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Palo Alto Online

Summitpointe in Milpitas is not your average romp around a bayside muni

by Brian Aronstam

There could well come a time in your round at Summitpointe Golf Course in Milpitas when you think, "All the excitement of Olympic with none of the member fees." Olympic, as in the San Francisco club with the 18th green where, during the '98 U.S. Open, a Payne Stewart putt rolled up to the edge of the cup, stopped and retraced its path 25 feet back down a hill.

At Summitpointe, your House of Horrors is the 8th green, the crowning touch on a 393-yard, uphill par four. Leave aside that just reaching the dance floor in regulation requires a smash off the tee and a blind long iron or medium wood from the fairway; the pitch of the fairway is so steep that you're lucky to see the top of the pin from where you address your second shot. If the cup is in the front of the green, your best hope is to land short, roll the ball up and, if it won't drop, beg it not to slide 20 feet backwards. If your approach to the green flies the flag, you will do well to get down with three putts.

Of such an experience is likely born the cranky remark on one Web digest of Bay Area courses that "more than a few people say (Summitpointe) is an unfair course. ... One of our least favorite of all courses." Sloping fairways, narrow fairways, blind shots, slick greens - playing Summitpointe is not your average romp around a bayside muni.

But Summitpointe will exercise most every club in your bag and test your course management skills. You can practice hitting shots from lies in seemingly every dimension - uphill, downhill, sidehill. And you can enjoy a setting that includes sweeping views of the South Bay, several turns around pretty lakes and a gentle climb up a rural canyon.

It may not be perfectly suited to your game; you'll probably score higher than you would striking the same shots on another course. But Summitpointe is not difficult to the point of demoralizing, and if a green like the 8th leaves you grumbling, redemption - in the form of a lucky bounce off a sloped surface - is likely just around the corner.

The opening holes are almost benign. On the par-4 first, you'll hit straight out to a gradually descending, moderately open fairway and a generous green just 300 yards from the middle tees. You're home with an easy wedge. Follow that up with a par-5 measuring 483 yards but playing 50 yards longer because of a steady climb from just below an elevated tee box. Again, the fairway has enough room to tolerate a fade or draw, and two reasonable shots bring you within a short iron of the green.

An uphill par-3 follows, but the rise is gentle enough that a soft iron can be hit with confidence. As with the first two holes, there's nothing particularly punishing about the 3rd. You could walk off the green wondering what the fuss is all about.

And then there's No. 4. Great ego hole, or so it seems: Hit from an elevated tee box toward a green just 351 yards from the middle tees. But the strong, right-to-left cant of the fairway can "reward" a straight drive with a lie between midsize conifers. Meanwhile, your buddy's slice into a hillside has kicked smartly forward and back into the fairway, to less than 100 yards from the green.

Two holes later, there's more of the same. You face a downhill, 375-yard par-4 that doglegs around a barren hill blocking your view of the green; you can fire down the narrow chute of a fairway that funnels into an adjacent hole, or you can shoot straight out over the hill and, with the right kick, roll to within 50 yards of the green. Of course, there's also the chance you'll never see the ball again.

After the turn, you may curse the injustice of the 12th, where the fairway not only makes a driveway look wide but slopes into a creek slithering the length of the hole. Negotiate those and you'll reach another green where a competent putt can end up farther away from the cup than where it started.

For all that, Summitpointe has its scoring opportunities. In addition to the opening holes, there's the par-4 7th, where an easy fairway wood or iron from the tee will place you short of a lake fronting the green. You'll need a decent middle iron coming in, but the mid-handicapper should have no trouble tucking away a bogey or better.

Even the eighth, for all its misery, is manageable. The fairway is wide, if sloping; you can chunk a shot and still have a relatively short if blind approach. Play it cautious on the green, take your lumps and remember it's the hardest hole on the course.

You'll finish the front side with a sweeping, dogleg par 5 that tolerates a wayward shot. If only it could be the last stray shot of the day, because the character of the course shifts dramatically on the back side. The fairways flatten out but tighten up. A fade or pull that might only catch long grass on the front side will ring up penalty strokes on the back.

On No. 10, your poison is a lake along the inside of the 346-yard dogleg. Another lake fronts the green on the 11th, and a series of ponds splits the parallel 14th and 15th fairways. These two 5-pars wind up and back through a canyon so narrow (but picturesque) that the adjoining fairways are not much wider than a single fairway on a links course. Hit the big clubs if you must, but you'll fare better with shorter woods or even irons; each of the greens is within easy reach in regulation.

At the par-3 16th, the shot from an elevated tee box to the green is deceptively demanding. With the steep descent to the green, you'll take two clubs less than the 178 yards would normally require - but even then you'll be tested by a narrow opening and trouble on both sides and in front.

You'll close the round on two forgiving holes. The par-4 17th is a straight shot to an elevated green. A lake borders the fairway on 18, but you have enough room off the tee that only the most heinous slice should bring water into play.

For the most part, Summitpointe tees and fairways are in good condition, and the greens, while fast, are well maintained. Greens fees start at $25 (with frequent specials reducing the rate), and the course, though just 20 minutes from Palo Alto, is not as busy as the Peninsula's well-worn tracks.

It will never be the course where you want to bring your "A" game; save that for courses with less contorted, more consistent layouts. But Summitpointe does nicely for a reasonably priced change of pace, for the opportunity to practice disciplined shot-making and to hone all the tools of your game.