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Hang in there: Getting a tee time at Torrey Pines
Golf Course isn't always easy,
but it's well worth the wait.
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One of the reasons the 2002 U.S. Open was so popular was because it was contested on New York's Bethpage Black, not only a public course but a municipally owned and operated public course. Well, get ready for "The People's Open - West."
The U.S. Open begins today, and it's being played on the South eighteen at Torrey Pines Golf Course, owned and operated by the city of San Diego. Together with the North Course, Torrey Pines lays claim to America's only two municipally owned seaside layouts.
While out-of-towners (especially groups of two or more) will sometimes find it frustratingly difficult to score a tee time on this Torrey Pines Golf Course before 3pm, a San Diego golf vacation just wouldn't be complete without playing this venue, beefed up by Rees Jones in 2001 purposely to land this tournament.
Jones took William Bell's original routing at Torrey Pines Golf Course and turned it into a superb work of art, simultaneously fitting it for the pack of Tigers on the PGA Tour. Always a big hitter's paradise, the new Championship tees stretch the layout to an almost superhuman 7,643 yards.
The redesigned putting surfaces, amply sized by any measure, still sport the benign contours of the original greens (this is, after all, a muni some 361 days a year) but they set up for more well-defined pin placements and feature a mark-resistant, smooth-putting hybrid grass that will surely be speedy. And, there is an ocean pull to all putts, something to remember if you play here on a San Diego Golf Vacation.
The teeth of the brawny Torrey Pines Golf Course - South, whose terrain often pitches dramatically to wild ravines and barrancas off the fairway, really show on the back nine. The entire affair is without the slightest let-up hole and the closer, a par five that Jones lengthened considerably, provides a great finish.
Three bunkers guard the left side of the fairway landing area off the tee, while a lone bunker awaits shots that miss the fairway to the right. Thanks to an expanded lake (the only one on the course) that sits smack dab in front of the green (itself slanted from back to front), players must be wary of over-spinning their approach shots, lest they retract right into the water.
If you want to learn more about Torrey Pines Golf Course or other courses to play on a San Diego golf vacation, click here and take a free trial to our flagship publication, Golf Odyssey. Not only will I send you the next two issues, I'll give you instant access to our entire back-issue archive where you can read every unbiased review we've published since 2000!
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