6 Things You Didn't Know About Torrey Pines

Camp Callan opened in January 1941 as a U.S. Army artillery training camp. Photo: Bob Landry/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Where his father dealt in quality, the son, William F., dealt in quantity. He mass-produced courses the way others churned out houses and automobiles, efficiently and inexpensively.

Apparently, before Bell started Torrey Pines, the city had the pavement bulldozed and buried, atop which he unwittingly built some tees and greens. Bell himself discovered this, but not until years later. Subsequent architects who have chopped into those greens have never hit concrete. But there are still piles of it out there somewhere. The unusual knob on the second hole of the South, short of the green, could well be concrete covered with turf. Beneath the South are also miles of sewer pipes. Rees Jones, in his 2001 remodeling, unearthed at least one manhole cover.

Bell's routing was suspect. The North had nines returning to the clubhouse, but the South did not. Some have questioned why he didn't finish both courses out on a cliff's edge, à la Pebble Beach. One can only conclude the city wanted the parking lot and clubhouse as close to the highway as possible. Critics have also questioned Bell's decision not to play holes over the deep canyons that cut through the site, or even play a hole or two down into and back out of one. That criticism is easy to rebut. The mesa was originally deeded to the city by the state, which retained ownership of all the canyons.

6. The South got remodeled long before Rees Jones.

The San Diego Open moved to Torrey Pines in 1968 and was renamed the Andy Williams San Diego Open. Golf Digest ranked it among America's 100 Most Testing Courses, but it really wasn't. It was windy and wet when the pros played there, so it played long, and its greens were impossible, sopping wet in front, rock hard on the back edges.

By 1973 the city realized it had to rebuild. Norrie West, who ran the Andy Williams event from 1969 to 1979, recalls that Jack Nicklaus, then a budding architect, was interviewed. "But Jack wanted to bulldoze the whole place and start over," Norrie says. "We turned him down.C

Instead, the contract went to local hero Billy Casper, who then had a design partnership with golf architect David Rainville. Rainville says it took them four years to rebuild all tees, bunkers and greens on the 36 holes.

"We'd start just after the tournament each year," he says. "We'd create temporary greens so they could keep running people through. Then we'd tear up one green per nine, get it rebuilt, get it back into play, then repeat the process."

Most of Rainville's reconstruction has since been swept away by the massive 2001 remodeling by Rees Jones. One major Rainville contribution that remains is the pond in front of the 18th green. PGA Tour officials suggested the hole needed beefing up, so Rainville dug the pond, using the dirt to create a new, elevated green.