Golf: No more birdie vision

Richard Dunn

As the Toshiba Senior Classic grows a year older, the host site of

the Senior PGA Tour event, Newport Beach Country Club, is becoming more

refined.

The mature, tree-lined golf course, which opened in 1954 when it was Irvine Coast Country Club and is known for its gently rolling terrain,

will have a big surprise for members of the Senior Tour next month.

For the first time, the seniors will play the new 18th green at

Newport Beach, which underwent an extensive remodeling project last

summer and is bound to give golfers a more difficult time than in years

past.

The par-5 hole No. 18, which has historically played as one of the

easiest in the Toshiba Classic, will no longer induce visions of birdies.

In fact, the look of the hole from 100 yards in has completely

changed.

The green is now elevated and undulated, mounds have been added behind

it to give it some flash and new bunkers have been built.

A flower planter behind the green, on the side of a mound, proudly

displays the letters NBCC as players and visitors walk in from the

parking lot.

From the fairway, the clubhouse is no longer in the backdrop and a

stronger premium on placement is required.

“From 10-to-12 yards off the green, (the fairway) is about seven feet

lower than the putting surface,” Newport Beach Country Club President

Jerry Anderson said.

The hole’s distance is the same, 510 yards from the blue tees. But the

green at 18, raised about four feet in the back, now features mounds

behind it. The highest point is about 14 feet.

The club, committed to improving the golf course each year it hosts

the Senior Tour event, has completed other projects and planted 20 new

pine trees, but the change at 18 is the most dramatic.

No. 18 has ranked as the second-easiest hole on the course in four of

the five years the event has been played there, but starting this year,

golfers will have an uphill approach to 18 and a critical third shot to

the green.

“I think that’s a pretty big story,” tournament director Jeff Purser

said of the renovated finishing hole. “And the golf course looks

unbelievable right now.”

The seventh annual Toshiba Classic is Feb. 26 through March 4.

For the seventh year in a row, Pelican Hill Golf Club has been ranked

as operating one of the “top 100 golf shops in the nation” for resort

courses by Golf Shop Operations Magazine.

Pelican Hill opened its Ocean South Course November, 1991, then

introduced its second Tom Fazio-designed course, the Ocean North, two

years later.

Pelican Hill, owned by the Irvine Co., has hosted the Team Matches

from all three major tours in each of the last two Decembers.

Speaking of the Irvine Co., the Newport Beach-based property

development giant plans to open Shady Canyon Golf Course for play later

this year.

Shady Canyon, with its initiation membership price tag rumored to be

in the $200,000 range, is also designed by Fazio and located in a

secluded area of Irvine’s San Joaquin Hills.

According to the Irvine Co., the 300-acre project is expected to be

one of the most distinctive and scenic private courses in California.

Just under 400 custom homes and semi-custom villas are being

integrated into the area. Shady Canyon is incorporating permanently

protected open space into land adjacent to this lowest-density village in

Irvine.

Lots for custom homes alone are expected to go from $500,000 to $1

million.

It will be interesting how Shady Canyon affects other private clubs,

such as relatively nearby Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, the

most exclusive club in Orange County.

Some Newport Beach residents, including Pete Daley (Mesa Verde Country

Club), are already planning to investigate Shady Canyon when it opens.

“I’ll obviously look there,” said Daley, the Mesa Verde men’s club

champion and 2000 Jones Cup participant. “Shady Canyon’s going to compete

with Big Canyon (for high-end memberships).”

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.