SLO County Golf, Wine & Real EstateGolf, Wine & Real Estate News and Events Blog
Monarch Dunes Golf Resort Coming Soon!Tuesday, October 04, 2005As early as November, a soft opening of Monarch Dunes Golf Resort in Nipomo will hail the South County's first new 18-hole golf course since Cypress Ridge opened its doors just north in Arroyo Grande. Nestled in eucalyptus groves just minutes from the Pacific Ocean at The Woodlands in Nipomo is the new home of Monarch Dunes Golf Resort - 18 holes of top-notch and challenging golf. Monarch Dunes at The Woodlands is located just southwest of Blacklake Golf Course, 10 minutes from Pismo Beach and only four miles away from the Pacific Ocean. The "soft" opening of this golf course is roughly scheduled for the same time the first phase of new homes will be completed. These first homes are part of a large resort-lifestyle community being developed at The Woodlands by Trilogy Central Coast, a division of Shea Homes. An official opening for the golf course is likely next spring. Shea Homes will have over 40 homes available in its first phase, many along the Monarch Dunes 9th fairway. A par-3 9-hole course is planned later, located east of the current "north" golf course. The "south" course, another 18 holes, will eventually run near a bluff overlooking agricultural land west of Santa Maria.  Monarch Dunes Golf Resort is under management of Kemper Sports Management, the same group that manages world-famous Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes in Oregon and Desert Willow Resort and Black Gold Golf Course in California. Kemper Sports works with each course to identify and foster its unique qualities and opportunities, which often results in commercial success far beyond what's possible with a one-size-fits-all approach. Their plan is simply to do a good job and let word of mouth do the rest. Mark Luthman, Regional Director of Kemper Sports, granted Golf SLO a first look at Monarch Dunes, the championship layout by Damian Pascuzzo of Graves & Pascuzzo and PGA Tour player Steve Pate - winner of six PGA Tour events.  Damian Pascuzzo is a past President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and well known for his design philosophy of "strategy-over-length". A leading advocate for affordable golf, Pascuzzo claims that "long-ball" technology threatens the growth and affordability of golf as green fees rise to accommodate courses that require more acreage, resulting in higher construction and maintenance costs. Pascuzzo accomplishes this goal at Monarch Dunes, weaving risk-reward strategy into hole design using natural land forms, carefully preserving trees, and introducing lakes, elevation changes and subtle movements in the terrain. His vision for Monarch Dunes essentially delivers an old-style Scottish Links course right here to the Central Coast of California!  You'll find terrific topography with undulating fairways lined with grassy knolls, sand dunes, and "lacy-edged" bunkers, leading to rolling, elevated greens. This links style course will appear wild to golfers more used to traditional manicured courses. Even the nearby undeveloped coastline lends its sense of wildness, providing the coastal influence of cool morning fog and warm afternoon breezes. What makes the course so unique is that it mimics the look and appearance of nearby dunes using "shaped" dunes instead of traditional grassy mounds.  But Monarch's unique appearance doesn't stop with its strategic and natural design. Monarch Dunes also introduces the Central Coast to rare fescue fairways and velvet bentgrass greens. Fescue, a rarity on golf courses, loves well-drained soils such as the sandy soil found on the Nipomo Mesa. We observed that these fairways don't grab your club like bermuda and the ball sits up so nicely on fescue. Fescue is also very disease-resistant and goes dormant during droughts. Velvet bentgrass greens fell out of favor nearly 50 years ago when courses began their heavy reliance on petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides. Mismanagement coupled with poor seed production put velvet bentgrasses into obscurity. However, velvet bentgrass has the finest leaf texture, highest shoot density and smoothest playing surface of all turfgrasses. Velvet bentgrass also possesses exceptional drought, shade and disease tolerance, good wear stress tolerance and good heat tolerance.  As we toured the course (and even played 2 holes), we grew confident that Monarch Dunes will deliver fun, challenge and variety for golfers of all experience and skill levels. The course should prove challenging from the tees all the way to the greens. Although the course is not particularly long - measuring just over 6,600 yards from the tournament tees - and generous fairways are offered to hit off the tee, severe risk is presented to the gambler. Landing areas appear closer and smaller than they are. Fairways are often bordered by hazardess water, sand and dunes. Some fairways are flat, while others play across and along ridge lines. The course hosts five lakes which come into play on one third of the holes. Three of these lakes impact tee shots on five holes. Most of the lakes border fairways, but the par-3 8th requires a carry over water.  The challenges arise as golfers approach the greens. Some greens are enclosed by deep bunkers, mounds or dunes. Others are just targets perched in the air. All of the golfer's senses come into play! Pascuzzo has attempted to put the bounce and the roll back into the game of golf with this layout, penalizing those golfers who just like the aerial game. We're certainly looking very forward to our first round at Monarch Dunes Golf Resort! With the addition of Monarch Dunes to San Luis Obispo County, the Central Coast is now an official top-notch golf destination.  Visit our course page on Monarch Dunes Golf Resort to learn more about the course, view photos, get driving directions or contact information, view interactive course maps, read course reviews, or reserve tee times. Vern Ahrendes from the Times-Press-Recorder shared his review of Monarch Dunes recently from an early tour he was granted by both course designers. |
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