Gleneagles GC at McLaren Park #19
Old Peculiar’s: A Dive Bar With a Golf Course Attached
This is the last post in a series.1
Upon arriving at Gleneagles, visitors are often a bit puzzled about where and whom to check in with. In truth a big reason why the check-in process is always in disarray is simply that there is much more focus on regulars than visitors. The bartender doubles as the pro shop attendant, and as the starter. If you’ve never been there before, just find your way to the bar, and say you’d like to check in.
There was once a sign above the bar with the name “Old Peculiar’s,” and while the sign is no longer there, the bar still thrives as one of the best places to have a beer after a round in the region.
A Thriving Place
If there’s one thing that’s for certain about Old Peculiar’s, it’s that it is rarely empty. From folks grabbing coffee in the morning, to the last groups coming in at the end of the day, there’s typically at least a few folks at the bar, if not a rabble of folks at the bar shooting banter back and forth.
Where most golf course bars are tucked away from the action,2 the bar at Gleneagles is right in the middle of it. The bar looks out over the course, and to the San Francisco Bay beyond it.
How a Third Place Thrives: A Virtuous Circle
Why the place is delightful has much to do with the mechanisms, accidental or otherwise, of how it operates.
There is usually someone at the bar
As noted before, there is usually at least someone in the bar. Whether it is folks checking in, grabbing a pre-round coffee, getting a drink or snack at the turn, or having a post-round beverage, it’s not uncommon for people to pop in just long enough for a short conversation.3
Therefore, people are more likely to stick around after the match
The likelihood of someone being in the bar at any given time increases the probability of others sticking around. While the effect is mild, with rounds ending every 10-15 minutes, just a bit quicker than it takes to order and finish a beverage, each group is more likely than the previous one to order, and each previous group is slightly more likely to stick around. This acts as a wave in the likelihood of people sticking around that should increase in the morning, and decrease in the afternoon (likely paralleling pace-of-play issues discussed in a previous post).
Therefore, there are likely to be people above the last green and more interaction
Here it is important to point out that there is another gathering spot overlooking the 9th/18th green. The interaction between folks at this overlook above the green cheering and jeering players finishing their rounds is very much part of the club’s culture. In a sense, the group hanging here is effectively an advertisement for the bar. Everyone is friendly and having a pleasant time, even if they occasionally tease players whose putts run off the front of the green, so why not join them and have a good time yourself?
Therefore, there is usually someone at the bar.
As players come up the hill to the bar, they have a choice to head to the parking lot, or join the folks above the last hole. As many choose to head to the bar, that just puts more people in the bar, ordering drinks, and taking a load off. This just starts the cycle over, and it’s why the bar at Gleneagles is successful at making the idea of the 19th hole a reality at this course.
Kitsch, Continuity, and the Golf Course as a Place
If there’s a theme at Old Peculiar’s, it’s kitsch. There are the golf balls peeking out here and there, the splashes of tartan on decorations, historic photos of players, and sets of clubs from bygone eras. However, whether or not a kitsch golf bar is what people want is beside the point – there’s no accounting for taste after all – the idea is that the vibe of the bar is reflected across the course. There is a consistent tone of simplicity, a nod to the history of the game, and an aged look and feel permeating the entire experience, not just the bar.
The Golf Course as a Place
The reason why I have a soft spot for Gleneagles is that, despite its shortcomings, it has a consistent feel. People just like being there. The members actually look like they’re having a good time. This is what I would call “the golf course as a place.”4 I try to consider the experience from the moment I arrive to when I leave. The idea is that the pro shop should welcome people in, the halfway house should meet them halfway, and the bar should treat them to good friends and good conversation as they prepare to leave.
The general idea is the course should put off a similar vibe at each of its touchpoints: the look and feel of the course, at each of the places where people interact, should be cohesive. Gleneagles does this well, using each of its touchpoints as an opportunity to further its kitschy, welcoming feel.
And, look: Gleneagles’ unique look and feel isn’t what everybody wants. The tees are simple painted bits of wood. The flags are yellow and don’t indicate their position. But the set up reflects the vibe of a simpler game in a simpler time, and the interior of the bar is an homage to that era. The bartenders know the members by name. Big groups can often be seen calculating match winners by hand. The bar, the course, and even the fairways are often unkempt. It’s a dive bar with an equivalent golf course attached. Many folks hate this style, and that’s totally reasonable. But it’s a consistent style, and there’s comfort in that continuity for the folks who love it.
History
While it appears the clubhouse has remained the same as in the above photo from 1963, my understanding is that the kitsch theme was brought by Erik de Lambert, who acquired the club in 1980. There were many changes at the time, including most of the major bunker and green changes at the course.
The course was first conceived in the late 1920s with a plan to place the course on the north side of the park, with the clubhouse just off Mansell Street, likely very near the current parking lot.
Closing Thoughts
Gleneagles is an imperfect place for most players’ expectations. The fairways and rough dry out in the summer and become patchy, so much so that the club plays preferred lies. This is often unforgivable for the modern, card-and-pencil golfer. But much like the bar, there is a quirky vibe to the whole place that is consistent, and many, many people love the course in spite of the imperfections. Why? Simply put, Jack Fleming’s design is one that asks players to think about multiple factors on every shot. On many holes, strategy begins at the green, and matters all the way back at the tee. All of this strategy happens while players find themselves playing golf on the side of a mountain.
As folks play into the final hole, they are met with the biggest challenge of the day: a green with a contour that matches that mountain. However, above that green are the regulars of Old Peculiar’s, ready to greet these exhausted players as they head up to celebrate victory, or languish in defeat. Everyone is welcome, membership is cheap, and there are multiple club games every week.
In a country where quality courses are inaccessible in more ways than one, Gleneagles GC at McLaren Park is one of the few places that I’d recommend to folks who are passionate about the game and would seek an interesting course before a beautiful one. The course is tough as nails, and most get beat up their first few times around, but Old Peculiar’s is there to welcome you in at the end, and if it weren’t there, I think the folks who play there wouldn’t enjoy the place as much as they do.
Gleneagles’s future is still not certain, and could close if the city decides it’s not an effective use of land in John McLaren Park. Until that future is secure, the course could be closed pretty much at any point in the near future. I’ve spent the last year writing (way too much) about each pair of holes and the challenges and strategies that make them great.
I don’t want to wait until it is too late to bring attention to this course. If more people play the course or join the club this year, it’s much more likely to remain open. The course is worth a visit.
Other posts in this series:
#1 & #10: A deep dive into the architecture that makes this intimidating opening hole so interesting.
#2 & #11: A Switch From Strategic to Penal Architecture
#3 & #12: Down the Hill
#4 & #13: Visible and Invisible
#5 & #14: Short and Long
#6 & #15: The Old Road
#7 & #16: Wind Tunnel and Blind Bunkers
#8 & #17: Invisible Redan
#9 & #18: Contours Forever
#19: Old Peculiar’s
Effectively no other public course in the area has the watering hole connected to the course.
Presidio’s complicated history means that their private club used to overlook the 18th, but that changed when the new clubhouse was built. The new clubhouse does have some patio tables that kind of overlook the 18th, but it is a good distance, and the bar is definitely disconnected from the course in a much more significant way.
Lincoln Park GC does have some picnic tables that look out over the 18th, but the old bar is no longer maintained, and so there is little to no interaction between the club and the course.
Golden Gate Park GC probably comes closest with its new clubhouse. However the clubhouse looks over the current fifth green, which is hardly a place where players are under pressure from a peanut gallery, or are able to greet each other coming off the course.
Harding comes close, with its restaurant overlooking the 18th fairway, but it’s far from the action itself, and the bar faces away from the windows.
Fleming 9 is nowhere close to Harding’s clubhouse.
While Sharp Park has a fantastic bar and restaurant, it’s not really connected to the course in the same way that Gleneagles is.
Crystal Springs’ bar faces the driving range, and the 18th is on the other side of the parking lot.
The Olympic Club does appear to have a patio overlooking the Lake Course, but it appears to be closer to the eighth green than to the 18th.
SFGC appears to come close, but there is no way for me to know, as the course is extremely private.
Lake Merced Golf Club’s bar overlooks the 18th, but there is no interaction, because there is no outdoor space.
None of the Oakland courses I play have any interaction either.
Here I think it’s interesting to note, as an aside, that having patrons check in for their rounds at the bar, instead of at a pro shop, is something that I do speculate dramatically increases post-round patronage. It’s worthy of analysis because, for a bar as kitschy and as lively as Old Peculiar’s, the vast majority of folks passing through would likely not expect or understand the effort that went into such an establishment without having entered it.
The only parallel in typical bars that I can think of is tiki bar culture, in which the overwhelming effort of ambiance is in the abundance of design. Overtly kitsch places like these are worth walking through, even if there is no desire to purchase drinks. I would say the same for Old Peculiar’s.
This concept is based on Greatest Generation podcast host Adam Pranica’s idea of “Star Trek as a place.” The idea here is that the reason so many Star Trek genres-with-genre work well is that much of the audience is more interested in the world they are living in than the plots or style of filming that vary from series to series or movie to movie. Some have compared this idea to The Wire having the feel of “Baltimore as a place,” that is, the show is just as much about the idea of Baltimore as it is about the events that take place in the show.
I want to parallel this idea to the golf course insofar as people are just glad to be there. Whether they are there to golf, have a drink, or see friends, the sum of the parts here is greater than the whole. While this may be common for highly focused golf clubs, seeing this attribute in a municipal course is much more rare.
More references from reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/greatestgen/comments/s6jko0/can_someone_explain_star_trek_is_a_place_to_me/
This series is what made me play at Gleneagles for the first time. The first time beat the hell out of me, but the second time opened my eyes to what a tough, strategic test of golf really is.
I mostly play down in the mid-peninsula/south bay, where there are an abundance of courses that consist of little more strategy than "blast driver, hit a wedge." Gleneagles is a gem of a course by contrast because it so often asks a player to pick a poison-there often isn't an ideal play, only one that limits the downside risk.
Brilliant series. Hope more people find their way to the course (and Old Peculiar's too!)
A bar with a golf course attached is a novel idea but trust me it works! Go see for yourself