Our old friend, Kyle Phillips, designed this course while working for Robert Trent Jones, Jr. Those of us familiar with his work have begun to appreciate Kyle's 'truth or consequences' design philosophy. He has bequeathed this course a lifetime's worth of nuances.
We played the 'granite tees' (6520 yards; 71.4/131 slope on a par of 71). Not one us broke 85, which might have amused Kyle, who played in the group behind us. "I hope you notice the bunkering," he said as we teed off. How could we not? It's possible that our foursome collectively found every one of them. Phillips uses bunkers to exercise his sixth sense of where knowing, in advance, where bad shots will come to rest.
Phillips believes that bunkers should be beautiful, which sounds like a contradiction because most of us never have a good time in one. At Granite Bay, they're more like man traps, "low nose bunkers," Phillips calls them. In several places, they're so deep that you'll rarely see the base of a flag.
Granite Bay is a beautiful, hilly course accented by oak trees and featuring spectacular, thinking-man's holes. The 440 yard par four eighteenth offers your ball a thrill ride as it drops from a lofty hilltop to the fairway below.
The course provides an excellent test if you want to find out our good your game might be…or how lacking. It is definitely worth the trip.
Granite Bay Golf Club
Private, 18 holes.
Men
Tournament 71 73.6 142 6909
Granite 71 72.0 135 6520
Club 71 70.1 131 6100
Women
Club 74 75.4 141 6100
Cobble 71 74.1 135 5750
Pebble 71 70.3 127 5046
