Thursday, October 29, 2015

Golfing Buenaventura Review



The shot of the tee box above is emblematic of Buenaventura Golf Course in Ventura, CA in so many ways. The first thing you notice is the feeling of claustrophobia standing on the tee through the narrow shoot. The next thing you notice is the wide fairway beyond the chute. The third thing is how close the green is to the tee box despite being a par 4. The last thing you notice is how much fun you are having trying to figure out the fun puzzle that is Buenaventura.

Personally, I think Ventura County is one of the unheralded golfing meccas here in SoCal. I am a huge fan of Olivas Links and there are a bunch of other tracks just waiting for an invitation.

Buenaventura is short but sweet with so many interesting holes. All the par 3's have blind landing areas or guarded by bunkers or like the one below, inundated by water.


The greens were awesome, undulating reasonably fast and running true. The fairways were in good shape, primarily because the course uses reclaimed water. The only downside is that the course was slooooow. It wasn't horrible but the course could just invest in a marshall it would make it 10x better.



The architecture was so interesting I looked up the history of the course. The course was originally designed by William Bell who designed many of the tracks around here in SoCal (including Ojai and Bel-Air). It was redesigned completely by Forest Richardson (who also did Olivas Links) and I will be on the lookout for his work in the future.

The upside of slower play? Lengthening shadows and wonderful light.



I love me some Buenaventura, its short but challenging in unexpected ways. It is a fun course and that is all you can ask from a golf course, a great time!

For more info on Buenaventura, check it out here: http://www.buenaventuragolf.com/
For more info on Kemper Sports, check out this link: http://www.kempersports.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment