Opinion | My favorite golf experiences

Joe Perrino, Sports Editor

I picked up my first golf club when I was eight years old. After going to my first golf camp with the legend of a man that was coach Jerry (I forget his last name) from Deep Cliff Golf Course in Cupertino, California, I knew I would play golf for the rest of my life.

That doesn’t mean I’m the most serious about it, especially considering the spin-off baseball-golf hybrid game I made up over the summer. Yet I can appreciate a beautiful course when I come across one.

That being said, here are a few golf experiences I’d recommend to anyone interested in picking up a club, regardless of their skill level. I picked these experiences not because I hit a hole-in-one, but because I appreciate the creativity and uniqueness that each of these places present.

The 14th hole at The Club at Pasadera (Monterey, California)

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful golf hole I’ve ever played in my life. It’s a gorgeous par-3, perched atop a mountain. All the player can see around them are trees and a lonely pin in the distance showing them where their objective is. The best way to describe the hole: being surrounded by an ocean of trees, with the putting green a far-off shore. This picture really doesn’t do it justice.

Topgolf at Oracle Park (San Francisco, California)

This is a very strange experience in that it is not located at a golf course, but at a baseball stadium. It’s a combination of two of my favorite things – golf and the San Francisco Giants – so it was a match made in heaven when I teed off.

Topgolf is similar to a driving range where a player practices their swing, but emphasizes accuracy. You’re placed in groups competing against one another and given five rounds with five swings each to see who can rack up the most points by hitting shots at various targets placed around the range, or in this case, baseball diamond.

The sixth hole at the Tahoe Donner Golf Course (Tahoe, California)

A par-4 that starts off on a rather steep incline, the sixth hole at the Tahoe Donner Golf Course utilizes the environment around it. Once you hit your tee shot up an ominous hill, there are two giant pine trees awaiting you in the middle of the fairway at the top. You have to navigate your ball around those trees in order to get a nice roll on your second shot, which will hopefully land right at the green.

The fourth hole at River View Golf Course (Santa Ana, California)

While not the most well-kept course I’ve ever played on, River View takes advantage of its location; the Santa Ana River used to run right through the course. On hole four, you hit your ball from a tee box perched on a hill down to a buffer area (a spot of fairway prior to crossing the river). Then from that fairway, you hit it across the river of gravel to a green placed on a steep, narrow hill. Too short and your ball rolls all the way down into the thick grass above the riverbed; but too far and it will fly onto the street beyond, which I fell culprit to my last time playing at River View. All in all, a brutal par-4.

While I do enjoy playing new courses, I look forward to one day re-create these experiences – not just to improve my scores, but to relive their beauty and creativity in a time where life seems very gray.