Northern California: Monterey/Seaside

by Doug Saunders

Bayonet's new No. 9 has an Augusta-like feel, with bright white bunkering.

Bates' Bayonet Sting

A Former Military Marvel Turns the Corner to World-Class Golf, Nine Holes at a Time

Do you know the way to Monterey? Of course you do, if you call yourself a golfer. After all these years — Del Monte Golf Course predates the 20th century, and Pebble Beach opened in 1919 — it’s not only a must-visit for Golden State visitors with clubs and cameras in tow, but one of the premier golf locales in the world.

Along this sublime coastline that has been described as the “grandest meeting of land, sea and sky” can be found one of the greatest collections of golf courses imaginable, and FG has played them all … almost. We still haven’t cracked the 17-Mile Drive code of Cypress Point, with its awesome stretch of holes that cling to the rocky coast, and though we managed to check Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s beautifully re-tooled Shore Course off our list this summer, we still haven’t done the Dunes. Add to this mix Spyglass Hill, Spanish Bay, Poppy Hills and Pacific Grove and you can see why this region is at the top of every golfers must-visit list. It’s a spot on the map FG, and most of its readers, can’t resist longer than six months or so.

And now there’s yet another reason to swing down Highway 1 and into golf heaven. Just six miles north of 17-mile drive is another bit of Monterey golf lore in the midst of a major transformation. In the town of Seaside is a 26,000-acre parcel of land that was once housed Fort Ord. This U.S. Army base had been the home of the 7th Infantry Division and was the training site for soldiers during WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War until it was decommissioned in 1994 during the nationwide downsizing of military installations.

Within the confines of the old base were two of the best-kept secrets in golf, Bayonet and Black Horse. These two tough and scenic tracks — perched above Monterey Bay with views of sea and mountain from many holes — were a part of America’s large and impressive collection of military golf venues.

Bayonet came first in 1954, and the legend and reputation of this challenging layout has grown in many ways.  Over the years the course had been the host to Generals, Presidents, and dignitaries who had heard about this tough but fair course. PGA Tour pros had become familiar with its challenges, as it has been a first stop in the PGA TOUR School, the site for qualifying for the AT&T National Pro-Am, and a popular practice course for the Pebble Beach event for decades. Nicklaus, Watson, Trevino, Venturi and Miller have all tested themselves here. It also served as host to the Buy.Com Tour.

Just going to play at these courses when it was still a military installation added to the mystique of the place. You had to call in advance to make a tee time so that your name was transferred to the M.P. Headquarters at the main gate.
“What is your business here today?” the armed guard would bark out when you came to the gate.

“Sir, I am here to play golf, Sir,” I would respond with a sharp salute, hoping the board-straight military cop would not ask to search my golf bag for contraband.

“Report to the guard desk to receive your pass,” he commanded, directing me to the barracks to the right.
From the gate you drove through the base, passed the P.X. and slipped by soldiers running in formation, military trucks buzzing by, and began to wonder if there would be a drill sergeant at the driving range berating you while you warmed up.

“You call that a golf swing, maggot? Keep that head down and drive those legs through like you mean it, golfer!!!”
All of this added to the atmosphere at Bayonet. What made this course such a standout was its location near the ocean, the tricky swirling winds and the unyielding stand of cypress and pine trees that lined every fairway. These trees had limbs that grew almost to the ground so that any shot their way would lead to a nearly impossible escape through the wooden tangles. The golf holes themselves looked like a green strip of grass tucked into the trees with just a flagstick at the far end to mark your target — and, as Robin Williams so  memorably stated in his mock-Scottish brogue, “Ta give ya hoop.”

Bayonet was built under the direction of General Robert B. McClure, a passionate golfer himself who employed a simple rule: it makes sense to design your golf course to fit your own game. The General was a lefty with a brutal slice, so Bayonet is littered with dogleg left holes. The back nine is famous for a stretch known as “Combat Corner,” where the continuous theme makes you think you’re on the marching grounds and that drill sergeant is in your ear again yelling, “Left, left, your left,” to keep you in perfect cadence.

McClure designed a giant of a course. Bayonet stretched out to over 7,000 yards, a rarity in that era, and No. 4 was a 600 yard par 5. The original layout had very few trees but in the late ’50s over 5,000 of them were planted, changing the character of the place forever … or almost forever.

A sister course, Black Horse, was laid out in 1964 by General McClure and course superintendent Merle Russell, in response to the talk of adding military housing to the property that bordered the General’s course. Black Horse had much of the same feel as Bayonet with ocean views, lots of trees and the challenge of club selection in the breezy conditions, though traditionally it’s somehow lacked in character and toughness. That, too, will change.

When the military decided to shut down Fort Ord, the City of Seaside began to develop a contingency plan to make use of the massive site. Through the cooperation of the State of California, the city helped add a Monterey campus for the California State University system. But the ultimate goal is to use the two golf courses to transform the little town of Seaside into a new golf destination.  Starting in 2006, the city began renovating the 36 holes of golf and, later this year and into late 2009 or early 2010, will also add a 350-room Fairmont Hotel on the property — ostensibly to create an affordable alternative to nearby Pebble Beach, though with Fairmont on board, it’ll have its share of creature comforts.
Last spring, the project’s first phase opened for play, and it’s an unqualified hit. In fact, we’d like to tender one warning to the Peninsula: Watch out, Spyglass.

The phrase “blown away” is apropos. We are, and here’s why: Bayonet’s front nine has been transformed into an eye-popping, reconfigured, white-bunkered that sets a very high standard for the work to follow. Under the direction of well-known West Coast architect Gene Bates, who designed the nearby San Juan Oaks Golf Course with Freddy Couples back in the early ’90s, a new feel has been added to the old track. Can you say, “U.S. Open quality?” We can. And will.
Bates has always displayed obvious talent, but he really shows his dramatic and strategic chops here, with a nod to Bayonet’s rich past. “Our goal is to maintain the historical aura of the course but add a visually enhanced product,” he said in May. “The addition of more bunkers filled with white sand and planting the entire course in T1 bent grass should create an inviting course.”

Inviting yet incendiary in that classic Bayonet way, that is. Each hole has seen the thinning of the limbs of the trees up 20 feet, which has opened all of the areas under them. This has helped to make the golf course look wider, but the addition of a nasty rough — abandon hope, all ye who enter with anything more than a sand wedge — still puts a premium on hitting fairways. On top of this, the white sand in the bunkers make them leap out in contrast to the lush green fairways.

The contrast from the ol’ general’s version of Bayonet is obvious at the first hole, which is renovated, runs uphill right next to the original No. 10. New bunkers add definition to the fairways and help to direct your way on the short grass to greens that are faster and more true than ever. And while there has been much thinning of the trees, several strategic old-growth cypress have been left to add the strategic challenge of the holes. While the front nine’s routing has been slightly altered — check out No. 8, now a serpentine, bunker-stacked 613 yards from the tips and one of the best 5-pars in California, much less the Monterey region — it finishes with one completely new hole. Still a 4-par but far more beautiful and engaging than its predecessor, No. 9 will grab any player’s attention and stop longtime Bayoneters dead in their tracks. It’s a sweeping dogleg-right, uphill 476-yard monster that replaces the old No. 5. A mighty drive around the bend — with a few new-growth trees set in the elbow in place of yesterday’s claustrophic grove of low-slung pines — sets you up for a massive shot into a sloping green that protected by bunkers both front and back. Even a bogey brings a sense of accomplishment; a recent FG contingent’s pair of pars sent us Combat Corner-ward in a winning mood, even though the holes preceding it had drawn a battalion’s worth of blood.

Bates mentions that Bayonet’s new stretch of holes could become its back nine after all construction is completed, which is probably the way to go. At any rate, it’s clear that many ideas continue to crop up for this daunting yet overdue project.

The next phase, now underway, will see nine holes on the Black Horse Course go under the bulldozer for the next six to nine months.  “This next nine is the logical place to work next from a construction standpoint as there is so much infrastructure to install,” Bates told FG. We plan to renovate nine holes at a time which should set a final completion date of work sometime in 2009.”

Since Blackhorse course doesn’t have the same mystique as the old Bayonet — think Del Monte compared to Spyglass — Bates plans to be even more aggressive in changing its character to fit the site’s spruced-up ’tude.

“With the addition of the Fairmont Hotel we want to have two exceptional golf courses for visitors to enjoy. We have the opportunity to really open up this course for the ocean views and create a completely different challenge for players.”
There’s that goal again: To make this Seaside golf resort a destination alternative to Pebble Beach, with a golf product that will stir emotions and cement memories just like Pebble and its brethren do, at a more affordable price. Thanks to Bates’ wizardry, a solid plan and an influx of public bucks, the dream is becoming a reality — and this first glimpse of the future of the Monterey Peninsula is well worth a visit. FG

— With additional reporting by Vic Williams