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Golf Course Trades Runs my Monterey Peninsula Country Club Story

MIKE STRANTZ’S SWAN SONG MONTEREY PENINSULA COUNTRY CLUB – SHORE COURSE

Thanks again to Golf Course Trades for making my piece on Monterey Peninsula Country Club sparkle. I love both courses; Strantz’s Shore Course is a masterpiece and a west coast pantheon to his legacy, while the Dunes Course is one of Fazio’s unqualified best in the world.From the story:
“Strantz knew he was designing between Pebble and Cypress, cheek and jowl with Mackenzie, his favorite designer of all. He was also painfully aware that his oral cancer had returned and, worse, had metastasized. What had already claimed 90% of his tongue was soon to claim his life. Strantz knew that this was his last golf design. In fact, he told his design associate Forrest Fezler, “I think I’ve designed my last golf hole,” when he completed his plans for the par-3 11th, a sketch and some spray-painted lines.

“Mike’s greatest genius here was his flow of horizontal movement to the fairways; you hit 16 shots at the Pacific Ocean. Mike reversed the routing of the ocean holes, and now you see Cypress and Spyglass as a backdrop,” Zoeller noted.

Strantz also laid out the course in an out and back routing with an asymmetric sequencing of holes. Fibe par-5s and five par-3s add greater variety and result in a par of 35-37=72. Such asymmetry adds indelible character and results in the golfer using an even wider variety of clubs during the round.

The club proudly embraces its Strantzian heritage. They’ve made exactly one change to his work this far – they moved the 18th green. Other than that, it’s still Strantz’s proper rejoinder to Cypress and Pabble, and stands proudly shoulder to shoulder with that venerable company.”