I had a discussion recently with a friend of mine who is also a pilot and golfer. His argument was that the past decade has seen more progress in metallurgy and golf club design than in avionics, and I argued the other way. He cited products from Orlimar, Callaway, and Taylor Made, while I countered with Garmin, Sandel, and MicroVision. I did not even include GPS, which by rights should go in both columns, because with our errant tee shots we sometimes need a GPS to get back to the fairway. One point I had to concede — they are building more golf courses than airports.
Airports and golf courses have traditionally made good neighbors — remember the old engine-failure saw about a twin being able to carry you to the next golf course — and sometimes the noise-abatement procedures use the golf course as part of the climbout, at South Lake Tahoe and Santa Monica, for instance. Having an airplane in California gives you a choice of golf at every level, from nine-hole goat tracks to legendary PGA Tour courses. Each club has its own policy for outside play, from private clubs with reciprocal agreements to public courses available to anyone, and military courses open only to golfers with stars and bars.
Ground transportation comes in many varieties, too. Obviously any golf course is accessible if you fly to some nearby airport, rent a car from an FBO, and make the drive. That system gives you access to the dozens of great courses surrounding the state's major cities. Most golf resorts and some smaller courses offer free rides from nearby airports if you're staying a few days or bringing a group. But every corner of California offers courses that make it easy for a twosome or a single to fly in, grab a short ride, tee it up, top off, and fly home.
If your taste runs to the rugged coastline in the north end of the state, there's one course you could literally walk to from the airport: the nine-hole course built around the runway at Shelter Cove. There are also nine-hole courses near Little River and Crescent City airports. Moving down the coast, there are two public courses just south of Half Moon Bay Airport, including a recently renovated course originally designed by Arnold Palmer.
Not exactly airport-convenient, but definitely worth a drive from either San Jose or Watsonville, is Pasatiempo, a semiprivate course designed by Alister MacKenzie in 1929. MacKenzie, who also designed Augusta National, aligned the fairways to give Pasatiempo breathtaking views overlooking Monterey Bay. Golf Magazine ranked it seventeenth in its 1999 Top 100.
Salinas Fairways is an 18-hole public course that lies between the departure areas of runways 26 and 31 at Salinas Municipal Airport. Park at Air Trails and they'll either give you a ride or let you have the courtesy car for the short hop. When the military moved out of Fort Ord and it became Marina Airport, we not only gained easy access to the north end of Monterey Bay, including a public Robert Trent Jones Jr. course at Laguna Seca, but the former military-only courses at Bayonet and Black Horse were opened to the public.
Monterey offers access to the Pebble Beach brand of golf, including the Links, Poppy Hills, Spyglass, and Cypress Point that Der Bingle made famous. Practice your short-field technique on 1,800-foot-long Carmel Valley, then practice your short game at near-by Rancho Canada, Quail Lodge, or Carmel Valley Resort. AOPA Pilot Associate Editor Steve Ells suggested those, plus dropping into Lompoc to play the track at Purisma.
Pelican Hill has two Tom Fazio courses that are a short ride from John Wayne — aka Santa Ana — Airport. Golf Magazine ranked them fiftieth in its 1999 Top 100. Flying into Carlsbad leaves you a short hop from Aviara and La Costa. Aviara was Golf Magazine's number-one course in 1999, and until this year La Costa was home to the PGA's Tournament of Champions. Cabs are available if the vans from the resorts are busy.
Ground transportation comes into play at Catalina Island's airport, but if you've been there you know you need a 30-minute bus ride into Avalon to do anything beyond grabbing a buffalo burger at the airport restaurant. Once you get into town, there's a nine-hole John Dunn course you can walk to that has hosted the Wrigleys and others since 1925.
If you have access to military courses, two of the best are in the San Diego area: the Admiral Baker course and the Sea N Air course at Naval Air Station North Island, where a lob wedge has a chance of a midair with an inbound C-2. For civilians, Torrey Pines, a PGA Tour stop along the La Jolla coast, is a public course about 15 minutes from Montgomery. Walk-ons are welcome but may have to wait, since San Diego residents get dibs. (There are worse places to hit a couple of buckets than the coast at La Jolla.) In 1960 Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed the challenging course at Pauma Valley. The 2,900-foot runway couldn't be more convenient to the golf course, but both the club and the airport are private so make arrangements ahead of time.
California's biggest sand trap, the Coachella Valley surrounding Palm Springs, offers 104 golf courses with more on the way. Nine of those courses belong to La Quinta, which is owned by KSL Resorts, which also owns the Million Air chain of FBOs. Three of La Quinta's courses are open to the public, and the others, including three PGA West courses, have reciprocal agreements. Fly into Desert Resorts Regional Airport and expect to pay about $15 for a cab ride to the resort.
There are two often-overlooked desert courses close to the Borrego Springs airport. Rams Hill, which is changing owners yet again, and Borrego Springs Resort both offer free rides to fly-in golfers. The bad news about desert courses is that, like the hotels that own them, they will be busy and expensive in the wintertime. The good news is that in the summertime they'll make deals, and sometimes let you play all the golf you can tolerate for a single fee.
If you like heat you can't beat the appropriately named Furnace Creek course next to Furnace Creek Airport in Death Valley. The course is surrounded by tamarisk and palm trees, which do a good job of muting the afternoon blast furnace. There's no fuel at the airport so plan accordingly. In fact you'll find nothing at the field but a shack with a phone to call the office to ask for your ride to the clubhouse. The course and the airport are 200 feet below sea level and both will often reach 125 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer months, so don't forget water and sun protection for you and your airplane. There is a nice resort hotel nearby if you decide to stay over.
Golf in the Sierras only gets good when skiing gets bad, but it sure is fun to put density altitude to work on your tee shot. Snowcreek is near Mammoth Yosemite Airport and Lahontan, Tahoe Donner, and Northstar are accessible from Truckee. You'll see the course at South Lake Tahoe on short final to Lake Tahoe Airport.
Fly safely and do your math. A couple of full tour bags can top 60 pounds, and a putter can act like one of Chi Chi's swords if not properly secured in turbulence. If weight and balance or space becomes an issue, ask about renting clubs at your destination, a service many courses now offer. Hit 'em straight!
A listing of California golf courses with convenient GA access is available on AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/2001/cafly_golf.html).
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