for the birds
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, I headed
to Bodega Bay, a
tourist destination that was the setting for
Alfred
Hitchcock’s The Birds. Our
avian friends were
well
behaved at the Links
at Bodega Harbour, which
overlooks
the
town, but that may have been
because
they were
grounded by the wind
gusting
across the
exposed
layout.
Designed by Robert Trent
Jones Jr.,
Bodega Harbour
touts itself
as a links-style
layout.
Normally, the
oceanside setting and
rolling
topography
would bestow
credibility to such
claims,
but the houses
lining
nearly every hole is
far from links-like.
Still, aside
from the
fear
of breaking a
window with a wayward tee
shot—signs were
emphatic
that golfers
would be
responsible
for damage
caused—the
course
was plenty playable
in
the
wind. Playing as
a single, the round was a
great way to reflect on the past
week—the
golf, the
food, the natural
scenery that is
impossible to articulate in
words or even pictures.
The
only
way to
appreciate
the California coast is to
see it in
person.
Although Bodega Bay was as far north as I would get this
time, it
wasn’t the end of the line. I hear that the coastline of Oregon is just
as spectacular, if not more so. So
who
knows? Maybe
there is a
part two
of the
Pacific coast
voyage: the road to
Bandon
Dunes.
