Weekend Trip to Bodega Bay, CA

Dateline – 9 April 2017

Bodega Bay, CA

Well, the weather finally turned nice today.  It was simply a beautiful day.  A little on the cool side – high temp would be around 59 degrees and winds would be blowing from he North-West at about 8 – 15 mph.  Perfect weather for a round of golf.  So, I headed out to the Links at Bodega Harbor.  It is a beautiful coastal golf course  designed by Robert Trent Jones.  It isn’t an especially long course – 6200 yards from the tips and 5900 from the blue tees.  But don’t automatically step back to the tees.  As the name suggests it is a links style course that utilizes the rolling hills and terrain quite effectively.  Also, the shortest holes tend to play dead into the prevailing winds.

Today, I was joined by Tim and Mike who drove down from Sacramento to kick off a 4 day golf road trip.  One of the great things about golf is you seldom play by yourself.  I was fortunate to meet 2 really nice and fun guys today.  Another thing about golf is that you may meet as strangers but after 18 holes, your usually friends. But I digress – The Links at Bodega Harbor would be the first stop on their trip.  They strongly suggested that i play the white tees since it was my first visit to the course.  Nevertheless, we played the blue tees.  The fairways and tee boxes were in great condition, unfortunately the bent grass greens were recently punched and they were bumpy, but surprisingly fast.  I really enjoyed the layout and play of the course.  There are a number of holes that play very uniquely.  Number 1 is a shortish par 4 330 yards but it play steeply uphill.  The tee box is seemingly surrounded by huge glass windows of the $1 million homes that ring the golf course.  Being straight or controlled off the tee and from the fairway on the longer holes is extremely important on this golf course.  Otherwise a repair bill for an expensive window may be part of your golf experience at the Links.  The par 5 on the front 9 is very unique.  It plays downhill is relatively short at 488 yards, but it plays into a stiff cross wind.  If you decide to hit driver, you will have a narrow sliver of a fairway to hit, all while contending with the wind.  The better play is to take your 180 or 200 yard club and aim at the meaty landing zone marked by the target marker.  

The back 9 starts off a little boring, but be patient.  Once you get to 16 and 17, you are in for a treat.  These holes play across from a unplayable wetland area.  you have tee off on one side of the marsh area.  Then you park your golf court, take your bag or the clubs you think you’ll need and then you have to take a boardwalk over the wetland marsh to the fairway on the other side.  Hole 16 is a reachable par 4 at 300 yards.  Depending on the wind it can play 250 yards long to 350 yards long.  Today the wind was hurting, so I hit a 5 wood over the marsh and was left with a 100 yard shot to the green.  Once you finish hole 16, you head over to 17 which is on the far side of the wetland marsh.  You are greeted with a 155 yard par 3.  The green is slightly elevated, since it is on the other side of the marsh.  The green is positioned so that the prevailing wind is coming across the green.  Once you finish those 2 holes you go on to 18  It is a longish par 4 at 405 yards.  The fairway rises above the level of the tee box and bends to the right with the green lying about 55′ below the fairway.  There is OB on the right and an endless row of $1million windows on the left.  A little intimidating.  I hit a 3 wood well – avoided the windows on the left and the OB on the right.  I was left with a 190 yard shot to the downhill green.  The problem is that to get to the green you have to navigate a narrow chute of tall trees that funnel the wind right into you.  Unfortunately I carded a double bogey on that hole.

If you are in the area, I recommend you check out the Links at Bodega Harbor.

After golf, I headed over to the Bodega Bay Fish Festival to check things out.  the way it was discussed I was expecting a huge event.  Once I got there it was a little bit of a let down.  There were only a handful of local food vendors and about 50 – 60 exhibitors.  There was a wine and beer garden area with a live band – a Rolling Stones cover band – that were actually pretty good.  I tried some BBQ oysters that were drizzled with olive oil, lemon and garlic – pretty tasty.  I had some street tacos – one fish and one al Pastor – very tasty.  Then I had the fish and chips – not so good, a little too greasy.  There were lots of people there with lots of kids and lots of dogs.  Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.

I was able to get back to watch the end of the Masters Tournament – it was an exciting finish and I’m happy for Sergio Garcia to finally win a Major tournament.

The other 2 photos, are of a Children’s memorial that is located at a local park that is adjacent to the campground where we are staying.  One of the guys I was golfing with today said he had stayed in this park once before and he stumbled across the memorial when he was here.  The Bell Tower memorial is dedicated to a small boy from the town of Bodega Bay, who was murdered by highway robbers who fired guns at the car he was riding in with his parents while they were on vacation in Southern Italy.  The citizens of the community built the memorial in memory of the young boy.  It was touching.

That’s all for now!

Rex