**New 7/10/08: Download hole-by-hole illustrations and descriptions of Saticoy from SCGA President Bob Lowe (PDF, 2.5 MB)

By Robert D. Thomas, from the July/August 2008 issue of FORE Magazine
When FORE Magazine began its Tucked Away Flags series a decade ago, one of the first clubs profiled was Saticoy Country Club. At the time, the Ventura County club fit the criteria perfectly: an outstanding private club not well known outside of its environs.

This month, Saticoy breaks out of that mold when, to paraphrase Norma Desmond in the movie Sunset Boulevard, it proclaims to Southern California that it’s ready for its close up. Theoccasion will be the SCGA Amateur Championship, the nation’s second-oldest, continuously contested amateur golf championship that, for the first time in its 109-year history, will be contested in Ventura County, on July 18-20.

For some players, just finding their way to the club will be a challenge. It’s located in Somis, a small town near Camarillo, several miles north of the Ventura Freeway (101) and a few miles west of Moorpark. The club was founded in 1921 and incorporated October 27, 1927 as the Ventura County Country Club. The original course, a nine-hole layout now called Saticoy Regional Park, was designed in the 1920s by legendary golf course architect George C. Thomas, Jr.

After reorganizing as Saticoy Country Club in 1946, the club moved to its present hillside location in 1964; current SCGA President Bob Lowe became a member in 1980. “It’s always been a laid-back type of club,” says Lowe. “When I joined, many of the members were oil men, farmers and fishermen. Today, it’s still like no other club I’ve ever belonged to.”

From Lowe’s perspective, one of the biggest changes in the course is the large number of trees. “When you look at the left side of No. 14 today,” says
Lowe, “you won’t see any trees at all and that’s the way it used to be everywhere in 1964 except for the second hole. It’s not like we had any kind of master plan for trees. Instead, members just bought them and planted them and now they’re everywhere.”

William Francis Bell (often called Billy Bell, Jr., although he wasn’t a “junior” since his father was William Park Bell) designed the 1964 layout. When
Lowe did a club history project, a member told him Bell didn’t have to move much, if any, dirt to create contours. “The whole area was dry bean fields and he just followed the natural contours of the land to build the course,” the member said.

What Bell created was considered a championship layout from the day it opened. Among the major championships the club has hosted are the 1998 SCGA Mid-Amateur and the 1996 and 2003 SCGA Four-Ball Championships, along with qualifying events for U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and other major national events. However, 40 years later, the course was in danger of becoming outdated, so the club invited several noted architects, including Tom Doak, Robert Muir Graves and John Harbottle III, to inspect the facility and make recommendations. “All of the architects said the same thing,” remembers Lowe: “Great routing, good collection of holes, weak bunkers.”

Harbottle — well known for his work in remodeling courses such as Hillcrest CC and Hacienda GC — was selected for the remake of Saticoy. “John did a great job of bringing the course back to its historical roots while, at the same time, modernizing it for contemporary play,” explains Lowe. “In our case, John really went back to the bunker concepts of Billy Bell’s dad, William P. Bell, adding lots of capes and bays and bringing bunker edges around the front of the greens so that players no longer could simply bounce the ball on the greens.”

When 2004 SCGA Amateur champion Tim Hogarth played the newly renovated course for the first time, he commented, “I’m going to have to re-learn
how to play this course.” It’s a sentiment shared by many.

Saticoy and Lowe are eagerly looking forward to the championship. “The membership has embraced it,” said Head Golf Professional Tom Szwedzinski in an interview with Ventura Star golf columnist Bob Buttita. “Virtually all the members are volunteering in some capacity. They are coming to us and asking what we need them to do. They are excited and proud to be hosting this event. It’s a neat feeling and it’s kind of uniting the membership.”

For Lowe, this tournament will be a feeling of almost familial pride. The SCGA Amateur is traditionally played at the home club of the association’s president and Lowe is the first Ventura County resident to be in that post. “I’m excited and the club is excited,” says Lowe. “The players will really face a challenge on this course and everyone will learn what a hidden gem this course really is.”

How to play the course
Every golf tournament seems to turn on a handful of holes and Saticoy will be no different. Here are some picks from SCGA President Bob Lowe and Saticoy Head Golf Professional Tom Szwedzinski. Download hole-by-hole illustrations and descriptions of Saticoy

Hole 2: 358/329 yards, par 4
Bob Lowe: Unless you can hit it very long with a draw you’ll have troubles on this sharp dogleg left hole.
Tom Szwedzinski: Historically in our tournaments, this is always one of the toughest holes. If you don’t position your tee shot correctly, the trees will get in the way.

Hole 10: 170/144 yards, par 3
Bob Lowe: With an elevated tee to a small green guarded by a pond, this hole will likely give players fits. For at least one round, we’ll move the tee forward and tuck the flagstick short left.
Tom Szwedzinski: With the pond in front, this hole will feel like No. 12 at Augusta, especially from the short tee. You’ve got about a five-foot window in which to land the shot or you’ll be facing a potential bogey.

Hole 12: 355 yards, par 4
Bob Lowe: This isn’t a long hole but it plays extremely hard. This was one of the greens that John Harbottle III said, “don’t change it; it’s fine as it is.”
Tom Szwedzinski: One of four unique short par-4 holes, the tee shot has to be threaded through a chute of trees and the hole plays uphill.

Hole 14: 533 yards, par 5
Tom Szwedzinski: The canyon on the left makes this uphill hole a classic risk-reward hole on the drive. The closer you can land your drive to the canyon, the more likely you’ll be able to hit the green with your second shot. If you bail right on your drive, it becomes a three-shot hole for most people.

Hole 18: 568/532 yards, par 5
Bob Lowe: We have several holes where we’re going to move tees and this is one of them. The variety will really add a lot to the tournament. This could very well be a year when the championship could come down to the last hole, and if that’s the case, this will be a great test for whoever wins.
Tom Szwedzinski: We’ll probably play the tees forward for one or two rounds to give almost everyone a chance to go for the green in two shots. But
the green will also present challenges, especially on the last day.

Information
Location: Saticoy Country Club
4450 Clubhouse Drive
Somis 93066
Phone: 805/485-5216
Web: www.saticoycountryclub.com
Directions: Take Highway 101 to Central Ave. exit; north 2 miles to Santa Clara Ave.; right 1 1/4 miles to Los Angeles Ave. (Highway 118); left 1/2 mile to club.