MACKENZIE
A Santa Ynez Valley vineyard

California 100 · a trip

The Central Coast, with wine

an ocean cliff, a windswept beast, and dunes near Pismo

2 nights · fly SBA · 10m to the first tee · 5h 30m from SF by car · green fees $382–510 a head · 1 of 3 played

A Santa Ynez Valley vineyard · Jester7777 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
directions ↗

Sandpiper is the course on this list that looks most like Pebble for a fifth of the price: Bill Bell on the bluffs west of Santa Barbara, with the 11th through 14th running along the cliff edge and the Channel Islands on the horizon. La Purisima, an hour north near Lompoc, is the opposite kind of day — Robert Muir Graves built a long, hilly, honest course in the oaks that the wind owns after noon, nobody is on it, and it is the hardest round of the three by a distance. Between them is the Santa Ynez Valley, the Sideways country, where Saturday afternoon is Los Olivos tasting rooms and a Solvang bakery. Monarch Dunes, further up at Nipomo, plays through real sand dunes a few miles from the beach, Damian Pascuzzo and Steve Pate, with the best par-3 course in the state beside it for the group's last hour. Then Pismo, the pier, and the long drive home.

SBA#33#28#88
SBA ✈ then #33 → #28 → #88 · the dashed line is the order, not the roadmap National Geographic, Esri, Garmin, HERE, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA

the courses

  1. #33SandpiperGoleta · $175–210 · B+ value · 5h 30m from SF · 4 mi from SBAplayed
  2. #28La PurisimaLompoc · $82–125 · A+ value · 5h 00m from SF · 35 mi from #33to play
  3. #88Monarch Dunes — Old CourseNipomo · $125–175 · A- value · 4h 30m from SF · 25 mi from #28to play
Sandpiper in 1975, the Ellwood oil derricks still offshore (National Archives)
Sandpiper in 1975, the Ellwood oil derricks still offshore (National Archives)Charles O'Rear · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

#33 Sandpiper

La Purisima from above · Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics

#28 La Purisima

Monarch Dunes — Old Course from above · Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics

#88 Monarch Dunes — Old Course

the rest of the weekend

Solvang
SolvangSUZUKI Hironobu · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pismo Beach pier
Pismo Beach pierDietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

the logistics

airport
SBA Santa Barbara, 10m — to Sandpiper in Goleta; San Luis Obispo (SBP) is 25 minutes from Monarch Dunes for the other end. From SF it is 4–5h on 101
sleep
Santa Barbara on Friday, Solvang or Pismo Beach on Saturday — the drive north is the itinerary
when
September to November is the clear, warm window; spring is green and windy at La Purisima, which is the point of La Purisima.
  1. Fri · fly into Santa Barbara or drive 101, Sandpiper in the late afternoon on the cliffs, dinner on the Funk Zone
  2. Sat · La Purisima in the morning before the wind gets up, then tasting rooms in Los Olivos and Danish pastries in Solvang; sleep in Solvang or Pismo
  3. Sun · Monarch Dunes' Old Course, the 12-hole par-3 Challenge course after lunch if the group wants one more, Pismo pier, home up 101 or Highway 1 through Big Sur if it is open