From the Editor Welcome back Poppy Hills!
T
his commemorative edition of NCGA Golf celebrates the return of your member course with the magazine’s first wraparound cover featuring one of Joann Dost’s beautiful aerial images. Most of
the issue focuses on the home course of the NCGA, including an 18-page cover package that details every aspect of the project. It is important to remember that while this was officially a renovation, every part of the property from the putting greens to the parking lot is new. When NCGA members first enter the Poppy Hills property, it will look familiar. But that is where any resemblance to the past ends. The restaurant and golf shop have been transformed, exuding a luxurious sensibility (while still offering NCGA members a 10%- and 20%-discount respectively). We’ve included a few other gems certain to pique
your interest. Golfweek senior writer and architecture expert Brad Klein contributes a piece on the new look of championship golf—no rough. Just as Poppy Hills has abandoned the longer grass framing fairways and greens, major championship courses have altered their setups to highlight the importance of strategy, opting for recovery over non-negotiable punishment. A Q & A with golf ’s greatest champion, Jack Nicklaus,
is a centerpiece of this issue. Around our office, we celebrated interviewing Gary Player in the Winter edition because we had never had the opportunity to interview a golfer with Player’s major-championship pedigree. The next week we found out that we would have the chance to sit down with the Golden Bear. Needless to say, it’s been a good few months. We will continue to bring you interviews with com-
pelling figures in and around the game in the coming months, but we all share the same thing Jack Nicklaus exuded in our interview—a deep affection for the game. Sports Illustrated ’s Alan Shipnuck and KNBR’s Brian
Murphy contribute essays on the changing attitude toward less-proficient players. Shipnuck’s piece details the golf industry’s shift in focus away from the professional game via programs such as Hack Golf. Mark King, Taylor- Made’s CEO, has spearheaded an initiative to simplify and enliven the game through ideas such as a larger hole. Murphy takes his usual humorous stance in advocating new ways to make the game more entertaining. The expanded Shag Bag makes a return in this issue.
Be sure to check our digital home, the new
NCGA.org, for the daily version of the Shag Bag. NCGA staff writers Kevin Merfeld and Jerry Stewart post frequently to this blog, making it the best spot to catch up on Northern California golf news. If visiting websites isn’t
your thing, just follow @NCGA1901 on Twitter as each new post is tweeted out. We hope you have visited
PoppyHillsGolf.com in the
last month to make your starting time. If you did, hope- fully you browsed the online course tour which features overhead videos of each hole. To produce the video tours, we utilized a DJI Phantom helicopter. Look for a new
PoppyRidgeGolf.com with overhead videos in the months to come. The photo below was taken using our DJI Phantom
in action (in what I hope will be the only “selfie” I will ever take). I was standing near where I stood on the night Poppy Hills closed in the photo that appeared in the Spring 2013 editorial. In that column I remarked that Poppy had “a storied past and an even brighter future.” After closely following the renovation for the last 13 months and seeing the breathtaking results, I can confirm that the course’s future is limitless.
SCOTT SEWARD
8 /
NCGA.ORG / SPRING 2014
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