Undercard: San Diego vs. Santa Barbara

by Vic Williams and Darin Bunch

BEAUTY AND THE BEACH

Nobody would accuse Los Angeles of being a flyover city. Well, maybe those rabid anti-Hollywood folks who usually hail from the real flyover states ... but most people? Uh, no. The City of Angels offers millions of potential party partners, incredible diversity, miles of freeways, that same Hollywood history, plus Disney’s roots and zillions of other things to do. As Sheryl Crow one sang, “This ain’t no disco/It ain’t no country club either/This is L.A!”

Well, there are some smokin’ country clubs in La La Land, but in public and resort golf terms, the whole flyover notion almost fits, for one glaring reason: To the south you’ve got San Diego, to the north Santa Barbara. One offers 70-odd golf courses across its sea-to-desert expanse; boasts the best beaches in the West; will host the U.S. Open in 2008 (which FG will preview to the Nth degree in its March-April edition); counts Phil Mickelson and many other pro stars among its natives or current residents; and is the nation’s overwhelming choice in the “Best Weather” department. The other offers only a dozen or so courses but gets it done in the “quality over quantity” department; counts Fred Couples and Oprah Winfrey among its residents; is Southern California’s leading choice for “Best Romantic Getaway”; and certainly doesn’t suck as a beach burg either. Both places are beautiful and generally sun-splashed and pretty much sum up what California is all about. If you’re in San Diego or Santa Barbara, you’re “living the life,” as the youngsters say.

In a phrase, both bookend the nation’s second largest city in very different but equally appealing ways, which is what makes this matchup so tough to handicap. But we’ll do it anyway, because as lifelong Westerners, we love ’em both and want to see each get its due.

Certainly the public golf vibe is much stronger down south, where the king of SoCal munis, Torrey Pines, has been preparing for the Open onslaught for a decade. The city hired modern day Open doctor Rees Jones to work the South Course over — turn it into Bethpage West, so to speak — and he’s done that to an extent. The bunkers are tougher, the rough is deeper, the green complexes more vexing than before. Some would say Torrey is overrated, but you can’t overlook its popularity among the locals (who would just as soon keep it to themselves) and visitors seeking the authentic San Diego County seaside golf experience. Nor can you overlook the fact that it hosts a popular PGA Tour event each year, won by the Tigers and Dalys and Phils of the world. And nowadays it’s very tough to overlook as a bona fide resort destination, thanks to the opening of the elegant, boutique-feeling, California Craftsman-syled Lodge at Torrey Pines. By any measure this is high-end stuff, with a full-service spa, gorgeous grounds, views of Torrey South (the lobby almost brushes the No. 18 green), epic restaurant/bar and a refined, big-city service model. And now that Torrey has a new clubhouse and grill of its own, the whole place has a new spring in its step — with admittedly higher green fees to boot.

Not that San Diego is all Torrey, Torrey, Torrey. Barona Valley Ranch surrounds its Native American casino with a true gem that recently hosted the Nationwide Tour Championship. Maderas is building a semi-private reputation as one of Johnny Miller’s best, and the Carlsbad tandem of La Costa, with its PGA Tour pedigree, and Aviara, with its new-school sublime resort and perhaps Arnold Palmer’s best design in West, certainly back up the southern end of SoCal rep as a prime golf destination. And, of course, when you factor in all the downtown has for fun, food and frolicking — Padres, Chargers, Seaport Village, the Gaslamp District, Harbor Island — it’s hard to beat a week with San Diego as the center of your vacation universe.

But San Diego is also big-city fun, all sprawled out across the Southland, where anything worth doing takes 30 minutes to an hour of travel time.

And that’s where Santa Barbara excels. Big city, it ain’t. Slower and more serene, it’s a boutique kind of town, a place that feels homey and friendlier than its brethren to the south.

On this stretch of coast, public golf comes at a premium. And premium golf is what you get — whether it is the oceanside classic Sandpiper, where challenge meets conditioning meets surf spray so close you can taste it on one tee box, or the newly renovated Rancho San Marcos in the foothills along Highway 154, where Robert Trent Jones Jr. painted a classic portrait of how golf should be played, rising and falling through the rolling terrain, with shotmaking the rallying cry of a player who seeks to post a memorable low round.

In a sense, all Santa Barbara and San Diego have in common is the Pacific and their label as Southern California destinations. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, our little battle between the two is a microcosm of what makes Golden State golf so great — variety, from the beaches to the flatlands to the mountains. Just turns out that the Santa Barbara region has a bit of all three.

So, sure, we’ll see you in San Diego for the Open, but these days, we’re opting for the simple golfing life, and the combination of Sandpiper and Rancho San Marcos offers more of a one-two slap on the back than a punch. And in the growing world of marquee golf, that’s a change of pace we can sit back, relax and cheer. FG

Santa Barbara            San Diego

10    Setting/Atmosphere    10
10    Course Architecture    10
10    Course Conditioning    10
10        Course Variety        10
9                Value            9
10        Dining Options        10
10            Lodging            10
10        Non-Golf Recreation    10
10        Travel Accessibility    10
10            Weather            10
99                Final Score        99