|
The
Bridges at Gale Ranch- San Ramon
We all have
a golfing buddy who is always making excuses when he plays, blaming
the course design for his troubles. If he hits a great drive, but
it runs through the dogleg and into the rough, he complains that
the fairway is too short. Those guys would hate this course.
I, on the other
hand, am the kind of guy who enjoys a course that requires a little
thought, a little finesse. So I loved The Bridges. It is target
golf at its finest. You need a tour guide for every hole. In fact,
when I played the course, just over two months after its mid-November
opening, the marshals were still giving first-time players a three-page
handout that explained what to do on each hole.
On a few of
the trickier holes, marshals actually camped at the tee, ready to
answer questions as each group came through.
Take No. 16,
for example. You're on an elevated tee looking down at two fairways
that descend into a gulley, with the hole on a hill at the other
side. The fairway on the left seems to be the shortcut to the green,
but it's narrow, with bunkers galore. If you put your ball out to
the right, you have plenty of room, but the gulley forces you to
lay up so you'll still have a 200-yard uphill shot into the green.
Still, the
course manages to be playable. Whenever I drove by the place before
playing, I looked at the undulating fairways and huge greens and
said to myself: "That looks like a beautiful course. I can't wait
to get out there and shoot my 105." But I actually found that if
you do the smart thing (playing safe and hitting to the fat parts
of the fairway), you can actually post a reasonable score. I hit
irons off the tee on five of the nine par fours, sticking four of
those in the fairway. I managed to finish exactly at my handicap.
The only thing
that worries me about this course is summer. The fairways were relatively
soft on the February day I played, so the ball stuck. In July, though,
I can see tee shots landing in the center of the fairway and rolling
off into ditches. That's no fun.
The course
is also a little exclusive. It's $75 during the week and $95 Friday
through Sunday. Even the driving range is expensive ($9 for a large
bucket.) The fees keeps the course from being crowded. To me, though,
the course is nice enough that I'll put it on my list as a "treat
course." Twilight golf is $55. Locking in that first twilight tee
time, the one that actually gives you a chance to get in all 18,
would be a major coup.
By Jeff Fletcher
Editor, sfbaygolf.com
Back to Reviews | View
Course Profile | Course
Website
|
