Skins Game in the Soup - Los Serranos South 1/8/11

I was invited to play in a skins game at Los Serranos on Saturday, January 8th.  It had been over ten years since I had played at this Chino Hills classic.  What had once been a favorite local course of mine fell out of favor with me.  For years, there had been consistent construction on the 71 and 91 Freeways,  making it difficult for Orange County travelers to make the short trek.  I had also heard about the horrific loss of 3000 sycamore trees in 2001 to a blight that infected the red gum variety of the tree.  Apparently, a pinhead-sized insect called the red gum lerp psyllid was the culprit.  The tall and dense sycamores lining many of the holes made the course feel intimate, added the challenge of hitting through chutes, and on many holes, made it imperative to hit the fairway with your drive. I was told an old golfing buddy that seeing the course without the trees would "make me cry."  It was finally time to come back to a course that I had enjoyed dozens of rounds on in the 1990's.

Coburn

Overall, Los Serranos has a great feel.  There is typically a lot of activity around the clubhouse, with an adjacent driving range, tees for #1 and #10 of the South Course and #1 of the North Course nearby, and a lively restaurant and bar with sports games on the tube.  When I arrived, I met up with one of my playing partners Nick "The Kid" Gomez, a.k.a. "Slowmez" because of his pace of play and questionable intelligence (Just kidding, Nick).  He signed me in for the Skins game and after I paid my green fees, he whisked me away to the first tee to meet up with the others in my group.  Filling out the lineup were "Big Game" James (see older blog entitled "We're Home") and one of the most talented golfers I have ever known, Jeff Coburn.  We don't have a nickname for Jeff other than the standard "Cobes" or "Cobie" but I always thought "The Stick" would work on many levels.  After all, we have a mutual friend named "The Broom", why not add "The Stick"?

I was very, very relieved to find out that we were going to be playing from the blue tees.  Los Serranos South Course is famous for "Jack's Blacks", a set of tees that measure to 7628 yards, supposedly the longest golf course in California.  It has been raining off and on in Southern California for weeks.  The golf course was certainly in playable condition, but still quite wet.  My 230 yard baby draw tee shots would not get much distance in the soup.  I would have had virtually no prayer against these players.  Jeff (+2 handicap), James (2-3 handicap) and Gomez (1 handicap) are clearly better than me (currently rising to a 10), but we all know that during a skins game, all it takes is a birdie on the right hole, and I am certainly capable of getting lucky somewhere!

Overall, I hit the ball pretty well.  I started out with two solid pars on the back to back par-5 opening holes.  I made a bogey on #3 thanks to a bad tee shot and I started to slide from there.  I bogeyed three in a row including the par-3 sixth hole, where I hit an horribly fat 5-iron about 100 yards from the tee. On seven, I hit my second shot to 4 feet and missed the birdie putt by a mile, a sign of putting woes that would plague me all day.  I hammered my best drive of the day on the par-5 eighth, only to completely top my second shot, leave my third short of the green, make a terrible pitch with my fourth, and then three putt for double bogey, which left me steaming.  I made a nice up and down par on nine and posted a +6 (43) on the front.

I could have posted a decent score if I would have putted the way I am capable of.  I can't blame the greens because my putting was THAT bad, but they were a little tricky, as the poa annua proved to be bumpy later in the day and the speed seemed to be inconsistent from hole to hole.  Some holes were much quicker than they looked and felt after the rain, but others seemed very slow.  I three putted #10 from 30 feet, missed short par putts on #11 and #12, and went on to three putt #15 from the back fringe. On the monstrous 592-yard 18th I hit an absolutely beautiful approach shot to about 15 feet. In my effort to convert the birdie, I left myself with a five footer coming back.  I gassed it for another three-jab and left shaking my head with an appropriate ending to a rough day with the flat stick.  I ended up shooting a 42 on the back for a score of 85 on the day, which is +11 on the par-74 track.

I did manage to sneak in a birdie on #13, a short 476-yard par-5.  I hit driver down the middle, laid up left with a 5-wood to get a good angle for my third, and stuffed a 56 degree wedge to three feet.  However, before I even had a chance to make my birdie putt, Mr. Stick Coburn rolled in a 30 footer for eagle, dashing all hopes for a potential skin.

The most memorable hole of the day for me came on #16, a par-5 that is lined by tall trees on both sides of the fairway.  I hit an awful tee shot, short and to the right of the fairway.  Blocked by huge trees, I had no chance to hit any kind of straight shot. I decided I would try to hit a sweeping punch hook back into the fairway.   As I stated in a previous blog entry, I have a new set of clubs am I am not totally comfortable with them yet.  How hard can it be?  Narrow stance, ball back, forward press, hood face slightly, hold the follow through down, swing easy, right?  I have hit this shot a million times, it used to be my bread and butter recovery shot.  However, instead of a low curveball back to the promised land,  I produced a high block shot that went deeper into trouble.  While the ball was in flight, I threw my arms into the air in disbelief.  It must have been funny, because as I followed my ball toward the 5th fairway, I heard Gomez cackling in the background and imitating me from the fairway I SHOULD have been in.  Suddenly, I was motivated to make a grinding par.  After finally successfully punching out, I hit my fourth shot to about 10 feet from just a shade over 100 yards out.  I made the right to left slider for a great barkie par - take THAT Gomez!

The guys in my group played great.  As I mentioned, Cobes mixed in an eagle on #13, and he also birdied #18 to shoot 69, the first time he has broken 70 at Los Serranos South.  Yes folks, that is five under par.  One thing that always amazes me about Jeff's game is that he never seems to do anything that special, but at the end of the day, when you add the scores up, he almost always winds up under par.  He also seems to always find a way to bury that long putt that will win him a skin, no matter how hard or long it may be.  In other words, he is CLUTCH.  Gomez played steady and made a few nice birdies, including a chip-in and shot a 75.  James kept the ball in play for most of the round and shot a great score of 78.  What is amazing is that he is super long but he played the six par-5's at six over par.  He could have gone mega-low if he had played to his usual strength.  Overall, we all struck it pretty well and some of the guys took away a chunk of the prize money.

As for the course and the Eucalyptus trees, it was a bit disheartening to see that so many were lost.  It almost looked as if a tornado had hit holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11.  Most of the trees have been replaced with new saplings and I can't wait to play the course in 2041 after they have had 30 more years to grow.  Although the course no longer has the feel of a poor man's Riviera Country Club, Los Serranos still has a lot of character and I am looking forward to my next visit.  

The famous 18th - 677 yards from Jack's Blacks, 592 from Blue Tees