The Course is The Star at SCGA Members Club

Put this course on your "must play" list for it's classic design, quality conditions and above all "affordability"

By Eric Tracy
erictracy@earthlink.net

Profit isn't the motivation of the Southern California Golf Association, passion is. Passion for the game. That's how I would describe everyone I've ever met associated with the SCGA. These are golf people who respect the game and their 165,000 members made up mostly of "public play" amateurs. The SCGA is best known as the keeper of the handicaps. This august body had it's 20-year goal realized when they became the owner/operators of the SCGA Members Club at Rancho California 5 years ago. Every SCGA card-carrying member should play this course, it's your club. If you're not a member, you should play it too, it'll just cost you $15.00 more and it's still a bargain by today's high end/daily fee standards. Especially for a course that's as good as any we've played on this 24-week Southern California Golf Tour.

WARMING UP:

Ever heard of Murrieta Hot Springs Country Club? This is how this piece of land began back in 1970. Designed by the renowned Robert Trent Jones Sr., and financed by the pipe-fitters union, things were fine until the clubhouse was mysteriously torched. The place became a weed palace and closed down for about 10 years. In the mid '80s, real estate developer Bill Johnson cleaned it up, reopened the place and it was doing pretty good until the stock market went south along with Johnson's portfolio. The SCGA was in the right place at the right time buying it for $8 million. GM Tom Pinch, a man steeped in tradition and whose father was once Executive Director of the SCGA, brought the senior Jones back to town to help restore the holes to the original plan with classic bunkering and thought-out chutes and fairways. The on-going development is being carried out by Robert Trent Jones Jr., son of the legendary "father of golf architecture." OK, end of history lesson. Let's play.

MY FAVORITE HOLES:

• No. 1, 565-yard par 5 (9 handicap): If you skipped warming up on the driving range - a nice, multi -tiered facility that has the flag distances marked on every bag stand slot, so there's no guessing - just go back now. Starting with the second-longest hole on the course may not seem fair, but no one said it was going to be easy, for crying out loud. When is the game ever easy? At least enjoy the view of the Temecula Valley in front of you. OB on the left and right and bunker bookends on the green with very neat rock formations make this look more like something that should be done in oil instead of a club. The third shot is a downhill lie to the downhill, small, two-tiered green, so there's no loft. Just relax, there's a par 3 to follow.
• No. 3, 413-yard par 4 (3 handicap): Few holes linger in your mind like a good wine linger on your palette, but if you catch this one with the morning sun at your back, casting shadows with all the willows and palms and oaks and eucalyptus and whatever else you wanna call 'em, it's a sight to behold. We don't want to get too mushy here, but guys, thank the Lord you're able to be alive to see this creation. The elevated tee, down to a lake-protected green. It doesn't get much better.
• No. 8, 431-yard par 4 (1 handicap): A very long, uphill poke that forces you to stay in the center or else there's some unmentionable trouble both left and right with traps waiting to greet you. The second shot will probably be a three-iron that won't run because it's all up hill besides, there's a jaws-like trap in the back that forces you to stay below the hole. The secret here: Hope the cup is cut on the top tier. If you have to putt downhill to the lower tier, it may roll off. So much to think about that it's apropos that this hole runs along a short dead-end street named Robert Trent Jones Parkway. (Note, it's not a Drive, but a Parkway).
• No. 12, 419-yard par 4 (2 handicap): Another fun hole lined with modular homes--not trailer homes, not mobile homes, so get it straight. The challenge is how to hit it left over the trap without encountering water. A 270-yard drive won't guarantee a par because this green is protected by many of the high-faced bunkers you'll face more often than you care to admit. Don't mismanage your shots on this one.
• ü No. 18, 445-yard par 4 (4 handicap): Uphill again and to the left, how this is monster is only the 4th handicap hole I'll never know? It runs parallel to the first hole, so after you're done, the temptation will be to sneak around and play the course all over again. Now that you're warmed up, of course.

OUT OF BOUNDS: There's a Mulligan's Minature Golf Course right off I-15 south of the course if you need putting help or is the course sounds too tough for you.

PACKAGE DEALS: With this area being Southern California wine country and with so many other nice golf courses around, here's our suggestions; make it a 3-4 day mini-vacation. Most of the surrounding hotels offer wonderfully affordable package deals. Personally, we're partial to anything offered by Embassy Suites in Temecula, which includes a bottle of Temecula Valley Champagne, free breakfast and a free Happy Hour (actually 2 ½) in the deal. However, there's also a neat package offered at Pala Mesa down the road about 20-minutes that let's you play their course and SCGA as part of the "Stay and Play" package.

DID YOU KNOW: All the oil portraits of the SCGA executives in the pro shop along with one of course designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr., were painted by course GM Tom Pinch.

APPAREL RECOMMENDATION: The pro shop sells caps called "Little Aussie Chillers," for $24 which you're encouraged to soak in water and wear to keep cool during the day. It's made of stuff that feels like a chamois - could it be kangaroo skin?

SUMMING IT UP: I admit to having a Santa Barbara taste with a Temecula pocketbook so this area is a golf travelers dream. On the Northern San Diego tour, the SCGA Members Club made most of the "Best Public Course" lists. On the day I played, the conditions couldn't be better or the course in better shape, which is a tribute to superintendent John Martinez, who is involved in testing grasses for UC Riverside. The master plan here is to make The Members Club a 27-hole facility. If it sticks with the Jones mindset, that can only mean more thinking involved, and more return trips.

Eric Tracy

KFWB RADIO