Fast and firm goal at Half Moon Bay

28 July 2010

California resort Half Moon Bay Golf Links is opening five new tee boxes on its Ocean course, stretching the Arthur Hills-designed course to nearly 7,000 yards.

In addition to length, the resort says the new tees create additional angles and strategic considerations. The holes with new tees are the par four second, par three third and seventh, par five fourteenth and par four fifteenth.

The tee box additions are the final phase of the Ocean course's ‘Links Enhancement’, by which the resort aims to make an agronomic transition to a fast and firm playing surface that emphasises shot-making over length and power.

“The Ocean course enjoys one of the great settings for golf in North America, and now it has the true look and feel of a links course,” said Mark Kendall, President of Kenmark Golf Management, which operates the golf courses. “The quality of a shot has more significance than distance, and that is how Hills intended this course to play.”

The first phases of the project included mowing rough down around bunkers to bring the hazards back into play on tee shots; cutting green complexes and surrounds to ‘just above green’ mowing height to foster ball movement on the ground; and raising native fescue heights around tee boxes and between holes to provide golfers with visual, strategic cues about how to play holes and to enhance the links-style atmosphere.