In 1999, Ventura County, California, made a 700-acre property in Happy Camp Canyon available for long-term lease. It was a beautiful spot, full of sandy soil and native scrub, but its central wash was ecologically sensitive. Thus, potential golf course developers and architects were subject to strict regulations, with almost no earthmoving allowed. Conveniently, former American Golf Corporation executive Craig Price, who won the lease, and the little-known design team he hired—Hanse Golf Course Design, with consultant Geoff Shackelford—actively preferred the minimalist approach. The result was a kind of golf course that hadn’t been built in Southern California since the 1920s heyday of George Thomas, Billy Bell, and Max Behr: tawny, rugged, low-profile, and subtly challenging.
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Take Note…
Avengers, assemble. Gil Hanse worked with an impressive team on the Rustic project: in addition to Geoff Shackelford and design partner Jim Wagner, Rodney Hine (who has served as the superintendent at Boston Golf Club since 2003) and Tommy Naccarato (an ace researcher and illustrator, still on Hanse’s staff) were on site. Naccarato fondly remembers spending several hours watching Hanse shape the runoff on the left side of Rustic’s fifth green.
Scenic byways. After your round at Rustic Canyon, I recommend making the hour(ish)-long trip from Moorpark to Ojai to play Soule Park, a 2005 Hanse redesign and the site of our Boomerang event. Ojai is a charming town in a gorgeous setting. Pro tip: when you leave Rustic, don’t blindly follow your map app’s directions. Take the backcountry route from (*SNL “Californians” voice*) the 23 to the 126 to the 150. It’s a little circuitous, but it’s prettier, and less likely to be choked with traffic, than the alternatives.
Mrs. Dye’s unintentional suggestion. Years ago, while walking Riviera Country Club with Geoff Shackelford and seeing the effects of overwatering, the great Alice Dye wondered aloud, “Why can’t people build rustic courses anymore?” The one-liner stuck in Shackelford’s memory and eventually inspired the name “Rustic Canyon.”
