|
Trump resurrects Ocean Trails into #1 course in Southern
California
and best ‘new’ course
in the state
Fairways & Greens, December, 2005
America’s favorite real estate mogul-turned-TV star has
pulled off the seemingly impossible yet again. A proven master
of spinning gold out of nearforgotten hunks of landscape, Donald
Trump didn’t just rebuild Ocean Trails, which was most famous
for what it didn’t have - a full 18 holes. He took Pete Dye’s
original design, consulted Tom Fazio for about a minute and a half,
scraped together nearly $200 million and took the design reins
himself, for the first time in history.
“It’s an original Donald Trump design, and it’ll
be the only one,” he told Fairways & Greens earlier this
year. “I wouId have just fixed it up a little bit and opened
it a year ago, but I decided not to do that. And I think it turned
out better than we expected.”
But is it now one of the West’s best? We think it is. So
do several af the LPGA stars who put the course through its first
competitive paces at the Office Depot Championship a few months
ago. Though they griped about some traffic issues – the course
is a tough walk with a few big climbs from green to tee – they
praised its Pacific views and said it’s a thorough test af
golf.
“The views are better than you’re going to get anywhere,” Janice
Moodie tald the Los Angeles Times. “I think some
af them even beat Pebble Beach.”
Added Cindy Figg-Currier: “It’s challenging in all
aspects. The tee shots, you have to know where to place them.”
The ladies played the course at just over 6,000 yards. Imagine
what it’s like from the tips, way over 7,000 yards. From
that perspective, it might rank among the most difficult par-71
tracks in the entire state. Three 4-pars measure over 500 yards,
two of them into the prevailing southwest breeze. No. 5, for instance,
asks far a 240-yard carry over two barrancas. No. 18 is 512 yards
from the pros’ tees, requiring a monster carry to a tiered
fairway, with a haIf-dozen bunkers to the left and a hillside to
the right. Then it’s at least 200 yards home, to the course’s
most heavily bunkered target.
Trump enlarged nearly every green, some af which are tiered into
Alister MacKenzie territory. Bunkers are much bigger, filled with
bright white limestone and crushed marble and sharp-shaped like
Augusta National. Sightlines are better defined. New tee boxes
are tucked into hillsides atop retaining walls of Palos Verdes
stone, or carved onto pedestals af earth against a background of
blue-gray sea.
And we can’t overlook the waterfalls. After all, they’ll
be overlooking us: After hitting right into them from the No. 1
fairway or No. 17 tee, golfers drive their carts under their upper
reaches and marvel at the manmade wizardry af it all – of
pumping 8,000 gallons per minute into a pond below the green, and
making it look natural enough to fit in with the rest of the landscape.
The goal was to turn Trump National into the public version of
the Boss’ private East Coast clubs, and he succeeded. Challenge
and beauty are the bedrock af this transformed slice af coastline,
but when the round is over, the property’s first-class service,
food and clubhouse fit-and-finish are firmly within the Trump milieu,
right down to the gold leaf-painted ceilings in the new upscale
restaurant and the sumptuous lunch specials served every day – a
favorite among the ladies. The stellar, nearly palatial practice
facilities make warning up a true pleasure. Now all Trump needs
is an onsite resort. A few high-end villas are in the master plan,
but if anyone can figure out how to build a full-blown hotel out
here an the other California peninsula, he will. Just
look what he’s done here already.
|
