Torrey Pines: South
Played Torrey Pines South a few times first in 2006 then scattered throughout the years. The photos are also scattered within other photos, that’s why the hum-drum photo of the first above – I just couldn’t find any better ones. As I look through the photos, as I find them, I will update and hopefully find a good photo I took of the third. The par three third is the most photographed of all the holes on Torrey and definitely one of the top 18 holes of those I’ve played anywhere. It’s in the scrapbook here.
Torrey is great. While in essence a muni course, it has the ocean-front vistas, the majors pedigree (Tiger limping home in the 2008 US Open and another coming in 2021), the design, memorability and whatnot to give it Top 100 recognition by pretty much all of the major golf magazines. It’s also the must-play in San Diego. Most of my work travel is to the major cities in the US and most of the must-play courses in those cities are private. Not San Diego. South is number one and the North has been redone and is actually now my number two. Grand and Coronado are other great tracks. Maderas and Encinitas Ranch are a good rung below those but good too. All public. This is a place that if you’re coming with buddies for a golf trip, leave your pro alone and enjoy the public offerings out here.
Club house is what you expect it to be for a muni and the check-in process is a little funky. You pay upstairs in the pro shop, but get your ticket to play in a window upstairs that you can only get after they call your name then you give that golden ticket to the starter between the ones of the North and South to get on. I played with my buddy John here once. We took the chance of not booking until a few days before we played (since I already played it, I’d have been okay with the North). As a San Diego city resident he paid $63 midweek with no advance reservation fee. We walked. I paid $202. Compare that to what it would cost a typical East Coast knucklehead like me to play (if I wanted to play weekend and guarantee a tee time with an advance reservation): $252 tee time, plus a $45 fee from Torrey for the advance time which you can’t get on your own but have to pay San Diego Golf reservations to get for you which is another $40, plus cart $40. $377 total! Plus California-priced cocktails. It was cheaper than all of that the first time I played and it was company golf but all the same, expect to lay out the $$$$.
To the course, I remember this because it was another Links 2003 course. You see above that the first is a straight-away but pretty long par four. On most courses they either start you with a hole to ease you into the round or give you phenomenal eye-candy to help you remember the course right from the start. Torrey does neither. Number one is pretty long but not #1 at Oakmont tough. It plays uphill so you don’t get a glimpse of the ocean. It’s kind of a meh hole – not an opening easer nor a brutal starter. I already talked about three, and four is equally awesome, all along the water and long – don’t hook it into the abyss. Holes 12 through 17 are also all along the water in one way or another. Only that eighteen and the pond on the left of the green figured so prominently in the 2008 Open that you are not disappointed in the finisher here.
All in all, I’d tell you to play it. It is quintessential San Diego and if you visit San DIego and don’t play it, you’ll leave a hole in your bucket list. For eats, I suggest Born & Raised and Juniper & Ivy. Catch a Padres game once they allow fans back – it’s right in the heart of the city and walking distance to the hotels and bars.
Golf Scrapbook 