Torrey Pines Golf Course, Phillip Colla Photography

I used to play Torrey Pines Golf Course on Friday afternoons with some buddies when I was a student at UCSD. We played both north and south courses, whichever had an earlier slot available when we got there. Each semester we would plan our class schedules so that we would be done with lectures by about 1pm on Fridays, ensuring we could shoot a full round before sunset. With a resident’s card the green fee was something like $10, and splitting a cart was another $10 or so. It was great, poor college students enjoying 18 holes on one of the finest public courses on the West coast, with perhaps the best views of any course in California. Ah, good times. These days Torrey Pines Golf Course is milked as a cash cow by the city rather than as an asset to be preserved primarily for the people that actually live in San Diego. Holding the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines added to the misery, causing course closures before and after the event, generating traffic and crowds during the event and generally making it harder for Joe San Diego to enjoy the course in his own city. (Don’t expect to hear these sentiments from the craven town boosters and the developers they serve, however.) It is tough to get a good tee time at Torrey since a quota of the best tee times are set aside for a private hotel near the course. The remainder are distributed by a company whose priority appears to be squeezing as much revenue as possible out of each foursome (including a “processing fee”). The vibe and attitude that made Torrey Pines Golf Course so appealing is gone. Well, that’s progress for you, at least in the minds of the politicians and business interests who run things in San Diego. As in most cities, these people are remarkably good at screwing things up. However, as hard as they have tried, one thing to which the suits have not yet been able to lay waste are the views at Torrey Pines. They will always be wonderful.

Torrey Pines golf course south course holes 2, 4 and 5, Torrey Pines Golf Course, situated atop the magnificent 300 foot tall seacliffs, offers majestic views of the Pacific Ocean south to La Jolla. Scattered around the course are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22312   Location: San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

Torrey Pines golf course, situated atop the magnificent 300 foot tall seacliffs, offers majestic views of the Pacific Ocean south to La Jolla. Scattered around the course are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. Some of La Jolla’s biotechnology companies are seen on the far side of the golf course, along North Torrey Pines Road. San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22320   Location: San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

See more stock photos of San Diego, Torrey Pines Golf Course, and photos of Torrey Pines State Reserve.

Subscribe to this feed - Subscribe via Feedburner - Stumble it! - Digg this! - Add to Del.icio.us - Share on Facebook