PAR FOR THE CASH
There are 92 sand traps at Talega Golf Club, water comes into play on four holes and several holes require forced carries over canyons. The most severe hazard, however, is in the pro shop in the form of a cash register.
Talega, in San Clemente, opens Thursday with green fees topping out at $225. Residents of Orange and San Diego counties get a $185 rate on weekends, but that is still among the most expensive fees in Southern California.
“We are priced for the quality of the course,” said Norm Blandel, the director of golf at Talega. “We don’t feel like we can be compared to or compete with other courses. We are just focused on this facility and making it the best it can be.”
Course designer Brian Curley said the high price of building the course has filtered down to its fee.
“This was an expensive course to build,” he said. “The land value, the politics, the permitting. Even if the intention was to build a cheap course, it’s just tough to pull that off in Southern California.”
Many golfers probably have stopped reading by now, considering they wouldn’t dream of paying such fees, but for those who can afford it, read on. Talega offers an enjoyable experience.
Curley, of Arizona-based Schmidt-Curley design, got help from PGA Tour star Fred Couples in designing a course in the mold of a resort: wide open fairways that give players of all abilities confidence to hit a driver off the tee.
Better players will want to play the back tees to add a degree of difficulty.
“When you go to the driving range, you see 90% of the people are hitting drivers,” Curley said. “That’s what people want to hit so it was important for us to make this user friendly off the tee.”
Having the room to do so wasn’t a problem at Talega. Plans originally called for an 18-hole regulation course and an 18-hole executive course to meander through a 4,200-unit housing development, but Curley talked his bosses into scrapping the executive course to make the big course better.
“I thought it would be better to just do 18 good holes rather than forcing bad holes in there,” Curley said. “This way it has a real big feel, the holes aren’t so necked down. Most courses in housing areas, you’re playing in somebody’s backyard half of the time.”
Though it runs through a residential community, homes do not come into play at Talega. The developers gave Curley plenty of room, a rarity in a business where houses usually come first. About the only time you feel squeezed is on the back-to-back par threes at Nos. 7 and 8, a rare design move required to get the ninth hole headed back to the clubhouse.
There are penalties, of course, for missing such wide fairways. Just about every par-4 and par-5 hole has bunkers lining the fairways near the landing areas. Some bunkers are placed in the middle, forcing carries of 220-240 yards. The bunkers are large and steep.
“They are penal,” Curley said. “If you have a wide fairway, you can go very deep and dramatic with the bunkers.”
The greens can also be tough. Made with a new blend of bentgrass, they will be slick on dry days and have plenty of undulations to keep golfers guessing about reading them.
The 408-yard, par-4 finishing hole stands out as the highlight of the course. The tee box is perched high above a fairway about 70 yards wide. It sounds like plenty of room, but a bunker splits the fairway. There is more room on the left, but if you hit to that side, your approach must carry a lake that guards the left side of the green.
The 613-yard, par-5 13th hole is also memorable. Its length makes it virtually impossible to reach in two, especially considering that a ravine splits the fairway. Most players are better off laying up short of the ravine since it takes a 260-yard carry to clear it.
The playability does not end with the tee shots. Greenside hazards have been loaded to one side on most holes, giving players the option of playing away from the trouble.
Four sets of tees are plenty to accommodate most players. The copper tees are longest at 6,951 yards, the blues are 6,583, the whites are 6,187 and the reds are 5,569.
All the bells and whistles are included in the fee. An attendant greets you at the bag drop, takes your clubs and points you in the right direction. Smiling pro shop personnel welcome you.
All carts are equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite system that provides distances to front and back edges of hazards, exact distance to the pin.
Unfortunately, it can’t help you avoid that cash-register hazard.