I’ve been playing a lot of golf since moving to California. I play The Fountaingrove Club a lot, but there are so many great golf courses in the Bay Area, I like to branch out. Since moving to Santa Rosa, I’ve played Yocha Dehe Golf Club, Blackhawk Country Club, Round Hill Country Club, Windsor Golf Club, Marin Country Club… The list goes on. But last week I got the chance to play Northwood Golf Club.
Northwood GC is located in Monte Rio, California, not 10 minutes from the coast, and was designed by Alister MacKenzie. He also designed Augusta National Golf Club, Pasatiempo Golf Course and Cypress Point Club. The golf course is situated in the middle of a redwood forest and sits along the infamous Russian River. The golf course is only 9 holes, and while we only played 9 holes, I wanted to track my steps/miles for a blog post.
Erik Omlid, one of The Fountaingrove Club’s Young Executive members joined me, and offered to drive. He had nothing but good things to say about the golf course and when we arrived, decided to grab a drink at the Northwood Restaurant. When we walked in, I started laughing. The bar stools, well… Are office chairs. The beer is cold and they have $3 cans of PBR. PBR just seemed like the sort of beer you’d order at Northwood GC.
When it was time to tee off, we headed over to the golf shop to meet Chuck Lehnhard. I’d been talking to Chuck on Facebook for weeks, and it was nice to finally meet him. We shook hands, got to know each other a little better and he showed us to the range. It isn’t really a range… But a net where we hit a few balls to warm up. Then it was time to tee off!
The first hole is a dogleg left measuring 290 yards from the White tee. I hit 4 iron a little right, chunked a wedge and missed the putt. Can’t bogey them all if you don’t bogey the first. I made par on 2, 3 and 4 before pushing my tee shot on 5 right. I’ll stop there, but ended up shooting 39. Not bad considering I didn’t have any birdies. Oh, and I didn’t hit driver once. You just don’t need it out here. Northwood GC measures 2,888 yards from the White tee.
They do have carts here, but we walked. Figured it was a good excuse to create some content. If you didn’t already know this, my New Year’s resolution is to hit my steps goal every day this year. My goal is 10,500 steps/day, and so far so good. Before we hit our tee shots, I started tracking steps/miles for the round.
We only played 9 holes, but I walked 6,880 steps. That is 2.52 miles for me. It wasn’t a bad walk, and we used push carts – thanks Erik – versus carrying our clubs. Chuck walked, too. By the way, he was wearing Loudmouth Golf pants. Based on what I know about Chuck, they fit his personality perfectly!
After golf we headed back to the Northwood Restaurant for another round of beers. Erik grabbed a burger and Chuck ordered some fries. I didn’t have anything to eat, but really enjoyed the conversation. I can’t thank Chuck enough for the invite and look forward to our next round. Might have to have him out to The Fountaingrove Club next. Curious to see what color of pants he wears when he plays our place. Chances are they will be loud!
By the way, Chuck is also a DJ and spent time in Hawaii. If you get the chance, introduce yourself to him. You won’t be sorry!
Thanks Ricky! It was great having you out at Northwood. You and Erik were very kind to put up with my golf since I shot a 48! LOL I was amazed at both your games. There is something special about “Da Wood” the vibe being in the redwoods is something special. Hopefully we can do it again sometime, and you can even bring that tall guy Erik. LOL
I have a special pair of Loudmouth’s that I plan to wear at Fountaingrove, some of my loudest, they might not let me on! LOL
And mahalo for the Hawai’i shout out, the 8 years my wife and I lived on Maui were some of the best golf,,,,errrr, I mean times, we have ever had. 😉 Aloha!
Chuck, thank you for the invite and thank you for reading and commenting on this blog post. Can’t wait for our next meeting!