Vic Robbie travels to North California and finds that golf and the wine industry co-exist in perfect harmony

IF Batman and Robin – or even Del Boy and Rodney – had sprinted around the corner it wouldn’t have been surprising.

I had descended into an area as gloomy as Gotham City and were lost in a world of shadows. Not what you expect when you fly into San Francisco’s bright and sparkling airport but then I had placed all my faith in new technology.

Having experienced the delights of golf in San Diego, it was time to see what northern California had to offer and perhaps taste a few wines on the way.

Heading for Half Moon Bay, foolishly I spurned maps and put my trust in a sat nav. The patient lady at Alamo set up the gizmo, entering the destination address and I was good to go.

Disaster! On descending the ramp from the car park, the gizmo fell off the dashboard and rolled under the passenger seat. The screen went dead and I was alone in dark side streets. Overhead, traffic screamed by on a freeway and there were signs to San Jose. But I didn’t want to know the way to San Jose just the general direction of Half Moon Bay that I knew was somewhere south of San Francisco but at that moment could have been the South Pole.

By this time I had for some reason given my sat nav the name of Doris and although I pushed all her buttons I couldn’t bring her back to life. Eventually, a Samaritan at a gas station furnished me with a good old-fashioned map and gave simple directions – go south here, hang a right there, that will take you straight into Half Moon Bay. Simple!

What he forgot to say was that the last leg of the journey was a switchback ride over the Santa Cruz Mountains. By now Doris had woken up and her disembodied voice periodically gave directions to turn into non-existent roads.

After what seemed an age, I arrived at a crossroads with the famous Route 1 with the ocean beyond but in the obsidian night there was nothing to be seen. Only pinpoints of light flickering in the distance. Were they homesteads or fishing boats out on the ocean?

For mile after mile, nothing but an enveloping darkness only pierced by the car’s headlights. No one, not a sign of life only Doris chirruping away uselessly from her hiding place.

It could have been a scene from a Hitchcock movie. Then, turning a bend, perhaps the most surreal experience of the whole trip. There was a red London double-decker bus and another one and red telephone boxes and the Union flag flying over a country inn. It was as if I had been beamed straight back to Old Blighty.

Mine host Cameron Palmer is rightly proud of his little piece of Britain on the California coast. Cameron’s Inn is a local landmark and a necessity for expats looking for warm beer, Heinz baked beans and Marmite and other British delicacies.

Daylight brought some sort of normality. The town is also the home of Half Moon Bay Golf Links – which has two courses – the shorter Ocean course, with spectacular views of the ocean and much loved by visitors to the on-course Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the 30-year-old Old Course, which is an Arnold Palmer creation.

You approach any Palmer course with anticipation. How will he fit in his love of risk and reward holes, and Half Moon doesn’t disappoint with one of the most spectacular finishing holes in California.

There is no inclination of what awaits as the 7,001-yard course winds through a community of smart homes that at times were too close for comfort as were their inhabitants.

At the par-3 third across water, young entrepreneurs had set up a stall selling pond balls and went fishing with no apparent concern for their own safety and anything other than a perfect execution could have resulted in some hefty medical bills.

The Links is popular and costs $150 on weekdays and $175 at weekends that can get crowded. On the morning we played, a ranger reckoned there were 200 of us on the course at that time.

There are a number of good holes – the Index 1 eighth a downhill dogleg left with a further drop down to the green; the ninth slightly downhill then a drop to a green framed by large bunkers; the 16th to an elevated green and then a short hole towards the ocean. But nothing prepares you for the 405-yard 18th from an elevated tee with the ocean hard to your right and eating into the high cliffs.

For strong drivers there is a ravine running across the fairway that has to be contended with and then the approach is uphill to a large sloping green protected by deep bunkers.

From Half Moon I headed north up the Pacific Coast Highway to Bodega Bay but before setting out visit Sam’s Chowder House, a delightful restaurant right on the coast.

New Yorker Paul Shenkman named the eatery after his son. He only took up the restaurant business when his guests at dinner parties suggested that because he was such a great cook he should open a restaurant. Now Sam’s is so well known he has no time to cook. If you’re popping in before the drive north try any of their outstanding sea food dishes. Amazing!

Doris was now back in business and did not put a foot wrong during the two-hour drive through the suburbs of San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge with views of the island fortress prison of Alcatraz to the right. Then through miles of country areas with just farms and livestock grazing in the fields.

Bodega Bay’s claim to fame is that it was the location for Alfred Hitchcock’s chilling film The Birds with scenes shot on Tides Wharf. But if birdies of another kind are your interest it’s also becoming known for its challenging golf course with a quirky finish.

The 6,275-yard Links at Bodega Harbour designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr is not a true links although there are some holes that come into that category. The first is a severe dogleg right uphill and the first four holes climb away from the clubhouse with panoramic views of the coastline. At last the fifth is downhill and a double dogleg par-5, right then left over Hell’s Corner where they say seven out of 10 shots are lost. However, it’s the last three holes that will determine the fate of a round.

To say they are unusual is something of an understatement. For the 16th and 17th you have to leave your buggy and descend into the marsh. The 16th is only 303 yards but the tee shot is intimidating. The marsh grasses are head high and have to be carried a distance of at least 180 yards to a narrow landing area on a fairway that runs right to left. The danger is to run through the fairway and into a bank of heavy grass. The big hitters can go for the green and the hole has been aced but more in luck than in judgement.

The par-3 17th is again over the marsh grasses with a slope and heavy rough on the right.

Back up the hill, the 18th offers no respite. The drive needs to be judged to perfection because it is easy to run out of fairway. There is a deep trouble to the right and the fairway narrows to the width of a cart path, then the second is over trees and downhill to a small green surrounded by bunkers.

However harshly the course may treat you, you can be sure of a comfortable stay next door at the Bodega Bay Lodge and Spa with stunning views of the course.

Next stop was the wine country of Sonoma but not before a spot of wine surfing and an aperitif, but with this kind of surfing the only thing that gets wet is the throat.

Gourmet Au Bay is next door to the Tides Wharf and presents an eclectic selection of Californian wines. Three glasses of wine are placed on a mini surfboard and you retire to a delightful sundeck and sip wine – not gargle and spit – and watch the pelicans diving for fish.

A drive inland takes you to the heartland of California winemaking and soon you are driving through a succession of vineyards and wineries each a grape’s throw from each other.

Napa Valley and its cabernet is the name synonymous with Californian wine but the next valley along is Sonoma which is bigger with a greater diversity of wines produced. Mike Colhoun is the boss of Landmark Vineyards, which produces Chardonnays regarded as ‘among the most exciting made in California’ and superior Pinot Noirs.

A great-great-great grandson of John Deere, inventor of the steel plough, he is ploughing his own furrow in the wine business. Over an Italian meal, washed down with the best of his range, Mike, a passionate proponent of Californian wine, recounted the time when the state’s wines came out on top against the best France could muster in a blind wine-tasting by experts in the Republic.

The walls of his winery are plastered with awards and photos of the good and the great enjoying his tipple and it seems his wines are the chosen beverage of those who live in the White House. Although that may not necessarily be an advantageous testimonial, Landmark’s award-winning Chardonnays - Overlook, Damaris Reserve and Lorenzo – and the Grand Detour Pinot Noir, Kanzler Pinto Noir and Steel Plow Syrah do have a growing market amongst the sophisticated palates and cognoscenti in New York and London.

Down the road there’s Benziger, a family run winery in the lee of the Oonapais mountains and producing upwards of 200,000 cases of wine annually. Tribute, a Bordeaux blend, is perhaps their best known. One of the most fascinating attractions for the 60,000 visitors a year is their insectory where they rear their own bugs that go out and kill the insects that would otherwise attack the grapes.

Mike is a keen golfer and plays his game at Sonoma Golf Club, home of a US Champions Tour event and owned by the luxurious Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.

A 7,103-yard parkland course set in the rolling foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains and built in 1926, it is ideal for walking and meanders through 177 acres of native oaks, eucalyptus and redwoods with three lakes and a rushing creek. It’s basically a flat course with a pretty 215-yard par-3 14th over water and an attractive finishing hole which doglegs right with bunkers on the corner and a large raised green where anything played short will roll backwards into a creek.

There’s a laid-back feel about the course and about the town, too, which is perhaps understandable with so much wine about but surprisingly, I was told, there were only two taxis in town so perhaps it would be safer to gargle and spit.

The town is also home to a fine bistro serving French country cuisine, The Girl & The Fig. You can sit inside or outside on the courtyard and the food is the perfect complement to the fine wines and the atmosphere in the packed restaurant has the buzz of a big city restaurant. Not to be missed!

After that it was just a case of finding one’s way back to San Francisco International airport and Doris, who had not had a drop to drink, did a marvellous job.

fact file

THE GOLF

Half Moon Bay Golf Links

Old Course: 7,001 yards, par 72. Ladies 5,501 yards,par 72.
Ocean Course: 6,649 yards, par 72. Ladies 4,872 yards,par 72
+1 650 726 1800 www.hmbgolflinks.com

The Links at Bodega Harbour

6,275 yards, par 70. Ladies 4,801 yards, par 71.
+1 707 875 3538 www.bodegaharbourgolf.com

Sonoma Golf Club

7,103 yards, par 72. Ladies 5,555 yards, par 72.
Green fees: on application.
+1 707 939 4100 or 707 996 0300 www.sonomagolfclub.com

ACCOMMODATION

Bodega Bay Lodge & Spa
+1 707 875 3525 www.bodegabaylodge.com

Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa
+1707 938 9000 www.fairmont.com

RESTAURANTS

Cameron’s Inn
+1 650 726 5705 www.cameronsinn.com

Sam’s Chowder House
+1 650 712 0245 www.samschowderhouse.com

The Girl and the Fig
+1 707 938 3634

 WINERIES

Landmark Vineyards
+1 707 833 0053 www.landmarkwine.com

Benziger/Imagery Wineries
+1 707 935 4064 www.benziger.com

Gourmet Au Bay
+1 707 875 9875 www.gourmetaubay.com

FLIGHTS

Virgin Atlantic – Heathrow to Los Angeles; San Francisco
International to Heathrow Reservations: 0870 380 2007
Alaska Airlines – San Diego to San Francisco
www.alaskaair.com

MORE INFORMATION

California Tourism
+44 (0)207 257 6180 www.visitcalifornia.com

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