By BRUCE MEADOWS
APRIL 2024
Northwood GC is a special place . . .
If you’ve never played Northwood Golf Course on the Russian River, you’ve missed a great experience.
The 9-hole public course is simply different from other courses.
The first time I played there many years ago, I was struck by the beauty, but also the sounds . . . mainly of golf balls hitting those huge, beautiful redwood trees.
I recall writing a column for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in which I referred to Northwood as “the noisiest golf course in Northern California.”
So, if you get an opportunity to play this layout, buried in the beautiful redwoods next to the Russian River, you owe it to yourself to give it a go.
It’s a very special play to play golf.
Northwood . . . a most unique nine holes . . .
I recently noticed a post on Facebook, written by Rollie Atkinson, and wanted to share it with you.
“Alister MacKenzie designed and supervised construction of Northwood in 1928, the same year he completed Cypress Point on the Monterey Peninsula. He designed Augusta National in Georgia in 1933, working with golfer Bobby Jones……
MacKenzie was busy in northern California where he spent his final years and is buried at Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz. He designed the Meadow Club in Marin County in 1927 and Sharp Park in Pacifica in 1932, among other northern California courses.
Northwood has many classic features MacKenzie used in all his course designs, including ample bunkering.
Alister MacKenzie
All of the fairway grass bunkers and indentations were originally sand bunkers as well as all the green-side indentations.
The design of Northwood’s #9 is reminiscent of features at Augusta, especially the “false front” at the approach to the green, where golfers must fly balls into the domed green and not expect to roll it on from the fairway.
All Northwood golfers have watched more than a few of their putts over the years roll past the hole and back down the slope into the false front collection area.
There is a small book in the pro shop with many old photos showing the original bunkers.
Here is a more thorough commentary I came across . . . hope you enjoy the walk through history as much as I did.
History of Northwood Course
A Synopsis by Lewis Don Bale | March, 2000
Northwood Golf Course was the product of the imagination of three men. The first to conceive the idea a golf course could be built on 70 wooded acres of land, near the Russian River and the world-famous Bohemian Club Grove, was a Bohemian Club member, Jack Neville.
Neville was eminently qualified as a golfer and architect. He was California Amateur golf champion in 1912-13-19-22-29 and a member of the Walker Cup team in 1923. He and Douglas Grant had designed The Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Monterey Peninsula in 1919.
In 1925 Neville presented his concept of a golf course to Claude Milleresch, owner of this wooded land. Milleresch, married to a Korbel daughter, agreed to the use of his land for development of a golf course.
Neville then interested Dr. Alister MacKenzie in the challenge to design a nine hole golf course on this 70 acres.
MacKenzie had come from his native Scotland in 1918, after designing courses in the British Isles, to consult with H. S. Holt and C. H. Alison on the revision of the Chevy Chase Golf Course near Washington D. C. He then went on to design several courses in New York, Michigan and Ohio.
At the urging of Robert Hunter, MacKenzie moved to California. Hunter, who was a professor of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, was an avid enthusiast of golf and golf course architecture. In 1925, he had written one of the classic books on golf course architecture with dramatic drawings of genuine golf links, entitled “The Links”.
MacKenzie and Hunter collaborated in the design of many California courses including Meadow Club in Marin County in 1927, the remodeling of Pebble Beach Golf Links in 1927-28, The Valley Club of Montecito in Santa Barbara and Northwood Golf Club in 1928 and Green Hills Golf Club in Millbrae in 1930. Their most famous, which firmly established their reputation, was Cypress Point Club at Pebble Beach in 1928.
In 1933, MacKenzie was asked by Bobby Jones to assist in the design of the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia. From there he went on to design courses in Australia, South America and New Zealand.
MacKenzie and Hunter employed the American Golf Construction Company, William Selkirk in charge, to do the construction on the Meadow Club, Cypress Point and Northwood Golf Club.
Following construction in 1928, Northwood had a succession of owners. After Milleresch there were Les Korbel, Ormsby, Stibbe and Northwood Development Corporation, J. Benton Bostick Jr. president and John Bancroft treasurer and resident manager in 1959. It was this corporation who subdivided the property and began selling lots in 1960.
Had the plans of Bostick and Bancroft reached fruition, even the perimeter of the playing area of the course would have been sold as building lots. It is probable they were not aware of the illustrious past of Northwood and plans would have led to the loss of what we now enjoy.
Conditions placed on Northwood Development Corporation by the mortgage lender made it impossible to financially survive. The lender demanded, that as lots were sold, the proceeds be kept by them and applied to the loan. Being cash poor as a result, the property was traded to Ray Beach for some South San Francisco apartment property in 1966.
Beach suffered the same fate as Northwood Development Corporation and escaped by selling to a naive buyer, Jack Yates. Jack had neither the capital or the know-how to survive and, in 1970, the lending company foreclosed on him.
On foreclosure, a group of property owners and interested parties bought the property and incorporated on June 19, 1970. After a rocky start this group, headed by Dr. Charles Schaap, began to solve the problems of a run-down golf course blanketed by hundreds of gopher mounds and a profuse crop of daisies. It is now financially solvent and a beautifully maintained, challenging nine-hole golf course.
There are three beautiful buildings of coordinated design, by architect Edward A. Bonelli, housing a pro shop, a restaurant, a social service office, a post office and a barber shop.
Coming Up . . .
Sonoma County Amateur . . .
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MAY 18th & 19th Deadline for entry: May 13th at 5:00 PM. |
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PUBLIC $220
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PLAYERS CLUB $200
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LIMITED & SOUTH MEMBERS $190
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UNLIMITED MEMBERS $120
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Green Fee, Cart Fee, Tee Gift, Prizes & Range Balls included Friday, May 17th 2024 RSVP required for PRACTICE ROUND with optional skins game from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. Practice Round on Friday May 17th – $40 includes cart special rate Skins game: $30 Cash Buy in with cash payout. Gross and net in flights: Black/Blue Flight, White Flight, Gold Flight RSVP to agallardo@playfoxtail.com. Deadline to sign up for skins on Friday will be May 13th by 5pm. FLIGHTS CHAMPIONSHIP | GROSS ONLY, BLACK TEES WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP | GROSS ONLY, WHITE TEE MEN’S | GROSS & NET, BLUE TEES WOMEN’S | NET ONLY, GOLD TEES SENIOR | GROSS & NET, BLUE/WHITE COMBO, AGES 55-64 SUPER SENIOR | GROSS & NET, BLUE/WHITE COMBO, AGES 65+ Note: There are still spots available but may not be for long. If you want to play in this event, sign up soon. |
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Foxtail Golf Club 100 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park, CA 94928 (707) 584-7766 www.playfoxtail.com |
At Bennett Valley GC . . .
Piner Tournament
Save the date for Piner’s 3rd Annual Golf Tournament on Friday June 14 at Bennett Valley Golf Course !
Proceeds benefit Piner Athletics.
Registration open 11:30, golf starts at 1pm, dinner at 6.
Contact Nancy Thiele 707-890-3840 ext 51112 or email nthiele@srcs.k12.ca.us
Registration open for our PGA Jr. League summer team! Open to boys and girls 6-13 years
At Valley of the Moon GC
At Foxtail GC
Foxtail Junior Club . . .
Join the Foxtail Junior Golf Club – starting May 11
18 Hole Stroke Play
6 Tournaments
Ages 9-17
1 Entry Fee of $60 includes entry to all events
All players entered to win Player of the Year based on the flight.
Flights may change based on entries
Flights based on age of as of Oct. 5
Not a beginner program. Juniors should be able to play 18 holes walking.
Tournament Dates: 5/11/2024, 6/29/2024, 7/20/2024, 8/10/2024, 9/14/2024. 10/5/2024. Call pro shop: 707-584-7766
CourseCo Championship
Join us for the 2024 CourseCo Championship Qualifying Event at Foxtail Golf Club! The event will take place on April 27, at 8:30AM on our Championship North Course.
General Entry fee will be $84 per player. We offer discounts for Rohnert Park Residents, Seniors (62+), Players Club Members, Limited, Unlimited, and South Course Members. Please call the Pro Shop for membership rates: (707) 584-7766.
Teams will be playing a 1 Gross Ball + 1 Net Ball format. Each player will play their own ball the entire hole. Your team score will be the 1 best GROSS score combined with the 1 best NET score of the four on each hole, and the same ball cannot be counted as both Gross and Net. For Qualifying – Men under 62 will play blue tees, men 62 or older will play white tees. Women will play gold tees.
Winning foursome will win entry into the Course Co Championship Tournament at Palouse Ridge (July 19-July 21), expenses paid hotel Friday and Saturday, Friday Welcome Dinner, Saturday Golf, Boxed Lunch, Dinner, Sunday Golf, and Awards Lunch. Transportation NOT included. Championship Format will be a 5 Person Scramble with a Foxtail Pro.
At Santa Rosa G&CC . . .
New Clinics for Spring
Lots of great ways to improve your game by learning proper technique and developing your skills. Each class is two and half hours of instruction. Space is limited to 6 students, so sign up quickly! Sign-up by calling the Pro Shop 707-546-6617.
Aprill 18, 9:30-12–pitching, long putts, fairway woods
May 2, 9-11:30–trouble shorts, green reading, course management
At Windsor GC . . .
We’d love to have you join us . . .
GOLF 707 currently has sponsorships available.
If you’d like to support our online golf column, we would be able to feature your golf course or business in the column on a regular basis.
If you’d like some details, contact Dave Cox at ysn365.com
Thanks . . .
Let’s hear from you . . .
Thanks for your comments, questions and suggestions. I appreciate them and would like to get as many as possible.
If you have information about anything golf-related, including upcoming clinics, activities, tournaments or sales, let me know.
And if you have questions, complaints or compliments about golf in our area, let me know and I’ll make some inquiries. Email me at bmeadows4sports@aol.com