It’s nearly 10 o’clock at Mullins Bar & Grill at Half Moon Bay Golf Links, and the twinkle in Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s eye reflects off his nightcap.
Though the evening grows long, the vigor in the 77-year-old Jones’ voice – and career – offers no dimming. Still active in architecture and play, one of America’s most prolific modern course designers holds a special place for his Southern California portfolio.
Perhaps best known as the architect at Links at Spanish Bay, CordeValle and Chambers Bay, Jones has better than 270 course designs, in more than 40 countries, to his credit. His Southland designs and remodels number a dozen, with a history of regional architecture tracing to work with his father the late 1960s. Among the layouts are The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, Desert Dunes Golf Club, Rancho La Quinta Country Club, Monarch Beach Golf Links and Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club.
“We had a great ride and, more importantly, we provided a lot of venues that are the of lungs of the community, and those people taking great care of their green spaces will be able to have a better lifestyle, if they’re golfers or not,” Jones said. “So, I think we, along with the golf community, helped the urban sprawl to have other values. What is a golf course? A big park upon which a game is played. But the people who pay for that park are the golfers, not the taxpayers; so it’s something to be admired and emulated.”
Speaking about the Southland’s water issues as they pertain to golf is nothing new for Jones, who served as chairman of the California State Park Commission in the early 1980s.
“We were preaching these issues way back then, to be careful of the environment, be useful of the resources we have, particularly water, and don’t over-manage the course,” he said. “Green superintendents, by their very nature, want to keep things green. But that’s not the ancient game, which was fairly brown, or tawny. It doesn’t matter about the color; what matters is the playability. And as people see that and understand the pleasure of playing on a firm and fast course, they’ll play, I hope, a lot more golf. Some people need to maybe put their ‘green sunglasses’ on. Don’t worry about the color; play by the firmness of the turf.”
When informed that ownership of his Desert Dunes course in Desert Hot Springs has returned the grounds to his initial vision, a pleasurable reaction ensues.
“That’s how we designed it, and that makes me very happy,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of wind out there, and the bottom line is that it is a links-style, desert course, with that firm and fast play in mind, along with the ground game.”
Jones has long been a proponent of playing an environmentally sound game, and the recent reopening of a praiseworthy course in the shadows of Pebble Beach is testament to that.
“Water issues are very valid, very serious,” he said. “We did remodel my Poppy Hills course (in 2013) and we got 25 percent of the water use and 25 percent of the turf out; and from all accounts, it’s very popular, the firm, fast and fun style of play. In terms of playing qualities, environmental questions can still make for playability, and we think that’s the future for anywhere in the West.”
Through the coastal fog, the clock inches past 10 p.m., and Jones rises from the table with a hand on his glass, an ear toward the game’s future and an eye on the landscapes that are his canvass.
“We want to get people to have fun in the everyday sense, with wider fairways, open entrance greens and multiple tees. That’s more important than who wins on a Sunday afternoon,” he said of his design philosophy. “And like a Native American, I always listen to the land.”
