• STATS CordeValle Golf Club, 1 CordeValle Club Drive, San Martin. 7,360 yards from the tips, 18 holes, par 72, rating/slope 76.4/142. Green fees $295 plus caddie/cart. Golf Shop, 408/695-4590. www.cordevallegolf.com. • SIP Clos LaChance Winery (1 Hummingbird Lane, San Martin) is adjacent to the golf course. Family-owned and operated, the winery creates wines from 150 acres of estate vineyards and nearby Santa Cruz Mountains. Tasting room is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Contact 408/686-1050, www.clos.com. • STAY Named the No. 1 resort in Northern California by Conde Nast Traveler in 2012, The Lodge at CordeValle offers an elegant and serene atmosphere for relaxing and winding down. The accommodations include 45 rooms in the form of bungalows, fairway homes and villa suites set amid the beauty of the natural landscape. All rooms feature excellent views. Various stay and play packages are available, including accommodations, golf, spa and wine tasting getaway for two, starting at $590. • SUP Il Vigneto presents classic Italian cuisine with California inspiration using fresh local organic produce. Dinner is served Thursday-Sunday to resort guests and golf members. Lion’s Peak Grille, by the Golf Shop, is perfect for a quick continental breakfast before a round or a relaxing repast afterward. Beverages, including cocktails, are served on the patio until sunset. One Iron Bar, also on the premises, features California cuisine all day and has a full bar with handpicked vintages from Clos LaChance Winery. Dine by the beautiful stone fireplace or simply chill with your favorite beverage around the outdoor fire pit. • SEE Numerous walking trails and the resort’s full-treatment luxury spa draw many appreciative visitors. You can also tour the Gilroy Wine Trail, featuring stops at some 20 local wineries. Nearby Gilroy Gardens—both a nature preserve and a theme park—is a fun family outing, and if you’re in the area this summer, join the crowds at the exuberant annual April/May 2014 61 LEFT TO RIGHT: JIMMY CHOU/ISTOCK (TOP); COURTESY OF COREVALLE, A ROSEWOOD RESORT (2); COURTESY OF CLOS LACHANCE WINERY THE VITALS OXBOW PUBLIC MARKET Gilroy Garlic Festival. SOUTH SANTA CLARA VALLEY CORDEVALLE GOLF CLUB By the time you reach the eighth hole on this stellar golf course, you may have already compared—more likely contrasted—your game to the PGA Tour professionals who have trod these grounds during the past three years as participants of the Frys.com Open tournament. The notable eighth hole offers an opportunity to get up close and personal with the very same shot that Rocco Mediate faced at this 358-yard par-4 in 2010—the year he won the whole thing and became the most popular professional golfer to ever play here. There’s a plaque on the right-center of the fairway that celebrates Rocco’s incredible shot from that very spot. A decent, and not long, tee shot and your ball may well come to rest near the plaque. Don’t let the water on the right spook you; just lay it out nice and easy on the fairway. From the plaque, it’s only 116 or so yards to the green, where glory awaits. Still, even your best shot may not equal Mediate’s. But you will have fun trying. What did Mediate do? He put his ball in the cup with a pitching wedge for an eagle two. If golf courses could talk, we would hear stories to rival the best campfire yarns. At CordeValle, you play with a caddie, and in addition to reading the greens for you, finding lost balls and aiming you in the right direction, your caddie will share an interesting tale or two, like the one about Mediate. The course invites golfers to ramble around beautiful countryside dotted with oaks, sycamores, creeks and ponds on a landscape encompassing 1,700 acres—complete with vineyards and a secluded resort far from the daily grind. This is where you relax and re-energize. The course’s signature hole is No. 11, a 434-yard par-4 that features seven well-crafted bunkers on a gradual uphill slope. The design is quintessential Robert Trent Jones, Jr., famous for his bunkering and natural designs. Each shot requires a decision. Game on. CLOS LACHANCE THE LODGE AT CORDEVALLE
South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2014
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