NOT FOUND: course review.jpgIn my profession, I travel quite a bit. As an avid golfer I have become very adept at traveling with my clubs. I can cart them to the airport; get through the check in and pick up my clubs with skill and grace. As a frequent traveler I thoroughly enjoy exploring golf in other regions and areas of the country. But this article is not about that. This article is about playing golf at courses that are near airports. When you have time before a flight and want to play or work on your game. I had the pleasure to enjoy two such courses recently although I wasn’t flying anywhere. I was working in the Bay Area and found two great courses in San Leandro and Oakland, and both are less than 10 minutes from the Oakland airport. I can attest to that as the planes fly very low overhead when they are approaching for landing.
The first course is Monarch Bay in San Leandro, CA. This course sits right on the bay and you have some great views of the peninsula. While being a public venue, Monarch Bay sets up like a resort course as it has great practice facilities and very lush surroundings. There are very loyal golfers here as I played with a couple of men who play there weekly and have done so for quite some time.
The course I played was the Tony Lema Championship course. I played from the back tees, which setup just a shade less than 7,000 yards. The course is only nine years old and is a John Harbottle design. Mr. Harbottle has also designed Stevinson Ranch outside of Modesto, CA (one of my personal favorites) as well as Cinnabar Hills in San Jose, CA and San Jose Country Club. Monarch Bay is a very straight forward course with large and lush greens. The challenge comes when the elements, namely the wind, come into play. Being right on the peninsula, this course will cause you to watch what type of shot you are hitting as well as the direction you are going to reach your destination. I missed more greens than normal as a result of not accounting for as much wind as I saw. This is very different from the golf we play here in Sacramento. I really had the opportunity to work on low pitch shots and approach shots from 50- 75 yds. The “Texas wedge” came into play a few times as well. For those that do not know, a “Texas wedge” is when a putter is used off the green. It is generally a shot of more than 10 yds. I will play Monarch Bay again as it brought out another part of my game and created new weapons for getting the ball to the hole. I highly recommend Monarch Bay if you are traveling out of Oakland and have time before your flight.
The other course is Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland, CA. This course is just minutes south of the Oakland Airport. It was designed by Johnny Miller and is home to the Cal Bears golf team. It is a links style golf course. Now “links style” can mean many different things. Here is the definition given by www.about.com: a traditional links course will have many - perhaps all - of the following features: The course is built along the seaside;
• The soil is sandy and drains easily;
• The course is laid out naturally, so that unusual bumps and slopes in the fairways and greens remain, rather than being smoothed over;
• The rough features natural seaside grasses;
• Bunkers are numerous, very small and very deep (to keep the seaside breezes from blowing the sand away)
• Fairways are rarely (if ever) watered and play firm and fast;
• Links courses usually have few, if any, trees;
• The course routes out and back. The No. 1 hole begins at the clubhouse and the front nine plays straight out so that No. 9 is farthest hole from the clubhouse; the direction turns back in at No. 10 and the course ends with No. 18 back at the clubhouse.
This course does all of the above except place hole No. 9 furthest away from the clubhouse. While not having a great deal of trees or tight fairways, Metropolitan plays with a golfer’s determination of wind. The wind comes from a different direction on each hole, making each hole an individual adventure. You could play with the wind, into the wind or right to left and left to right swirls. The course plays just short of 7,000 yards from the back tees and has 5 sets of tees to accommodate all golfers. They do a large youth program there and have a great practice facility. Whether you have five hours or 30 minutes, Metropolitan Golf Links is a great place to play.
Some other great “airport golf” options are: Teal Bend in Sacramento, Westchester Golf Course next to LAX, Creekside Golf Course in Ontario, CA and San Mateo Golf Course in San Mateo, CA near San Francisco. Enjoy the options and play them all as they lie.