Wood Ranch a Trial for PGA Seniors

In the past 10 years, the town of Simi Valley has undergone nearly as many changes and massive structural alterations as Michael Jackson’s face. And, like the singer’s current nose, one monument to man’s ability to change nature stands out more clearly than all the rest. It is the Wood Ranch Golf Club, an architectural masterpiece carved from the rugged Santa Susana Mountains.

Wood Ranch is a pure delight--for everyone except golfers. For those poor souls, the rolling hills, man-made lakes and rivers and the screaming wind combine to make it a house of horrors.

Starting Friday, 72 members of the Senior PGA Tour will compete for a $275,000 purse in the 54-hole GTE Classic over the Wood Ranch layout.

Practice and a qualifying round will be held Monday followed by a nine-hole shoot-out at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Bruce Crampton, defending champion Bob Charles, Orville Moody, Dale Douglass, Al Geiberger, Butch Baird, Dave Hill and Doug Sanders will compete for $10,200 in a Skins-type format. Pro-am events are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Last year, the demanding 6,536-yard, par-72 course was kind to Charles for the first two days, giving up successive rounds of 67. But in the final round, Wood Ranch brought Charles back to earth in a hurry, wiping out a 4-stroke lead on the back nine before Charles recovered and held on for the victory.

And if pros believe they learned a lot about the course and the playing conditions at Wood Ranch from last year’s tournament, well, they have a lot more to learn.

“Last year, the winds were out of the north and the northeast,” golf director Bob Heath said. “Real Santa Ana winds. That’s what the pros saw for five or six rounds, including practice rounds, and that’s what they’ll probably be thinking about. But that wind was very unusual. The normal wind here blows in from the ocean, from the west. And it really blows.”

The difference can be remarkable.

“Last year, Palmer hit a driver and a 7-iron into the green on No. 6,” Heath said. “It’s 529 yards long and, normally, with the westerly winds, you can’t reach that green in two. Or you at least have to hit a driver and a 3-wood. But the wind was turned around and allowed everyone to go for it.

“If Arnold and the rest of the guys remember that hole from last year and the wind is coming from the west, as it usually does, they’re in for a big surprise.”

The members at Wood Ranch say there is a method for determining the wind’s strength on any given day. If the 14 lakes or ponds scattered about the course only have whitecaps on them, then it is not very windy. But if all of the water has been blown out of the lakes and ponds, exposing hundreds of heretofore lost golf balls lying in the mud, then it is windy, the kind of wind that would send Don King packing, fearing the gusts would muss up his hair.

The links-style course, designed after the historical ocean courses in Scotland with rolling fairways and deep bunkers, offers spectators unlimited viewing opportunities. A natural amphitheater surrounds the 18th green, and that area will attract the largest gallery. But Heath said almost any hole on the course provides a good viewpoint.

His favorite observation point, however, is behind the green on the par-4, 393-yard 12th hole.

“In addition to being able to see all of the 12th hole, from the tee shots to the putting, you can also watch the players hit their tee shots on No. 11, their approach shots on No. 10 and all of the par-3 13th hole, all from the same hillside,” Heath said.

Perhaps a more spectacular vantage point is at the elevated tee on the 16th hole. Towering several hundred feet above the fairway and offering a panoramic view of the entire Simi Valley along with the golf course, the 16th tee is only for the adventurous, however. It is accessible only by a long, leg-aching climb up a twisting cart path.

Once there, keeping the hat from being torn from your head by the wind might be the challenge of the day. A package of thumb tacks, however, should solve that problem. And it also will give you an idea of the headache most of the seniors will have after three days of battling rugged Wood Ranch.