From the publisher’s pen: Foggy intrigue

Community-minded individuals and golf influencers saved and revived Goat Hill Park, a snug and steep municipal course bordering Interstate 5 in Oceanside, California. The influence of GPS helped a Goat Hill Park rookie find the course entrance as a dense marine layer reduced visibility at 6:15 a.m. on a recent Southern California morning.

Fog interrupts play at many golf courses. Goat Hill Park isn’t the typical course. 

The rookie approached an affable young man wearing a hoodie and shorts behind the pro shop counter and inquired about the status of his 6:40 a.m. solo walking tee time.

“It’s your call,” the young man said. “If you want to go, go.” 

“Cool,” the rookie responded. “Where’s the first tee?”

“Over there,” the young man said, pointing to his right.

The carefully arranged first tee box fosters a favorable impression, making it feel like golfers are among … well … goats. Replica black and white goats adorn the tee. Too bad they can’t help spot shots on foggy mornings.

Eco-mindedness permeates Goat Hill Park. Golfers can easily find a reusable bottle filling station on the clubhouse patio. Handcrafted wooden, knee-high trash boxes with recycling slots border tees. Unfortunately, reusable fill stations and recycling bins remain anomalies on American golf courses. Goats gently live off the land, so perhaps it’s possible for more golf courses to operate under a similar land ethic by increasing reuse and recycling options.

The replica goats and recycling slots proved much easier to find than the intended direction of the first hole. Mobile apps and scorecard maps provide little help navigating a quirky and severely sloped course in malt-thick fog. Yellow and orange balls are stored in a golf bag for these types of mornings. But a golfer playing Goat Hill Park for the first time with less than 30 yards of visibility must rely on instinct from three decades of above-average swing trust to handle a front nine tipping out at 2,038 yards.

The least hazy action on this morning includes keeping the stuffed bobcat head cover on the driver. A driver isn’t needed to enjoy Goat Hill Park. One is especially unnecessary in a marine layer. Bobcats and goats don’t cohabitate in the wild anyway. A 7-iron tee shot and yellow ball helped the Goat Hill Park rookie handle the first hole: a dogleg right, 290-yard par 4.

Goat Hill Park begins matching its name on the second hole: an uphill par 3 requiring a stout mid-iron over a ravine to a green surrounded by palm trees. Trust your swing — and the soft spikes on your golf shoes.    

The third hole presents a hit-it-and-hope tee shot over a ravine. Hope is also the strategy required to avoid slipping on the steep tee-to-fairway descent.

About Goat Hill Park’s cart paths: They aren’t continuously paved. Surfaces resembling Southern California’s quick-drying hiking trails connect paved sections. Wooden signs direct golfers to the next tee, and the rest of the front nine meanders up and down terrain better handled by goat hooves than FootJoys or cart tires.

The seventh hole, an uphill, all-carry par 3 over a scrubby ravine, parallels Interstate 5. The calm of the foggy morning subsides upon reaching its green bordered by trees. The eighth hole flows into a fairway funnel with a hairpin-like right turn. The hole shares a boomerang-shaped green with the third hole. Both holes are short, strategic par 4s presenting scoring opportunities with a properly placed tee shot.

Goat Hill Park promotes golf’s social appeal. And the scene around the ninth green isn’t for introverts. The short par 3 plays over another ravine to a green tucked into a steep hillside. Wooden benches form a semi-circle above the green. Goat Hill Park opened in 1952. Consider it a version of stadium golf long before the advent of planned stadium courses such as TPC Sawgrass and PGA West.

Crackling logs and a charred-wood aroma emanating from a firepit between the ninth green and first tee fill the air at 7:50 a.m., as an employee holding a skateboard moves electric carts to a small staging area between the pro shop and practice range. More furniture surrounds the range and pro shop exterior. Goat Hill Park might have more outdoor sit-and-sip options than likely any course under 5,000 yards.

Other distinct Goat Hill Park features:

• A three-hole kids’ course called “The Playground.” Kids 17-and-under play for free and receive priority. Golfers are limited to three clubs. 
• Total embrace of the goat as an influential brand. Goat Hill Park proves being a “goat track” is a good thing for business!         
• The maintenance facility superintendent Laz Flores and team use touches the sixth tee. The rookie listened intently for machines and movement to avoid hitting shots anywhere near crew members. Working on a golf course less than three miles from the Pacific Ocean means being adept at handling marine layers.
• A large revetted bunker guarding the fifth green. 

The rookie’s Goat Hill Park experience was brief. He scurried off the ninth green, trudged up the hill and tossed his clubs into the rental-car trunk. Hopefully he returns on a similarly foggy morning. Using an imagination yields fun golf. Neither score nor appearance matter at Goat Hill Park, especially on a uniquely SoCal morning.

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief.