My family and I attended our niece’s wedding in California’s Sonoma Valley last week, giving my son Tim and me enough time in the days before and after the ceremony to play three of the finest golf courses in the valley: one legendary and strictly private golf club, another private club that permits guests from a local hotel to play, and one municipal golf course that was a pleasant surprise.

 

Top 100 course has its ups and downs

        The ultra-private Mayacama Golf Club -– a non-resident “national” golf membership is priced at more than $100,000 -- is built along the side of one of the mountains that separates the Sonoma Valley from Napa Valley. Fractional (1/10^th) ownership is available in adjacent “casitas” and is priced around $250,000, which includes club membership; just 31 home sites surround the golf course, some of them converted into $3 million-plus homes. Mayacama is a breathtaking piece of property that took my breath away many times as I trundled up a few dozen steps to get to one of the course’s many elevated tee boxes. Our caddy, Jeremy –- the club is walking only -– said that the average walk on the course is seven miles, if you factor in all the trips up to and down from the tees. It’s a good walk for exercise freaks, but I found my 65-year-old lungs required a few extra minutes to re-oxygenate, but we had plenty of time for that (see below).

The par 3s at Mayacama are not especially long, but they need not be, perched as they are on the sides of slopes, as is #3.

 

        Mayacama is Jack Nicklaus at his surliest…and best. The golf course, with a rating of 71.5 and slope of 139 from the 6,302-yard “Plates” tees, was ranked 82^nd best in the U.S. in Golf Digest’s latest rankings, and we saw nothing to disavow a solid top-100 ranking. Virtually every shot from the tee boxes, the layups on the reasonably distanced par 5s (none over 525 yards from the middle tees) and the approaches on the par 4s must be placed in the appropriate position in order to avoid troubling internal debates about safe versus risky. The greens are either elevated, with rather steep falloffs to the chipping areas or bunkers below, or feature false fronts that will trap a short approach well below the pin or, worse, send the ball back down below the green. Cut into mountains and a canyon-like valley, the contrast between the brown mountains, green fairways and ubiquitous blue sky seems out of a Mondrian painting, and the views from virtually ever spot on the course are postcard perfect. The elevated greens were on the firm side, probably because of their draining properties as well as a dry summer, and they were as fast as you would expect an ultra-private club’s greens to be. Jeremy was especially helpful in reading putts; left to our own devices, it would have been late into the round until we figured out that most putts broke southeast, toward the town of Sonoma.

        Mayacama opened in 2002, a time when Nicklaus was still stamping many of his fairways with his signature trees, even if that means mid-fairway; if your drive finds the right side of the fairway on the par 5 finishing hole, for example, the tree between the edge of the lake and fairway virtually forces a second shot over a good stretch of water because playing to the other side of the tree -– the “safe” side -- will leave a long third shot to the green, all carry over water and a greenside bunker.

        The knee-stressing walks from tee boxes to fairways at Mayacama were not the only downs of the day. On a hot day in the valley, our round was one of the longest in years, just over five hours. Yes, the course is difficult and not for the faint of heart, and as I wrote earlier, it took me a few minutes to catch my breath after some walks between shots. But we waited on virtually every shot from tee box and fairway, sometimes as long as five minutes; the group in front of us took an inordinate time on the greens, but they did not fall behind the group in front of them. If I were a member, I would be none too pleased. The temptation is to echo Twain and say our day at Mayacama was a hard walk spoiled, but the course is so challenging, so nicely tended by its greens keeping staff and so much fun to play, that we will just say it was worth the waits.

 

Combo tees not too long, not too short, just right

        Sonoma Golf Club is a much more tame golf course in no less excellent condition than is Mayacama, but it will appeal more to those who enjoy a mild challenge (and mild exercise on the relatively flat golf course). The course was designed originally by Sam Whiting in 1928 and, besides its members, is open only to guests of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission and Inn Resort. Both members and guests are well treated at the club; our bags were toted straightaway to the elaborate practice range, where perfectly white Pro V-1 practice balls awaited. Yardages to the practice pins were perfectly delineated, and an attendant stood by to respond to any requests and then to carry our golf bags to a waiting cart near the first tee.

On some greens, the lush grass, false green fronts and tucked away pin positions make it inadvisable to consider running a shot up to the putting surface, although it looks tempting.

 

        Those who don’t know the Sonoma course will find it easy to walk or ride and without too many surprises (e.g. no blind shots). Most of the layout is rather straightforward –- in both senses of the word –- with just a few mild doglegs and a predictable three greenside bunkers on all but a few holes. I stood in a number of fairways setting up for approach shots thinking, “Haven’t we been here before?”

        Still, the routing was unique in my experience, the first nine running around the very edge of the property and the inward nine forming a counterclockwise spiral, more or less, on the interior of the layout. You might think that the nine that ran around the outer edge would be longer than the interior nine, and it is, but only by about 45 yards. The advantage of the cyclonic routing is that holes on the outward nine run in every compass direction, providing differing wind conditions and a wide variety of orientations against the mountain backgrounds. Okay, it’s a bit esoteric, but according to club staffers, Sam Snead, who played many hundreds of golf courses in his time, declared Sonoma one of his favorites.

        Sonoma does one thing I especially appreciate and would like to see at more golf clubs. They create a fifth set of tees by combining holes from the blue tees -– total 6,679 yards –- and the white tees -– total 6,158 yards, thus creating a course of 6,341 yards. (They even provide a separate, cute little scorecard just for the combo-tee layout.) So many times I play golf courses in which the blue tees are a little long for my 210-yard drives and the white tees a little wimpy. I find that for me and many of my fellow baby boomer golfing friends, 6,300 seems the perfect yardage; at Sonoma, the men’s combo tees -– eight contributed from the blue-tee set and 10 from the white tees –- carry a rating of 71.3 and slope of 134. (The slope rating for the blue tees is 135.)

 

Wine country muni a brilliant surprise

        The biggest surprise of the week was the public Windsor Golf Club, whose layout was more interesting than Sonoma Golf Club’s and with turf conditions that were almost the private club’s equal. Once away from the busy pro shop and practice area and the loudspeaker announcements of the next three groups on the first tee -– they mangled my last name, naturally –- the course was delightful. The club, which is abutted by nicely designed condos –- timeshare units, I was told -– is accessible to Highway 101, the major north-south route out of San Francisco, which is 70 miles away. This is the heart of Sonoma wine country, and many large and small, family-run wineries are within 10 minutes of the golf course.

Water does come into play on a few holes at Windsor Golf Club, although there is virually always a safe way around.

 

        The Windsor Golf Club layout included more in-play water than the two private clubs, but that didn’t add time to our round; we finished in about 4 hours 15 minutes, more than passable on a Wednesday when there were groups that started eight minutes ahead and behind us. A starter at the first hole kept things spaced nicely. I can’t say that Windsor played especially difficult, with a rating from the 6,143 yard men’s tees of 70.3 and slope of 127; the excellent condition of the greens, which were easy to read and putt, helped. But the variation of hole layouts was excellent, affording the opportunity to play most clubs in the bag and providing different approaches to well protected greens. I was also impressed that, on a municipal course like Windsor, daily-fee golfers and members seemed to repair most of the pitch marks on the greens. That was especially refreshing given that Windsor is so reasonably priced; I paid green fees of $27 (senior rate) and a cart fee of $15 (the course is certainly walkable). Such low rates may make golf memberships superfluous, but for those who intend to play three or more times a week, the monthly fee for a couple is $301 based on a yearlong commitment; keep in mind that the course is open all year and the mercury rarely dips below the 50s in winter.

        The streets that run perpendicular to one side of the Windsor Golf Club property are named 1^st Hole Drive, 2^nd Hole Drive, etc. right through to 19^th Hole Drive where, appropriately enough, the club’s restaurant is located. Windsor Golf Club may be in the middle of wine country, but in its little corner of Sonoma County, it is all about golf.

This is the second and final part of our review of Crystal Springs in Hardyston, NJ.

 

        Everyone I met at or near Crystal Springs, whether it was the father and son I was paired with on the golf course or the bartender at a local restaurant, asked me the same question: “Have you seen the wine cellar?” Actually I had, the morning of my visit, and I can understand why it is on everyone’s mind. The cellar in the resort’s huge lodge holds more than 100,000 bottles, and these are no Chateau Ordinary. Crystal Springs founder Gene Mulvihill, who passed away late last year, had

collected bottles from all over the world, with an emphasis on France, and had a goal to have the finest and largest wine collection in the world.  I know just enough about wine to make me dangerous and was able to recognize such names as Chateau Lafitte Rothschild, Latour, and some of the other major chateaux of Bordeaux. The cellar at Crystal Springs features all the best vintages from Bordeaux and Burgundy since the 1950s, and a number of them that reach back to the 19^th Century, and I recognized as well some Cabernets from California that I had seen valued in Wine Spectator for $1,000 and more per bottle.

If Wild Turkey has a "signature hole," it is #7, a par 3 over a water filled quarry with strong echos of the iconic par 3 9th hole at Yale Golf Club.

 

        Many of the bottles can be ordered by patrons of Latour, Crystal Springs’ intimate (40 seats) and expensive French restaurant that looks out from the back of the Lodge, over the adjacent gardens and toward the golf courses and mountains beyond. The resort has 14 other restaurants offering various types of food and different price points, but all are rarely open at the same time; during my visit, Latour, the Crystal Tavern and two other bistros were available.

        Between the wine, the setting, the gardens adjacent to the lodge and the grand ballrooms, it is not surprising that Crystal Springs hosts 150 weddings each year, sometimes two or three simultaneously.

 

Par 3 stares at you, stone faced

        Although that wine cellar provides the major wow factor at Crystal Springs, golf is no second fiddle. For my first round, I chose the Wild Turkey layout and played the blue tees at 6,555 yards. Roger Rulewich designed the golf course in 2001; it plays along the valley at the foot of the mountains that are in view from most of the community. That puts homeowners in prime position to look down on and across Wild Turkey’s sweeping layout on rolling farmland surrounded by mountains. I wonder if Rulewich was thinking about another iconic par 3 when he laid out the signature 7^th hole; at 180 yards from our blue tees, the hole plays over a water-filled quarry, its stone face guarding the front of the green. It reminded me strongly of the famed Seth Raynor #9 at Yale Golf Club, the major difference being length –- Yale’s version plays 190 yards from comparable tees –- and the size and shape of the greens; Wild Turkey’s is wider than it is long while Yale’s is narrow and a good 50 yards deep, with a deep trench in the middle.

The par 3 10th shows off one of Wild Turkey's strongest features -- the surrounding mountains.

 

        The Wild Turkey layout has a little bit of everything –- a few forced carries, fairway bunkers within range of slightly offline tee shots, a few false fronts on the greens. Although it seems like a contradiction, the course is both challenging and forgiving; that is, the fairways are wide and fairly accommodating for those who spray the ball, but there are enough bunkers at the edges of the fairways to provide some punishment for those offline shots. The greens themselves are well bunkered, but virtually all of them had run-up potential for thinly hit but straight shots.

        The turf on Wild Turkey was in excellent shape, and my ball sat up for virtually every fairway lie. The rough, while no pushover, was springy enough that the ball did not sink to the bottom. The greens were receptive

to well struck irons and about as true as greens can get, with very few reads that took too much concentration; rarely did the ball move off the line I saw. But those nice greens were, for the most part, a canvas for abuse by transient golfers too lazy and uncaring to repair their ball marks. I fixed an average three or four per green and left dozens more. Unsolicited advice to Crystal Springs: Hire a few high school kids or retirees to sit at greenside with a sign that says, “Fix Your Ballmarks, Please.” (If the player refuses, at least the teen or retiree can go fix it before the next group comes through.)

Green complexes at Wild Turkey feature false fronts, moguls and large swales, putting a premium on pinpoint approach shots and mimicking the surrounging mountains.

 

        I have one other suggestion for Crystal Springs: Make one of your golf courses strictly private, the way Reynolds Plantation, for example, has done with its Creek Club layout. Reynolds, with a Ritz Carlton resort hotel on site, provides access to five other golf courses for hotel guests (but not for the public). By restricting access to members only on, say, the Wild Turkey course, Crystal Springs could charge a little more for membership, inspire members to take better care of the greens and rest of the course (sorry, most daily fee players don’t care) and probably increase the number of members. For a golf resort that is also a golf community, having one private golf course adds cache and will support the real estate sales efforts. Six good golf courses are still more than enough for the transient golfers who don’t intend to make Crystal Springs their home.

        For years I had been looking forward to playing Ballyowen, a Scottish links design regarded by golf raters as the best course at Crystal Springs and one of the finest public courses in the east. Sadly, when I arrived at the pro shop, the heavens opened up and the forecast was not good. But nothing the day before -- not the tour of the real estate, my comfortable room at the Lodge or the round at Wild Turkey -- would cause me to think twice about returning. I am looking forward to playing Ballyowen this fall, and to the bagpiper who serenades patrons there in the morning and late afternoon. Maybe I’ll save up as well for dinner in Latour and spring for a modest bottle of wine.

The golf villas at Crystal Springs, like these beside the 10th tee on the Wild Turkey layout, are sited to maximize views of both the golf course and the mountains.  They are among the most attractive we've encountered in any golf resort community.

Note: If you would like an introduction to a real estate agent at Crystal Springs Resort who can show you the many options in real estate there, please contact us. We can say with confidence you’ll get a tour of the wine cellar as well.