Golf at the Corona Country Club

Golf at The Corona Country club is illusory.  It started out as a club that you could play only by walking and carrying your own clubs-the way golf was meant to be played.  There are no golf carts, caddies, ball washers, towels, shoe cleaners and any other amenities at the club.  There is no club professional or pro shop and any other instructors.  Corona has taken a page out of the UK as there are no practice balls or any driving range available.  Corona had just recently been added  as a Top 100 course with rolling fairways and fast greens.  There are flagsticks on the greens at Corona but you are never allowed to pull the flag to hole a putt.  There are no “high fives” allowed for a great shot at Corona nor is there any traditional handshake allowed at the conclusion of the round.  The problem is I couldn’t find anyone who had played Corona or could tell me anything about the experience.  Driving directions to Corona are obtuse at best as someone told me it’s somewhere on the Northern California coast line. (perhaps it’s near Bodega Harbor, which seems to appear and disappear in continuous fog)   In fact, there are no directions to Corona posted on Google Maps, Waze, Yahoo Travel or any other app on your personal device.  Corona does not have a web site so we have no idea of what the green fees might be to play the course–there is a rumor that only bitcoin transactions are allowed.  There is a golf game simulator so you can play the course on computer–unfortunately, it can only be accessed on the dark web.

Somebody told me that the course designer was a Chinese gentleman by the name of Yang Sou with some collaboration by famed greenskeeper Guido Verdi.  The course architect took a plot of land that once grown thousands of acres of marijuana plants and sculpted the vast layout of over 125 acres.  No one knows when the course was opened or how old it really is.  The course measures 9,800 yards from the championship tees with 3 par 6’s and a bunch of par 5’s.  The regular men’s tees are 7,900 yards at par 74.  There is a rumor that professionals can only play the course with real wood shafted clubs and gutta percha balls.  No Taylor Made, Titleist or Calloway equipment is allowed on the course for professional play.  Tee times are unnecessary at Corona, if you can find the place, you merely arrive, put on your shoes, grab your clubs and have at it.  Unlike golf in the UK, there are no signs telling you what you can and can’t do and there are no reserved parking spots for the Club President,  Lady Club President or General Manager-in fact, there are no signs at all.    We’re not even sure that Corona has a Club President or even a board of directors.  There is another rumor that Corona has been selected by the USGA  as a US Open venue for the 2036 championship  It seems that it might take that long for the rough to the required height of 18 inches throughout the course.

I gave up trying to find the place and never made it as I wasn’t allowed to leave the house anyway.   We’re attempting to get the Golf Channel to do a special skills competition there for television but they’re lost still trying to find the club.