Hey Helen from Schenectady! Suprise! Here are some add-on courses for your west coast golf road trip. A three-pack of courses you can add at your leisure or as side trips along the way.
A) Wine Valley – Walla Walla, Washington
Most of you may never get to play Ballyneal but, happily, Wine Valley is its public twin brother. Built by the same design team (excepting Tom Doak) the course winds through the rugged sandy slopes of the Walla Walla wine country. Brilliant angles, phenomenal green complexes and contours, and a treeless expanse where every breath of wind can wreak havoc with a golf ball’s flight make this one of the best kept secrets in the country, as rugged and unspoiled as it is brilliant in its intricacies. Play it before it gets surrounded by houses.
B) Couer D’Alene, Idaho
You have to love the green that moves around the lake! You can’t do it everywhere, but in the heavenly atmosphere of the Idaho mountains, it works. The rest of the course tumbles over and around the wooded hills before journeying to the lakeside on both nines. Opulent, pristine, laid-back, and just plain fun, it’s not a golf architecture junkie’s kind of place, but it’s still a sparkling scene nonetheless. Women and looky-loos especially tend to love it for its beauty alone, as well as the white-glove service.
“The grass really is that green, and the water really is that blue,” said Jim Heidt, an ardent golfer from upstate New York who made the trek years ago. Once you go there, he said, it stays with you forver – the kind of place you remember overnighting in the rest of your life.
C). PGA West (Stadium)
Gone are the days when people would avoid going to Pete Dye’s Stadium Course in Palm Springs because it was too hard. While it certainly is no place for beginners, experts only tend to hate it because smart bogey golfers that execute safe shots can eat their long-but-crooked hitting lunch. The course is easier than its reputation, although you will still have to deal with 17, a longer version of its twin at Sawgrass.
[Author’s Note: Wine Valley and Coeur D’Alene work well in conjunction with a trip that also includes Pumpkin Ridge and Chambers Bay. Bandon Dunes may be a long trek from Walla Walla (Nine hours) and add on additional 3-3.5 if you include CDA. PGA West makes a terrific add-on for any SoCal trip, many other fine courses in the regi0on as well.]
