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CordeValle: The heart of of high-end Northern Cal resort golf
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CordeValle's tough, terrific 17th hole.
For most starry-eyed golfers traveling south on Highway 101 from newly overhauled San Jose International Airport, there's one destination in mind, and one only: First name Pebble, last name Beach. The common refrain once the sticks are loaded up: "Step on it, mister — that afternoon tee time on America's most famous public track is burning a hole in my pocket."
Whoa there, well-heeled foursome. Not so fast. Before making a $500 bee-line for the coast, you'd be well advised to hit the brakes about 30 miles south of the airport, make a right at San Martin Avenue, a left at Santa Teresa, right at Highland Avenue when you spot some vineyards and an understated gate — and drive into another world called CordeValle.
That would be "heart of the valley," or rather, the valley with a royal heart, through which blood types run. There's the world-class design architectural blood of Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his crack design crew, who, about a decade ago, took on the job of laying out a meaty and magnificent, bunker-laden, not-too-tough but by no means easy trek up and down a secluded valley, occasionally splashing its fortified fairways up onto hillsides lined with more vineyards. There's the cuvee-hued blood running through the 85-acre Clos LaChance winery behind the golf course. There's the blood of millionaire members, just over 400 of them, mostly hailing from the Silicon Valley and soaking up CordeValle's rejuvanating, relaxing atmosphere every chance they get. And there's the refined blood of Rosewood Hotels, which runs the property's high-end resort side with a flawless, king-and-queen for a day (or three, or four) service model that makes parting such sweet sorrow and returning reason to nearly leap out of your skin with joy. If they did that sort of thing around here.
With just 45 rooms — spacious bungalows and villas strung necklace-like on a verdant hillside above the 9th hole, plus several fairway homes, each with four master suites, along No. 1 — CordeValle is unique among Northern California luxury resorts. It's sprawling yet intimate, convenient to one of America's busiest urban centers yet a thousand miles removed from the high-tech treadmill. And it's one of the few golf-centered getaways where the sheer blood pressure-lowering effect that the accommodations have on one's psyche actually puts that much-anticipated tee time in peril. It's more than easy to just plop down on your private patio overlooking the course, or in front of the fireplace and flat screen TV, order room service from Chef Luca Rutigliano's Mediterranean-inspired menu (don't miss the Kobe burger, seafood salad, Filet Mignon pizza or apple-pear bread pudding), and just chill. And in the huge bathroom, a giant jet tub beckons — or, if you're lucky enough to be sharing a fairway home, there's a private outdoor spa (the "real" spa, called "Sense," is housed in CordeValle's clubhouse, itself a wonder of understated elegance). Creature comforts like this don't come cheap, of course, but bundled into one of CordeValle's stay-and-play packages, they're a bit more doable even in a down economy, especially when you figure in the long-term benefits to your well-being.
Now back to the "play" part: By all means make that tee time, because even at $325 a pop, it's a Trent Jones trip you'll never forget. Director of Golf Travis Skeesick and his staff of assistant pros and caddies set the stage with stem-to-stern yes-sir, yes ma'am service, taking care of your clubs from check-in to check-out, directing you to the stellar locker room facilities and making sure you're well-fed and watered while negotiating your way through the course's carefully balanced riparian corridors (don't forget to grab a couple of chocolate chip cookies at the turn). The front nine begins and ends with graceful (and, if you're hitting it crooked, potentially painful) runs through old-growth oaks and sycamores, then moves up toward the winery through grassy hills and, at the wily short 4-par 8th, over one of the course's two major water hazards. The back nine also shares that dual personality but spends more time in the hills; holes 13-17 comprise the make-or-break section of the stretch run — 17 is one of the five toughest 4-pars in Northern California — while 18 is a killer of a 5-par finisher, asking players to make a definite decision with every shot until the final pitch around a pond to a double-tiered green.
"Bob Jones likes to give golfers options," says CordeValle's gregarious superintendent Tom Gray, who brought years of experience at Top 100 courses Oakland Hills and Olympia Fields to what he considers his best job to date. "On every hole here, you have different ways to get home — there's always a bunker to hit it over and one to aim at from the tee."
Gray and his team have CordeValle in the best shape of its young life. Fairways are flawless and putts hold their line on greens that are running a slick 11 on the Stimp. No view is encumbered by manmade structure — once you're out there, it's you, nature, your caddie or forecaddie, your wits and, in the end, your sense of gratitude. Because CordeValle is definitely a gift, that, like Pebble just 45 minutes down the road, should be savored at least once in a lifetime, or a year. Or more.
For special package rates or more information, visit www.cordevalle.com
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