Tustin Ranch Course Turns Back the Clock With Caddies
Tustin Ranch Golf Club is offering golfers a chance to take a walk back in time with its caddie program, the only one of its kind on a public course in Orange County.
The program also is believed to be the only one of its kind at a public course in the California that isn’t tied to a large resort such as the ones at Pebble Beach and La Costa.
Mike Lichty, general manager at Tustin Ranch, saw golf being overrun by technology and views this as a way of stepping back in time. “Walking and caddies are the roots of the game,” Lichty said. “It’s a really special way to play the game.”
It also is an expensive way to play but such is the way the game is going. Rounds at Tustin Ranch cost $75 Monday through Thursday and $105 on the weekend.
Taking a caddie adds another $35 or two can share a caddie for $50. Lichty never expects a huge demand for caddies, saying that only “a minuscule amount” of the about 65,000 rounds played at Tustin Ranch each year will involve one.
“We look at it as an amenity,” he said. “It’s something that the other courses in the area don’t or can’t offer. It’s another way to make a round at Tustin Ranch something special.”
For those who have the cash, the advantages of caddie golf are many.
Players get the chance to walk without the struggle of carrying a bag. Plus, the caddies at Tustin Ranch have been trained to know the course and are adapt at getting the distance correct no matter how far off the fairway a player is. They also know the breaks of the often subtle greens.
Caddies are normally requested in advance but the club can usually get one ready without notice because all are employed by the course in some manner.
Another advantage of having a caddie is that a player is always with their bag. Carts are allowed only on the cart paths at Tustin and the fairways are in near-perfect condition as a result. But it sometimes results in players hitting the club in their hands rather than the one they want, which is in the golf cart on the other side of the fairway.
Tustin Ranch’s caddies, who wear striking white jump suits similar to those used during The Masters, underwent extensive training, including seeing clips from the movies “Caddyshack” and “Tin Cup” for examples of what not to do.
“They understand they need to size up the situation pretty quickly,” said Tom Vandercook, who heads the program. “As far as I’m concerned, the caddie is the personal valet to that player for the length of the round.”
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The mounds of Cypress: Few courses in the area have gotten as bad a rap as the Cypress Golf Club, which opened in the summer of 1992.
The course was reworked on the same ground where the Los Alamitos golf course was, and a series of mounds were put in to divide the fairways and give most holes an individual look.
But because the mounds give the course a narrow feeling and are sometimes difficult to get over, several players dismissed the layout as being unfair.
Plus, rumors that the course is about to go private circulate from time to time. But head professional Terry Titus said that isn’t the case.
“There are no plans as far as I know for this course to go private,” he said.
The real news at Cypress these days is the amazing condition the fairways and greens are in. No carts are allowed on the fairways but as of April 15, no spikes have been allowed on the greens, either.
The course is the first public one in Orange County to go spikeless and after a couple of weeks, the greens look great.
“Golfers expect two things,” Titus said, “good greens and good tees. If you give them that, [most] people are going to be happy.”
For those who show up at Cypress in spikes, the club is happy to change your shoes over for $5, which includes the new spikes and labor.
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Cypress and Tiger: A few weeks before he won his third consecutive U.S. Amateur championship, Tiger Woods stopped by the Cypress Golf Club for a friendly round.
Woods went out and shattered the Cypress record by three strokes, firing a nine-under 62. Included in his round was an eagle on No. 15, a 609-yard par five. Woods played it with a drive, then a three-wood to the green.
“I don’t think anybody has ever been on that green in two before him,” Titus said.
Notes
Huntington Beach amateur Brad Baumann was the overall winner of the Southern California event of the Toyota Golf Skills Challenge Tour last month at Fullerton Golf Course. Baumann will advance to the national finals Nov. 2 at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. Division winners were Jim Nanzig of San Juan Capistrano, Leonard Santoro of Fountain Valley, Grace deLeon of Anaheim, Miguel San Juan of Garden Grove, Brian Cole of Fullerton, Keith Romar of Venice and Forrest Jones of Redlands. . . . Kellee Booth, a junior at Arizona State and a graduate of Santa Margarita, is ranked fourth in the nation in the latest Rolex Collegiate Golf Rankings. Duke junior Alicia Allison, who played at Foothill High, is ranked 42nd in the same poll. . . . John Carrido, author of the “Fitness Approach to Power Golf,” is holding a golf fitness seminar May 24 at Pelican Hill. The seminar will run from 10 a.m. to noon. The $100 cost per person includes book, video and bag tag. For more information: (714) 645-8495. . . . Pelican Hills is also the site of the Southern California PGA Metro Chapter’s Golf Instructional School July 16. All-day school includes instruction, club fitting, video swing analysis, lunch and 18 holes of golf with a professional. Fee is $250 and proceeds benefit junior golf programs. For more information: Steve LaBarge (714) 990-0201. . . . Estancia senior Jeff Perry won the junior division of the Tustin Ranch Golf Club Longdrive Extravaganza last month with a drive of 296 yards. Perry’s longest drive outdistanced Tim Oaks, winner of the men’s division, by one yard. DeLeon won the women’s division with a drive of 230 yards.
The Orange County Golf Notebook runs monthly. Reader suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Steve.Kresal@latimes.com or Martin.Beck@latimes.com
