TESTIMONIALS
Article by Dennis Miller, Sports writer
for the HERALD )9-1-06)
Mountain House Golf Course,
a gem in the wind
If you're passing the Altamont Pass
and you think you see a golf course to the north round Grant
Line Road, it's not an illusion, despite what your sense of logic
tries to tell you. The Mountain House Golf Course has been open
since April and is a track well worth making the trip up Interstate
580 to play.
The course measures very short - only
6,180 yards from the tips - but plays every bit as tough as any
7,000 yard course for one simple reason - the wind. Even teeing
off at 6:45 a.m. doesn't help the golfer avoid the wind and the
difficulties that come with it. Throw in some tough but very
high-quality greens, and Mountain House is a great test of golf
no matter what the length. Just don't try to tell course owner
Bill Costanzo about the wind. "It's much more the perception
of the wind than the actual wind", Costanzo said. "You
come out there and it's only blowing 4-5 miles an hour, but you
see all the windmills, and you think it's much more windy."
Costanzo bought the land where the course
sits in 1996 after seeing a "for sale" sign on the
property driving back from Tracy one day. "I was in Tracy
looking at some investment property," Costanzo explained.
"I saw the sign, walked out on the property and thought
it would be a good place for a golf course. I could see Tracy,
and I knew the Mountain House development was going in. I felt
(the property) was sitting right in the middle of progress."
The permits from Alameda County came through in pretty quick
order - namely the Department of Fish and Game - took until 2004.
"In order for us to build 45 acres of grass (the course),
we had to give the Federal Government 200 acres of land in other
locations for habitats," Costanzo said.
Costanzo, who owned the Bethel Island
Golf Course from 1989-1995, designed the course, along with Robert
J. Costa. The two literally went out in the hills initially,
laid down mats to hit off and developed their vision of what
the course would look like. "We only built the course 6,000
yards because we knew it would play longer to 7,000 with the
wind," Costanzo said. "We wanted to made it a good,
solid course." When the Northern California Golf Association
came out to rate the course, none of the 12 players in its group
broke par - even with their handicaps.
"The front nine was rated 114,
but that was without any bunkers." Costanzo explained. "We
are starting to put those in now. The back nine was given a 133.
We're going to try and make it a little easier." To be honest,
it's as fun of a course as I've played in the greater East Bay.
There are very tough holes, such as the second hole, a 515-yard
uphill par-5 and the 13th, the par-5 signature hole measuring
535 yards. The 13th has a split fairway and a second shot that
must carry water or barranca to an elevated landed area. Then,
there are holes 15 and 17, both of which go into the wind and
need a drive of more than 200 yards to reach the fairway. Finally,
there is No. 6, a 130-yard par 3 that plays right into the teeth
of the wind. I played a 5-iron, hit it flush and came up short
of the green. "I think the front nine is fairly easy, but
when you get to No. 6, you get an indication of what the back
nine is going to be like," Costanzo said. But there is redemption
for the number of holes that go into the wind. What goes into
the wind must come back down with the wind. Holes such as No.
3 (478 yard, par-5) and No. 16 (386 yards, par-4) are helped
by the extra gusts.
Right now there is no clubhouse - business
is being conducted out of a trailer - and no cart barn. There
are carts, but only 40, which means groups go out in 12-minute
leads. We played the course in a little more than three hours,
never had to wait to hit and never had anyone waitng on us to
hit. Of course, when the clubhouse and cart barn are completed,
more carts will be added, but now is the time to take advantage
of an efficient, quality round of golf. Another great selling
point for the course is the current rates, all of which include
a cart. During the week from 7-8 a.m. it's $25, with the normal
day rates at only $35. The twilight rate (after 2 p.m.) is only
$20. On weekends, the rates increase to $45 for the early bird;
$55 for midday and $35 for the twilight. With 2 for 1 coupons
circulating through the local papers, it's a great deal.
"These are the introductory rates,"
Costanzo said. "We are trying to get people to come out
and see what we're all about. Right now we don't come to mind
as the first place to play, but that will change."
E-mail From Neal Meagher to Virginia Costanzo (9-14-06)
Well...........aside from it being quite
hot and devoid of the wind that really creates the basic strategies
of the individual holes, both my friend, Gib Papazian and myself
enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Gib rates golf courses for Golf
Digest Magazine (he is one of the about 400 nationwide panelists)
and he was so enthralled with your course's originality that
he sent an email to the Achitecture editor of the magazine, Ron
Whitten, and to the woman who runs the annual "best of"
competition each year imploring them to consider your course
for inclusion in this year's competition for best new course
of the year.
Now, there are a couple of hundred courses
opening each year and each of them desire this honor, but your's
is a truly unique creation and you are to be commended for your
stick-to-itivness in the face of a decade spent fighting environmental
extremists.
We hope to return soon to play the course
when the windmills are really humming and also wish you well
with your new business venture. We need more courses that exemplify
unique and original site-specific design.
Take care and thank you for the email.
-Neal Meagher, ASGCA
Cover Story for The Bay
Area Golf Guide
Mountain House
Is Creating Quite a Stir At the Altamont Pass
By Andrew Hidas
We all have our labors, some of them
labors of love. But then there are labors of such focused, long-term
devotion and tenacity that the gods themselves stop their troublesome,
meddling ways in human affairs long enough to bow down in homage.
The kind of labors, in other words, endured by Bill Costanzo,
owner, designer, general manager, chief lost-ball-finder, and
resident visionary at Mountain House Golf Course, under the shadows
of the windmills at Altamont Pass.
Costanzo began his ideal of a golf course
along the windswept hills and dales of Altamont in the mid-1990s,
and with permits fresh in hand in 1997, began the process he
hoped would earn him the right to pop a champagne cork honoring
the course's debut at the turn of the millennium. But like all
projects that involve land and government, the months and the
years dragged on, with Costanzo both tenacious and patient beyond
all measure. The revised 2002 opening eventually became 2004,
then 2005. Finally, on April 1, 2006, no fooling, Mountain House
opened the gates to live public play. As part of a novel promotional
effort (and Costanzo's jubilation at overcoming the final bureaucratic
delay), play was free for the entire month. Nine months later,
Mountain House has a steady stream of paying customers and a
growing reputation for challenging, value-oriented, and always
entertaining golf. While Costanzo's vision is far from complete
(a cart barn, clubhouse, and other amenities are still in the
future), the soul of his long-delayed project is very much in
abundance as Mountain House closes in on its first year of operation.
"I wanted to keep the course as true as possible to its
natural topography," says Costanzo, a former city planner.
"That means lots of elevation changes, rough, and wind as
a factor, although we're in the low wind area of Altamont Pass
here. For real wind, you need to climb up where the windmills
are."
Eight miles from both Tracy and Livermore
and 45 minutes to Oakland and much of the East Bay, Mountain
House is one of those urban fringe courses that plop you down
into a different world as soon as you steer off the highway.
Despite an adjacent planned community (population 3,000, slated
to grow to 44,000 by 2015), this is golf where the wild things
still are, including all manner of ground-based mammals treading
across the hills, watched over intently by raptors up above,
pining for lunch. Mountain House's relatively short 6,184 yards
are designed to give you back some of the yardage you can lose
with the course's challenging latter dozen holes. "The easy
part is over!" chirps the course guide notes after No. 5.
Among those ostensibly laid-back opening holes is No. 2, a 530-yard
driving test right into the wind, and No. 3 at 478 yards with
a dogleg right but wind at your back. No. 6 begins the treachery
at a mere 145 yards but dead into the wind, with a three-level
green and a steep downhill rough on the right side. Big hitters
will try for a reach on No. 7, a 335-yard par 4 with a dogleg
right, but with OB and a habitat on the right side, you'll need
to carry an accurate 300 yards to make it happen. No. 9 is probably
the most challenging and intriguing hole on the course. It also
showcases Costanzo's penchant for elevated tees, just one course
feature that gives Mountain House a distinctly idiosyncratic,
non-corporate feel. The tee here measures 360 yards from the
cup, but at 145 feet above the green, it adds 50 yards to most
drives. It's also completely blind-you see neither fairway nor
green as you shoot off into space. That intimidates many players,
but if you can power your drive 250 yards or so, you can likely
count on a good roll and get set up for par.
Building in any available cushion will
help minimize any trouble you encounter on Mountain House's signature
hole, a 540-yard par-5 that features a double dogleg and requires
negotiation of a lake on your second shot. Clubbing down here
is the answer-effective use of your 3-wood could have you doing
the ol' fistpump on the green. The rough on this generally hilly
course is affectionately known as the "Bermuda Grass Triangle,"
especially in the spring, before mowers can negotiate the drenched
sod and the grass seems to visibly grow while you're searching
for your ball. Being empathetic sorts, Mountain House staff will
sell you recovered balls for 50 cents and even waive that sum
if you can identify the markings and claim a ball as your own.
More of that spirit is exhibited with the course's "wind
checks," issued whenever the breezes blow in wretched excess
of their relatively benign average of 9 mph. ("Lower than
many courses that shall remain nameless," Costanzo confides.)
The course actually has its very own weather station for staff
to consult when inquiring customers call. At just $35 weekdays
including cart, Mountain House is aiming at everyday or budget-minded
golfers with a yearning to buck convention and tackle a course
wholly its own. Given Costanzo's long-hewn patience, waiting
for his uniquely signatured course to develop a large and loyal
following should be a comparative breeze (though he surely won't
mind it developing into a full-force gale as conditions allow).
