Amid the four-lane concrete highways of sprawling San Diego
County, a commercial neighborhood ends by offering Encinitas Boulevard motorists
a choice of narrow, winding roads. Veering right, the traveler starts down a
winding lane shaded by sycamores and live oaks, seemingly headed for San Diego’s
agricultural backcountry. But locals know this as the access road to one of the
world’s wealthiest and most prestigious communities: Rancho Santa Fe.
An initial sight along the winding La Granada road is a rustic
bridle path; then, beyond a split-rail fence, comes the back nine of Max Behr’s
1929 Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club design. Set gracefully into a valley floor with
towering eucalyptus-lined fairways, the exclusive club has hosted friendly
wagers, a San Diego Open and the original Crosby clambakes in its 70-plus years
of existence.
One of the first planned communities in California, Rancho Santa
Fe earned historical landmark status in 1989. To this day, the covenant retains
significant control over architectural styles, home sizes and landscaping,
setting the community apart from its less-restrictive neighbors and, not
coincidentally, turning the covenant property into some of California’s most
sought-after real estate.
In September 1927, Rancho Santa Fe “Country Club” was
incorporated, and three months later architect Max Behr was hired. A Yale
graduate and runner-up in the 1908 U.S. Amateur to Jerry Travers, Behr came from
a wealthy East Coast family, devoting much of his life to writing about golf
architecture and the Rules of Golf. An extensive collection of essays he wrote
as editor of Golf Illustrated displays a vast knowledge of culture
combined with a love for all sports. He believed courses shouldn’t turn to the
restrictive boundaries of games like tennis or baseball. In particular, he
despised hazards in the form of narrow, rough-lined fairways or penal bunkers
that increased the element of luck and, in Behr’s always opinionated mind,
reduced golf to “a species of trap shooting.”
Behr’s love for “native golf” drew him to Rancho Santa Fe’s
idyllic setting, with its sage shrubbery, dry creeks and rolling swales shaped
by rainwaters headed for La Orilla Creek, and ultimately to the Pacific. Many
ground features were designed to camouflage earthworks needed to drain the
valley, while complementing Behr’s minimalist fairway bunkering approach. Behr’s
6,700-yard, par-72 design opened June 5, 1929, with an honorary first foursome
that included actor and golf aficionado Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
Rancho Santa Fe received its first official test in 1937 when Bing
Crosby held a $3,000 pro-am. Anticipating a midwinter lark for the Nelsons,
Mangrums and Sneads of the world, Crosby called the tournament a “clambake,”
pairing celebrities and businessmen with professionals for a 36-hole event
contested over a leisurely California weekend.
On several of the old pairing sheets, a faded correction is
consistently penciled in: An “e” is replaced by an “a” in Sam Snead’s misspelled
last name. Perhaps the typo spurred the 24-year old on, because he claimed the
first two clambakes and their $500 first prizes. Due to Crosby’s popularity and
devotion to his community, the clambake tradition quickly grew. Large galleries
and media coverage helped the club attract new members during the Depression and
throughout the equally lean World War II years. Thanks to “the Crosby” and the
popularity of the course’s charismatic design, Rancho Santa Fe survived a
difficult era during which a majority of Southern California clubs succumbed to
insolvency.
Even though the San Diego version of the Crosby ended in 1943,
when the beloved entertainer moved up the coast to a home on Pebble Beach’s 14th
fairway, old-timers insist the tournament enjoyed its prime during those six
years in Rancho Santa Fe. Their argument is hard to refute. After all, who
wouldn’t love traveling that winding road to Southern California’s most idyllic
inland enclave?
