SLO County Golf, Wine & Real EstateGolf, Wine & Real Estate News and Events Blog
Opening Day at Monarch Dunes Golf ClubMonday, January 02, 2006 Monarch Dunes Golf Club delivered on their promise to bring a Scottish links-style course to the Central Coast - including the weather! Not only is the course highlighted by large greens, lace-edged bunkers, water features, clumps of veldt grass and miscanthus, woodland and undulating dunes, but we got to experience Scottish-style rain - sideways, and lots of it. All 80 available tee-times were booked for yesterday's opening day at Monarch Dunes and nearly 60 of those golfers showed up to play, even though lots of rain was imminent. Our foursome teed off at 10:00 am in a light drizzle. Light rain and drizzle kept up throughout the front nine and first couple holes on the back. However, the rain and winds picked up for the remainder of the back nine, making for a very cold, wet, Scottish-like golf experience. The weather turned so bad that we ended up being one of the only groups to finish all 18 holes and were the last group to leave the course. It turned out that every group behind us and most of the groups in front of us all quit after 9 holes, leaving the back nine all to us! The weather may have been bad, but the golf was outstanding - everyone in our foursome loved the course! We found the course to be very challenging, but fair. Fairways weren't too difficult to hit consistently, but hitting greens proved a bit more challenging - often guarded by lofty dunes and spacious traps. The layout includes five sets of tees - tournament tees are just more than 6,800 yards - and ocean views on several holes. Playing the green tees whittles the par 35-36-71 challenge to just 4,700 yards. There are five par 3s and four par 5s. The property's five lakes come into play on about a third of the holes. We played the gold tees, making the course play 6337 yards - plenty of challenge for our group of 8-10 handicaps. A higher handicap golfer might consider the white tees at 5821 yards. Course rating and slope are not yet available. The course will be rated by the Southern California Golf Association on Jan. 18. We expect a relatively high slope since the course seems pretty challenging for the average golfer. There were so many picturesque holes that we can't imagine picking a signature hole for the course. From the clubhouse, you view the beautiful par 4 1st and 9th which border a lengthly lake. The par 5 6th rises to a perched multi-tiered green surrounded by eucalyptus trees. The lengthly par 4 10th provides dual fairways surrounded by sand and dunes finishing with a dune-guarded green. The par 3 11th drops from the Nipomo Mesa giving the golfer one of the best views of the Nipomo Dunes and Pacific coastline on the Central Coast. The 14th seems the most Scottish-like, with woodlands, grasses, traps and dunes surrounding a narrow fairway. The course was definitely a pleasure to play! Fairways were lush and firm, greens provided good quality putting surfaces. The course even drains well and proved it can handle the rains. And although the course resides in The Woodlands - a residential community currently under construction - homes don't impede on your play. Buffers between them and the course are significant since the course takes up about 135 acres, almost 30 acres more than the average golf course in California. At this time, the course only contains 150-yard markers, but later this month, 700 sprinkler heads around the course will include yardages. The range will open within the month and a putting green should be available soon as well. A chipping green may be provided later near the driving range. So, although we left the course completely soaked and very cold, we experienced a round of golf we won't soon forget. The warm clubhouse, hot clam chowder, and cold Firestone's provided a nice finish to a memorable New Years Day! We'll all be back soon, but we'll let this winter storm pass through first! |
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