What if the PGA Tour only played in Northern California?
BY ALAN SHIPNUCK
There’s a lot of talk these days about making golf more environmentally sensitive, so here’s a radical proposal: Let’s move the entire the PGA Tour schedule to Northern California.
Just think, no more
Gulfstream-Vs endlessly criss-crossing the country, no massive tractor-trailers clogging up the transcon- tinental highways as they ferry around the tourna- ment infrastructure. Not only would we greatly reduce the Tour’s carbon footprint but the quality of the events would also be vastly upgraded, thanks to Northern California’s stellar courses, endless scenery and perfect golf weather. The Tour likes to kick off its season in Hawaii, mostly to provide golf porn to beleaguered snowbirds watching on TV in the Midwest and Northeast. So, we’ll give them plenty of sunshine and beauty shots of crashing waves at
What if... EVENT:
Santa Cruz Invitational
COURSE: Pasatiempo
the season-opening Santa Cruz Invitational while also showcasing one of Amer- ica’s best (but most over- looked) courses, Pasatiempo. It’s also a perfect lead-in to the following week’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro- Am, which is always the highlight of the early part of the Tour schedule. From Pebble we begin
the Bay Area swing. First up is the Golden Gate Open at San Francisco Golf Club. An elegant A.W. Tillinghast design that dates to 1915, SFGC is an all-world course but largely unknown to the golfi ng public because of the club’s desire for privacy and exclu- sivity. It’s time for SFGC to be discovered. Next up is the Pacifi c Coast Invi-
EVENT:
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
COURSES:
Pebble Beach Spyglass Hill
Monterey Peninsula
42 / NCGA.ORG / FALL 2010 EVENT:
Golden Gate Open
COURSE:
San Francisco Golf Club
EVENT: Pacifi c Coast
Invitational COURSE:
Olympic Club
tational at Olympic Club. Under lightning-fast U.S. Open conditions Olympic’s cantered fairways and ex- treme greens can be almost unplayable, so it will be nice to see the course set up a little easier and more recep-
tive for a normal tourna- ment. After this impressive double-dip the Tour crosses the water for the East Bay Championship, which will rotate between Wente Vine- yards and TPC Stonebrae. Both of the stern tracks are a good tune-up for the fi rst major championship of the year, the Masters at Cypress Point. There was a certain
Pasatiempo
EVENT: East Bay
Championship
COURSES: Wente
Vineyards TPC
Stonebrae
EVENT: Masters
COURSE: Cypress Point
EVENT:
Silicon Valley Classic
COURSE: Los Altos Country Club
EVENT: Players
Championship
COURSE: The
Institute
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