Getty Images / Zephyr Milton
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Women’s Open brought me to the West Coast, but when an invitation to play San Francisco Golf Club came across my desk, I decided to take a quick spin 100 miles north. SFGC invitations don’t come around often, so when you get a chance, take it.
But it wasn’t just the allure of playing SFGC that drove me away from Pebble Beach during a major week, it was also my host: Robert Trent Jones Jr.
The Jones family name is one of the royals in the world of golf course design. Jones’ father, Robert Trent Jones Sr., was a mid-century architect who worked on projects ranging from Spyglass to Congress. His brother, Reese, followed in his father’s footsteps and became known as the “Open Doctor” for his work with the USGA preparing the US Open tournaments. Jones Jr. also entered the family business. He has designed courses all over the world, with his most famous work, Chambers Bay, hosting the US Open in 2015.
After Jones gets out of his car on a cool summer day in San Francisco, he grabs his cane and staggers into the trunk. He sifts through a bunch of trash and pulls his golf bag out of the mess.
“Did you watch the Senior Open last week?” Asked. “That session [SentryWorld] He is one of me.”
Then he pulled the blueprints from SentryWorld and asked me to check them out. To my untrained eye, it looks like a golf course. For Jones, it’s much more than that. Golf courses are not just about well-manicured lawns and rugged hazards. For him, golf courses are an art.
Jones, 83, isn’t as agile as he used to be, so he opted to take a golf cart for our trip. There aren’t any cart tracks at SFGC, so he drives as close to the tee box as he can.
“I’m not playing any games today,” says Jones. “I’m just going to take a few shots.”
As we make our way to lane one, Jones immediately jumps in explaining refueling the AW Tillinghast classic. It tells me the technical names for each feature and the purpose they serve. After a few minutes, he stopped himself.
“Just tell me if you’re not into that stuff,” he says. “I could talk about it all day.”
My knowledge of architecture is sorely lacking, so I was happy to soak it all up. When I told him this, the gates really opened. For the next several hours, I take a crash course in All Things Course Design.
Jones told me about the reefs and waves and how they affect course design. Explains why Seth Raynor courses look different from Tillinghast courses. He bemoans the recent trend of clearing trees and longs for more fairways for golfers to play on.
“All of these members want to be able to see their entire course from the patio when they’re having drinks,” Jones says. “But the last time I checked, you’re not golfing from the yard.”
SFGC may be one of the highest rated courses in the United States, but that doesn’t mean Jones thinks it’s perfect – far from it, in fact. The routing of many of the back nine holes – which he likens to links of sausage on a plate – draws his criticism, and the par-to rhythm on the closing stretch needs some re-imagining.
When we get to the short No. 3 12th hole, the caddy calls it the “Big Little Hole”. Jones quickly corrects him.
“It’s a good hole,” he says. “Not a great one.”
He explains that the bunkers are too big for the size of the green. If you’re in the wrong spot on the sand, you have little chance of keeping your ball on the green – even for the best players. This was the last time caddies would comment on the course design for the day.
Jones is a member of R&A, Pine Valley, and SFGC, but explains that his membership in the latter was conditional. He is not allowed to do any work on the course or make any suggestions on how to change it.
“I have a lot of opinions,” he says. “I just don’t tell anyone here about them.”
Late in the tour, I asked him when he learned he wanted to be a golf course engineer. He looks at me and laughs.
“Every golfer wants to be a golf course architect,” he says.
As we finish our tour, Jones insists that I join him at the club for lunch. I explained that I needed to get back to Pebble Beach as soon as possible, but he wouldn’t let me leave without showing me all the history the club had to offer.
Once we are seated, he passes me a collection of poetry that he has self-published over the years. His eyes were shining with pride as I read some passages. He has written an opinion piece on the state of golf that he is considering submitting for publication. He asks for my opinion.
“What is your aim with this?” I ask.
He says, “I just want to use my voice to speak.” “Maybe it will inspire others to do the same.”
If there’s one thing Jones knows (other than golf courses), it’s how to talk.