Happy Trails to View

The talk about Ocean Trails Golf Club was supposed to be about its combination of breathtaking oceanfront scenery and challenging Pete Dye-designed course.

Instead, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Course has become known for its 18th hole and the 1999 landslide that destroyed it. But after 18 months of talking about the 18th hole, the focus is shifting back to the rest of the course, which opened for public play Nov. 12 as a 15-hole layout.

The 18th-hole reconstruction is still underway and workers are using the adjacent ninth and 12th holes as construction staging areas. But in a strategic marketing move, course operators are offering unlimited play rates at $125 Monday through Thursday and $195 Friday through Sunday. Those rates are in effect until all 18 holes are open, expected sometime this summer.

Golfers are taking advantage, according to Mike van der Goes, golf director at Ocean Trails. The tee sheets have been filled most days since opening and he said they were overbooked many days during December, when rates were reduced to $95.

“People are curious to see what we have out here,” Van der Goes said. “I was a little apprehensive about opening with only 15 holes because I didn’t know how the public would view that. But everyone is interested in this course because we’ve gotten so much publicity.”

Most of that centered on the 18th hole. On June 2, 1999, six weeks before the scheduled course opening, a landslide moved approximately 80,000 square feet of earth toward the Pacific Ocean. Lost was much of the 18th hole.

What followed was a media frenzy, featuring footage and photographs of the spectacular slide. Since then, there have been dozens of geological forays into the cause, miles of red tape, lawsuits and an eventual bankruptcy filing by the course owners, brothers Ken and Bob Zuckerman.

The Zuckerman brothers, who still own the course, sought bankruptcy protection from lenders who got antsy and tried to call in loans when the course didn’t open.

Quietly, however, Ocean Trails kept plugging along, and in July 2000, gained approval for its repair plan from the California Coastal Commission.

The ambitious plan calls for stabilization of the land with 115 three-foot thick pipes called shear pins, and a 1,600-foot-long buttress called a Mechanically Stabilized Earthen Wall. The wall will be 90 feet tall and 90 feet thick.

When all is said and done, Ken Zuckerman estimates that he and his brother will have spent in excess of $120 million--about $100 million more than the average cost of an upscale course today. He said $20 million of that is going into the 18th hole.

“It’s the most expensive golf hole in the world,” Ken Zuckerman said. “This will be the most stable piece of coastal land in the state. In two million years, that will still be there.”

A computerized system has also been installed deep into the ground on the 18th and 10th holes to monitor land movement.

The cause of the slide is still debated. Many involved concur with the findings of a course-commissioned investigation that concluded a leaking sewage pipe running beneath the 18th fairway was to blame. County sewage department officials disputed that finding, saying the pipe was intact.

The pipe in question has been rerouted and the par-four 18th hole will be rebuilt almost exactly as Dye, the nationally renowned architect, originally envisioned it.

In the meantime, the rest of the course is destined to stake a claim as one of Southern California’s finest.

Dye carved the course into a hillside and tiered most of the holes to run back and forth so that every tee and every green offer panoramic ocean views--not even Pebble Beach can make that claim.

Catalina Island, only 19 miles from the tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, dominates the horizon on clear days.

Since the project started in 1993, the Zuckerman brothers have envisioned a nationally prominent course that would one day host a U.S. Open. Though the jury is still out on whether the qualify of the course is strong enough for that, it will probably gain a reputation for its dramatic views of the Pacific.

“This is the most beautiful course I have ever played,” said Robert Pando of Long Beach, who recently played Ocean Trails. “I have played in Australia, Hawaii, the Caribbean--everywhere. This may not be the easiest, but it’s definitely the most beautiful.”

At 6,833 yards from the back tees and 6,073 from the middle, length shouldn’t be an issue for those who select the right set of tees, but narrow landing areas on most holes will make golfers think twice about trying to overpower the course with a driver.

Forced carries off many tees, rolling fairways and extra large bunkers dominate the tee-to-green experience. Environmentally sensitive areas line the fairways and reduce the amount of rough, but any balls hit in those areas are certainly lost.

“It’s a good course to break out your old balls,” said Karole Pando, Robert’s wife. “You will definitely lose a few.”

Around the greens, the course gets even tougher. Closely shaved aprons and large, treacherous bunkers guard the greens, most of which are elevated.

Scoring well is difficult because of the large, undulating greens that provide tough hole locations.

But according to some, scoring takes a back seat at Ocean Trails.

“It’s the kind of place where you look out at the ocean and you don’t even think about your score,” Robert Pando said. “Especially when the weather is nice.”