No Place Like Home

By Mike McIntyre
Photos By Stephen Szurlej June 2008

That epic golf trip is over. Now comes the sad flight home. Woe is me.

No, woe is you.

When my vacation ends, I fly home to San Diego. The next day I'm playing my local muny -- Torrey Pines. It's hard to summon self-pity as I stand atop the par-3 third hole of the South Course, the blue Pacific hovering behind the green like God's own vanishing-edge pool. Especially when my playing partner, some pasty dude just in from Minus Twenty, Minn., is begging me to take his photo. Yep, this is no place to mope.

Our golf season lasts the whole year. January or July, I tee it up in shorts and shirtsleeves, never breaking into a shiver or a sweat. My golf umbrella? I use it about as often as a 1-iron.

Some 80 public courses dot the county. Torrey Pines has the only two on the ocean, but don't despair. Our inland hills, valleys, mountains and deserts are as scenic as our beaches.

Over the next four pages you'll find a local golfer's guide to San Diego, where I've lived for 21 years. Follow my advice and your only regret about coming here will be that it hurts so much to leave.

MY MUNY
Torrey Pines Golf Course South ★★★★½, North ★★★★, La Jolla, $145-$181 South, $85-$106 North, sandiego.gov/torreypines, 877-581-7171.
Make no mistake, this is a municipal golf complex, right down to the bathrooms you haven't seen since junior high. I swap my flip-flops for FootJoys in the parking lot, warm up on a mats-only range and endure maintenance crews who zoom past on my backswing.

Is it worth it? There's nowhere else in San Diego I'd rather play. Sure, my resident green fee is a third of what you pay. But I play with tourists most of my 100 or so yearly rounds at Torrey, and I rarely hear a complaint. They're usually too stunned to utter anything beyond, "Wow!" The setting is spectacular: 36 holes perched on canyon-creased cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Hawks and hang gliders soar above as dolphins and boogie boarders ride the cresting waves below.

With the Open, the South is San Diego's must-play. It's the kind of course that can make you quit golf and take up photography -- a beautiful grind. Oh, there's loads of room to land your drives between the lovely Torrey pines. Trouble is that most of it is covered with hosel-strangling Kikuyu grass. Take care searching for your ball, because you can turn an ankle on other balls hidden in that hay. Once you reach the green -- perhaps after a shot or three from one of Rees Jones' bottomless bunkers -- remember that all putts break to the ocean.

At 6,601 yards, the North Course is shorter than the South, but more scenic. Besides the ocean, several holes skirt the Torrey Pines State Reserve, a 2,000-acre coastal wilderness of sandstone mesas and wind-sculpted pines. The snapshot moment comes at the downhill, par-3 sixth, with the Pacific and the tony seaside village of La Jolla shimmering in the background. For both courses, you can pay a $37-per-player surcharge and book tee times eight to 90 days in advance. The Lodge at Torrey Pines and the adjacent Hilton have several times for guests as well (see "Bed Time" below).

Or you can always join the Dawn Patrol. From sunup until 7:30 a.m., tee times are first come, first served. Singles and twosomes who arrive by 5 a.m. should get out on one of the courses by mid-morning. If you're a threesome or foursome, I'd recommend one of you getting there no later than 3 a.m. to have a great chance of playing. (As soon as the starter calls your name, your full group has to be there or you lose your spot.) Some turn up before midnight and sleep in their cars.

Weekdays, a golf bag left on the railing outside the starter's window holds your group's position. Weekends and holidays, the order is set in the parking lot. The guy who got there before you tells you your number in line, and you do the same for the next guy. Leave the property, lose your spot. Check the monthly schedule on the website to ensure there are no events the day you want to play. These will decrease your chances of getting out. (Note: The South reopens June 19, and the North resumes full 18-hole play Sept. 1.)