MACKENZIE
The Torrey Pines cliffs beside the glider port

California 100 · a trip

Torrey, both

the US Open course, its friendlier sister, and a $54 muni with a skyline

2 nights · fly SAN · 20m to the first tee · 8h 30m from SF by car · green fees $475–589 a head

The Torrey Pines cliffs beside the glider port · Dirk Hansen · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
directions ↗

Torrey Pines is a municipal course on a cliff over the Pacific that has held two US Opens, and the city of San Diego still lets anyone play it. The South is the one you fly for: long, brutal in the rough, Rees Jones twice, with the par 3 third hanging over the ocean and the 18th where Tiger Woods made the putt on one leg. The North is the better morning — Tom Weiskopf's 2016 rebuild took it back toward the cliffs, it is cheaper, and the group will have more fun on it. Coronado is the Friday warm-up and the thing nobody expects: a flat, honest muni on the bay with the downtown skyline and the bridge behind every green, $54 to walk, and the Hotel del across the street for a drink after. It is 70°F in February. That is the whole pitch.

SAN#5#12#62
SAN ✈ then #5 → #12 → #62 · 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. #5Torrey Pines SouthLa Jolla · $258–322 · B+ value · 8h 20m from SF · 12 mi from SANto play
  2. #12Torrey Pines NorthLa Jolla · $163–204 · A- value · 8h 20m from SF · 1 mi from #5to play
  3. #62CoronadoCoronado · $54–63 · A++ value · 8h 30m from SF · 16 mi from #12to play
Torrey Pines from the air: the courses on the bluff, the Pacific below
Torrey Pines from the air: the courses on the bluff, the Pacific belowU.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Juan Anaya · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

#5 Torrey Pines South

The first hole of the North course
The first hole of the North courseBernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

#12 Torrey Pines North

The par-4 16th at Coronado, along the bay
The par-4 16th at Coronado, along the bayBaybay1901 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

#62 Coronado

the rest of the weekend

The Hotel del Coronado, across the street from the course
The Hotel del Coronado, across the street from the courseCtorbann · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
La Jolla Cove
La Jolla CoveInvertzoo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

the logistics

airport
SAN San Diego, 20m — to La Jolla; Coronado is 15 minutes the other way. From SF it is 8h 20m — fly
sleep
La Jolla, or a rental in Pacific Beach; the Hotel del Coronado if the group wants the story
when
any month. June gloom is real on the coast and burns off by noon; fall is the clear season. Non-residents book Torrey up to 90 days out through the city's advance system for a per-player fee; otherwise it is the dawn walk-up list.
  1. Fri · land, Coronado in the afternoon — the skyline sits behind the greens and the fee is a bar tab — dinner in Little Italy
  2. Sat · Torrey Pines South. The cliffs from 3 to 4, the long walk, the 18th where Tiger holed it in 2008. Tacos in Old Town after
  3. Sun · Torrey Pines North in the morning: same cliffs, two hundred yards shorter, the better score. La Jolla Cove for the sea lions, fly home