Bob Gary (left) and Fred Clarey are Pauma Valley Country Club are pilots and golf members who regularly use the airpark on the club grounds.
Pauma Valley member and pilot Gary Boone.
A couple is invited by friends to play in a member-guest golf tournament. They are struck by the natural beauty of the setting, surrounded by citrus and avocado groves at the foot of Palomar Mountain.
The golf is first-rate on one of the few courses in California designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. And then during the round they hear a buzz from overhead. A small plane circles the valley and appears to land nearby.
“You have an airport here?” Gary Boone remembers asking his host on his first visit 19 years ago. “He said, ‘Oh yeah, we didn’t tell you about that?’
“Well, I dropped my clubs,” Boone said, “went up to the clubhouse, put in my application for a membership and we were members a week later.”
Boone, an architect from Palos Verdes, had been a licensed private pilot since 1989, and when he discovered a club that could satisfy both his aerial and golfing passions, he was all in.
That’s the way it’s been for many of the dozen Pauma Valley members who house their planes in hangars and use the 2,700-foot air strip that is a short cart ride from the first tee.
On a recent warm, cloudless Sunday, the club hosted an annual open house at its airpark and essentially staged its own private airshow, with World War II biplanes mixing with such classics as an older model Blue Angels jet.
There are few golf courses in the country that can claim their own airstrip. In July, Golf Magazine compiled a list of the top golf courses with airstrips in North America and counted seven, Pauma Valley included. There were two in Texas, and one each in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia, Canada.
“It’s a niche market,” said Terry Abeyta, Pauma Valley’s marketing and membership director, “but a cool niche.”
About 60 of Pauma’s members hail from cold-winter states and come to enjoy the sunshine in the winter. Some joke that Pauma is a second Colorado to a number of folks, and it’s easy to see why those who like the rugged outdoors would be attracted to the place.
Speaking of rugged — member Mike Keenan is from Anchorage, Alaska, and has been a member since 1998. It was 80 degrees on the Sunday of the airshow; the temperature in Anchorage was approaching zero.
“Not warm enough to golf, but at least the bears are in hibernation,” Keenan quipped.
“There was another Alaskan who was a pilot who was a member here,” Keenan explained of his first connection. “When I came here and saw what was going on, I said, ‘This looks like the ticket.’”
Fred Clarey is the president of the Pauma pilots association. Boone observes that Clarey is so energetic that “he’s an 8-year-old living in a 70-year-old’s body.”
Clarey and his wife, Joanne, lived in West L.A. and Fred worked in aircraft sales in Van Nuys. They were members at Bel-Air Country Club until they discovered Pauma Valley six years ago.
“You just can’t find an environment like this anymore, especially with the quality of the golf course,“ Clarey said.
Added Boone, “Being here is like going back to middle America in the 1950s. There’s a sense of community here that I thought was gone forever. Everyone is so welcoming and engaging. That’s not a selling point; it really is a special place.”
Pauma Valley has long been revered as one of the purest private layouts in Southern California. When celebrities began coming to Pauma as a retreat in the 1950s area developers figured they needed something to do for recreation, and they desired a high-profile golf architect.
Few at the time were more notable than Jones Sr., and with architect Ted Robinson assisting, they produced a timeless design.
Four years after it opened in late 1960, Pauma Valley got priceless national publicity when Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Mike Souchak and a very young Jack Nicklaus played a televised “Challenge Golf” match as part of “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” series.
Actor and golf nut Bill Murray is the club’s most noted member, but other than musician Huey Lewis the membership of 400 (about 200 of which play golf) leans more toward successful business people than celebrities.
Boone owns a home in Bend, Ore., where his son lives, and he and his wife, Patti, make the 3½-hour flight up there occasionally. (A jaunt to Santa Monica is a half hour.)
“We could basically live anywhere in the world,” Boone said, “but we can’t find a better place than this.”
Notable
JC Golf has added Woods Valley Golf Club in Valley Center to its stable of golf facilities, bringing its total to eight in San Diego and Temecula. Woods Valley now will be available at a discount for those who have the JC Players Card.
Source: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com
Pauma Valley, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1960, sits at the foot of Palomar Mountain.
No comments:
Post a Comment