pasatiempo have now been established With MacKenzie watching on from Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California. that focuses heavily on professional from afar. a sizeable gallery, Pasatiempo’s official Love By Paul Prendergast

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opening day on September 8, 1929 featured a match consisting of Hollins, the great Bobby Jones—a nine-time major champion at the time and a year shy of his famous Grand Slam of 1930—reigning US Women’s Amateur champion Glenna Collett and reigning British Amateur champion Cyril Tolley. The significance of MacKenzie’s work at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo was not lost on Jones. The pair had met at St Andrews some years earlier and so taken was he by the quality of these Northern California golf courses, he lured MacKenzie east to The treacherous short par-3 15th. his home state of Georgia to co-design a golf course on a promising piece of land, called Fruitlands, that he had purchased in 1931. “How often do we play golf on courses where The pair’s collaboration opened for play in 1933 and is familiar to even my the game is to hit the greens and it is dull and aforementioned friends back home—the Augusta National Golf Club. straightforward? Not so at Pasatiempo, where From Bob Jones to Tiger Woods, the greats of the game have trodden the there exists a collection of 18 of the finest, most fairways of Pasatiempo over the years, accompanied in time by captains of interesting greens which I have ever seen on one industry and Hollywood legends. Images from their visits are framed in Hollins Pasatiempo Facts golf course. It is more interesting than Cypress House, a property built in 1929 by Par 70 Course Record: Marion Hollins in a commanding high 62 — Shawn McEntee (March 19, 2001) Point or Royal Melbourne. The first green at the point just up from the clubhouse looking Par 71 Course Record: Old Course at St. Andrews is not so interesting as down to Monterey Bay. 63 — Ken Venturi (November 2, 1953) Pasatiempo is considered by many to 63 — Forrest Fezler (March 6, 1969) the 12th at Pasatiempo.” be one of ‘the great walks in golf’ and 63 — Bryan Pini (November 27, 1980) likewise, Hollins House would have LPGA Touring professional: — Michael Wolveridge, course designer Juli Inkster – World Golf Hall of Fame member One of the great long to be regarded as one of the premium par-3s in golf—No. 3. post-round ‘reclines’ that the game has to offer. Sitting on the verandah, enjoying The opening tee shot with “Our guiding principles have been, of Santa Cruz beyond and Monterey severely undulating and well-bunkered pork belly chicharones, little neck Monterey Bay in the distance. first, to add nothing foreign to the Bay glistening in the background, sets green with a sizeable false front. The claims and blue point oysters among original design, and, second, to enhance the early scene for a playing experience same ravine runs diagonally across to other delights from the ‘Tapas Tuesday’ the ‘pleasurable excitement’ that the of a lifetime. the right of the green with intimidating menu, as the sun slipped slowly into the architect sought to provide.” The rolling terrain provides for bunkers cut into the front right, which I Pacific, made prising ourselves away The results of Doak and his team’s great variety in the routing of holes, as suspect gobble up many an approach. from Pasatiempo to head back home undertaking, completed in 2007 but do the integration into the design of The short par-3 15th is a hauntingly excruciatingly difficult. carried out with reverential care and the deep ravines, or ‘barrancas,’ that beautiful short hole that can bare Course designer and MacKenzie attention over a number of years, has crisscross the property. Playing along teeth, especially with a pin located aficionado Tom Doak was engaged by been stunning. Pictorially and visually and across these unkempt natural areas on the sliver of green to the left Pasatiempo to create a masterplan for when playing the course, the vistas are a feature at Pasatiempo and Doak’s between bunkers and ravines front the ‘preservation and enhancement’ of on each and every hole around this team and the club’s maintenance and back as it was on the day we Dr. MacKenzie’s creation based on the undulating terrain are spectacular. practices have restored and reinforced played. Rarely have I held my breath discovery of some long-lost photographs The bunkering and green complexes their jagged, menacing appearance, in fear, and exhilaration, over the and slides from the club’s early history are classic MacKenzie and Doak has based on the images of the course from fate of a soft 9-iron in my memory. that had been unearthed by club restored them to their original glory— early years. A rarity in modern design, the historian, Robert Beck. gaping faces of white taunting you Some of the course’s most photogenic famous finishing hole is a visually “With a course of such historic from tees and fairways, subtle to wildly holes feature these deep barrancas, none striking, medium-length par-3 in an significance and recognised quality of undulating greens of superb quality to more so than the tee shot from the 10th amphitheatre setting that requires design our mission in formulating a test the nerve and short-game prowess of and the par-4 11th hole, arguably the a very well-struck tee shot to carry master plan is simple: to preserve the even the very best. most exacting hole on the course. another deep gorge fronting the green. MacKenzie legacy as well as possible The opening tee shot from atop the The tee shot needs to avoid the deep This hole must have really been a considering the modern realities of golf,” hill by the clubhouse to an inviting barranca running parallel along the left, fearsome proposition in the early years Doak said. fairway of emerald green, with the town before the hole turns left and uphill to a with the equipment of the day; but then

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The multi-layered ‘Sitwell’green at the 16th.

and now, two putts are absolutely no Venerable Merion in suburban guarantee on a wickedly tilted green Philadelphia, host to five US Opens, that has more nuance and deception to occupies just 125 acres while it than meets the eye. “Good golfers consider Kingston Heath on the Melbourne Aside from the barranca the second nine holes at Sandbelt is regarded as brilliantly holes, Pasatiempo’s remaining routed on approximately 160 collection of par-3s are magnificent Pasatiempo the finest acres, not all of which are playing in design and diversity. surfaces which wind between tracts Doak said of the par-3 third: in existence. The short of sand and native vegetation. “Combining its actual length (196 By contrast, Pasatiempo provides metres), uphill grade, and severity of holes are ‘specially good, its fascinating and challenging test of hazards around the green, this hole must golf—a par 70 of ‘only’ 5,950 metres at rank right up with the 5th at Pine Valley as and I think the 16th full stretch but with the undulation and the longest playing par-3 we have seen.” coastal sea air, a far sterner examination Pasatiempo also boasts some of the holes is the best two- than the yardage might suggest—from a most strategically challenging par-4 canvas of just 66 acres of irrigated turf. holes but the 16th lays claim to being shot hole I know.” Mitigating against California’s possibly the finest. The tee shot bends — Dr. Alister MacKenzie, prevailing drought conditions, the slightly left over a crowned fairway to club has cut back substantially on the a downhill landing area, adding to the The Spirit of St. Andrews irrigation of natural roughs and waste acute demands of the second shot. areas, resulting in a brilliant contrast The green, however, beggars belief Built in an era when walking was ‘le with the pristine fairways and greens and in terms of its length and multi-layered mode de golf’, the fairly small tract of land gleaming bunkering. design, where seemingly only the back of in the sandy Santa Cruz forest area with Pasatiempo was an absolute joy and three separate tiers allows for reasonably tees and greens built very close to each honour to play and if you subscribe to flat pin locations. MacKenzie’s famous other is an intrinsic element of Pasatiempo’s the modern phenomena of a golfing yet controversial 12th green, cut into timeless appeal. Not surprisingly, the ‘bucket list’, then this is an experience a large hill at Sitwell Park Golf Club golf course reminds of other classic that needs to be savoured as much as in England, is re-created here and the golf courses of the time that have been any of the courses in the neighbouring Pasatiempo version is close to 60 paces constructed on similarly restricted acreage Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas from false-front to back. compared to their modern-day cousins. that might enjoy greater prominence. n

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