In anticipation of the Buick this week, we thought some of you might enjoy watching these videos produced by California Golf News. Many have probably already seen them, but we wanted to put them all together here. (The final video is the most interesting and revealing.)
Rees’s redo of Torrey certainly was a great stage for a historic and dramatic U.S. Open last June, but its hard to not see this as a missed opportunity. There was no effort to tie the course into its landscape by using some of the native vegetation that is so beautiful along the cliffs and in the barrancas. While Rees moved and shifted some holes to improve views he made little effort to incorporate the coast and ravines into the routing to create more strategic golf holes. Without the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean this could be Anywhere, U.S.A.
In the second video, Rees runs through the front nine.
The third video runs through holes 10-13 and includes a good Jay Hass/Tiger Woods anecdote.
Rees runs through the rest of the back nine in the fourth video and tells how they widened the landing area on eighteen to encourage players to hit driver and then set up a decision on the second shot.
In this video, Rees compares himself to Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. He also discusses the profession of golf course architecture and how it has changed. He says that there are a lot of up and coming architects that need a site like Torrey Pines to make names for themselves. I can’t help wondering if a much better golf course would now exist if a different architect had been given the opportunity.
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