Brambles Golf
Take a trip to Scottish links, just an hour outside of Napa Valley. Really.
Somewhere around the time of COVID lockdown (before, during, after .. it’s hard to say) I started hearing about this new golf course that was set to be built somewhere outside of Napa Valley. I didn’t know much about it, except that it was being designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the architects behind some of the best golf courses in the country. At the time, I didn’t know whether it would be private or public, or any real details - I just knew I would want to play it once it opened.
What I didn’t know was that the idea for what would be named Brambles Golf had started five or six years prior, at a meeting at the incredibly private, elite San Francisco Golf Club. The concept was to try and find a way to build something like a Scottish links within driving distance of the city. Those founders - and their deep pockets - helped form what is now Brambles.
The thing is, Brambles only opened last year - which of course had something to do with COVID but had more to do with HOW they built it. Using sheep as much as mowers, the grow-in period took a long time with the focus on making it FIRM and FAST.
Brambles does promote the UK model - even if you don’t know a member, or belong to a private club that can make a call, you CAN get on by requesting a tee time via a lottery process. We were fortunate enough to play as an unaccompanied guest, and we uniformly were blown away.
Again, this course is less than a year old and just rounding into playing shape and it’s PHENOMENAL.
While I won’t go through a full hole-by-hole breakdown, a stretch on the front nine illustrates why it’s so special.
The 4th hole is a longer par-4 with a centerline bunker that comes into play off the tee, but demands you hit driver to have a chance at a green in regulation. And, the green is no joke, tilting wildly from back to front and making a two putt anything but easy.
Next up is a blind tee shot on a short par-4 for the 5th. With a normal drive, you’ll have a wedge into the green, which again is anything but flat.
Next up is the par-4 6th, which has a grassed over creek running through the fairway that is reminiscent of the 14th at Pasatiempo (though not as severe), and a truly massive green that - trust me - you’d rather miss short than long.
The 7th is a really long par-5 with out of bounds to the right. The fairway is rolling and the green is tucked to the left side of the hole making the approach ever so delicate.
The 9th hole is an homage to the 13th at North Berwick but instead of a wall bisecting the fairway and the green, it’s a creek. Let me tell you, the approach is anything but a simple lob wedge.
I could do a breakdown of the entire back nine as well, but what makes Brambles so special is how the course plays, and the overall atmosphere. The fairways run so fast that even a shorter hitter (cough) will have tee shots run for days. Hitting it straight is far more of an asset than hitting it long. (Hitting it long and straight? Always good.) Hazards like centerline bunkers, truly penal rough and greens that demand a smart approach will keep you guessing (and wanting to come back for another try).
When I wrote about The Full Irish, I talked about a “thunk” that the ball and your club makes on a links course, where the fairways are rock hard and built on sand. It’s not something you hear much in the states, but somehow they’ve found it in a place called Middletown - and it took years to get it here.
Some other things the course does that could be seen as a flex but simply are just a nice, classy touch:
Guest fees cover as much golf as you can play, as well as food and beverage. Throughout the course are coolers of beer, water and snacks and of course more of everything in the clubhouse for post-round.
Each tee box has just one tee. Go to the left or the right of it, we’re here to have fun.
To that matter, there’s no par at Brambles. It’s amazing how hard it is to post a 4 on a hole and not answer that you made a par, but one of the reasons is that there’s no reason you couldn’t swap tees within your round, especially if match play is your game.
The bunkers, which are hard, local sand, have no rakes. There’s not much to rake, but just swipe your foot to clean it up.
Putting from 50 yards off the green, or hitting a punch 8-iron, is something I’ve only done in the UK and at Bandon Dunes. It’s one of the most fun things to do in golf, and Brambles is built for it.
The 18th green hangs just off the practice green. I don’t why we were all so charmed by it but it certainly gave us confidence that we were getting the real green speeds as we warmed up.
The sourcing - and the course logo - is elite. Immediate flag purchase and I think we all drove away wondering if we really should have bought that one extra item.
Again, watch that Fried Egg video earlier above and you’ll realize why sheep are so critical to the course and make it so unique.
Brambles was a no-brainer Tier 1 course for me, and again, it’s just growing into shape. It could easily move into God Tier in a few years. As it is, it shares a tier for me with such courses as Royal Troon, San Francisco Golf Club, County Sligo and Pinehurst No. 2, 4 and 10. Yes, I said it.
What’s more, I know I’m not posting a hot take here - I posted an Instagram story raving about this and got more comments on that than almost anything else I’ve posted, all echoing my thoughts. It’s a special, special place.
