A California angler this week caught a giant bocaccio that might have shattered the state record had he not filleted the fish on the boat.
A California angler this week caught a giant bocaccio that might have shattered the state record had he not had the fish filleted on the boat.
Rob Tressler, pictured above, landed the 20.33-pound rockfish while fishing aboard the Pacifica out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego.
After Lori Heath shared the image via Facebook it was quickly pointed out that the state record stands at 17 pounds, 8 ounces. The record was set in Northern California in 1987.
Tressler had his fish weighed on a hand-held boat scale before it was carved into fillets. California requires potential record fish to be weighed on a government-certified scale in front of at least two witnesses.
Tressler, the Chief Science Officer for the San Diego Blood Bank, received some good-natured ribbing beneath Heath’s Facebook post. But all comments were complimentary and most people were simply in awe of the bocaccio’s size.
“Holy Cod!” reads one comment.
“The biggest one I’ve ever seen,” reads another.
Bocaccio, which range from Baja California to Alaska, are a slow-growing, slow-to-mature rockfish species that is vulnerable to overfishing. A limited recreational harvest is allowed off California.
For the sake of comparison, the world record for bocaccio stands at 27 pounds, 14 ounces. That fish was caught in Alaska’s Elfin Cove in 2011.
–Image showing Rob Tressler with his bocaccio is courtesy of Lori Heath
Wilcox served as the Vols’ defensive coordinator from 2011-12 under head coach Derek Dooley.
He is 22-24 (11-21 Pac-12) as the Golden Bears’ head coach since 2017.
Wilcox has been using crutches for two games during the 2021 season against Sacramento State and at Washington.
Sep 18, 2021; Berkeley, California; California Golden Bears head coach Justin Wilcox stands on the sideline with crutches during the fourth quarter against the Sacramento State Hornets at FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
When the matches hit the Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2033, it will have been 74 years since they were last played in the Golden State.
Imagine the year is 2107, and the Ryder Cup is coming back to California for the first time since the event between the United States and Europe was last played in the Golden State in 2033.
Impossible, you say? The PGA of America would never go 74 years between Ryder Cups in one of the largest, most populous, most golf-crazed states in the country?
Guess again. Because that is exactly what is happening now with the Ryder Cup, one of the game’s premier events. When the matches hit the Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2033, it will have been 74 years since the matches were last played in the state. That was in 1959, when Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells hosted the event.
It is true that the 1991 Ryder Cup was first awarded to PGA West in La Quinta, but those matches slipped away in the night to Kiawah Island in South Carolina. So California golfers must wait for their next Ryder Cup, 12 years from now.
It’s almost impossible to explain the extended absence unless you understand that golf and golf courses aren’t necessarily the overriding concerns when it comes to the Ryder Cup. Sometimes it is about the availability of a course, sometimes it is about time zones and sometimes it is about who wants to promote their golf course.
When the Olympic Club in San Francisco hosts the Ryder Cup in 2033, it will have been 74 years since the event was last held in California. (Photo by Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
Just like with a major championship, the PGA of America needs a golf course that truly wants to host the Ryder Cup. It’s easy to say that a Pebble Beach or a Riviera is worthy of a Ryder Cup, but do those courses want to go through the years of preparation and potential hardship on members or the public to actually bring the event to a course? Sometimes the answer to that is a firm, “No. We’ll pass.”
Second, a golf course might want to host the event, but does a facility have what is needed to host it? Modern big events like the Ryder Cup need massive amounts of land for things like hospitality tents, television compounds, parking and even concessions and grandstands around key holes. Not every course has that much available land, and the PGA of America isn’t going to some course where the chances to maximize profits are limited by a lack of space.
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As for California, well, there is the East Coast and European television issue. Both the U.S. Open and the PGA Champion have been played on the West Coast in recent years with television embracing the prime-time viewing period, meaning play extends to 10 or 11 p.m. on the east coast, prime time for viewers in that time zone. But that doesn‘t work as well for the Ryder Cup, where television in Europe is a key. That might explain why the Ryder Cup is played on the east coast or the Midwest and not on the West Coast. It also explains why West Coast viewers have to get up at 5 a.m. to watch the start of play for the first two days or this year’s Ryder Cup in Wisconsin.
To be fair to the PGA of America, the Ryder Cup is coming back to the state, but only after it first visits Bethpage Black in New York in 2025 and then Hazeltine in Minnesota in 2029. The 2037 Ryder Cup has not been awarded yet, so that could be in California, as could the Cup matches in 2041 or 2045. The Golden State might grab any of those events.
And it is also possible that having back-to-back Ryder Cups in the desert back in the 1950s at Thunderbird and Eldorado country clubs might seem unfair to people in states that may never host the matches.
But this is California and some of the best courses in the world are inside its borders. It would be a shame if the PGA waits another 74 years to bring the matches to the state again after Olympic Club in 2033.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer, he can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633.
There are a handful of places in the U.S. where golfers congregate in such numbers that we are the majority. At Pinehurst in North Carolina and Pebble Beach in California, announcing yourself as a proud golfer isn’t just accepted, it’s expected.
It’s the same in Palm Springs, California, and its neighboring communities, located a mere 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Here, golf is it. Tennis is popular, too, but the fairways, as far as many residents are concerned, are the essence of desert life.
Back in the day when we let our fingers do the walking and the Yellow Pages was an essential part of life, the local Palm Springs phone book dispersed golf tips on how to grip the club, keep your eye on the ball and follow through on the swing among the volume’s various classified ads. Now that’s a city consumed with golf, one that fills tee sheets with its geriatricgolf-loving residents and visitors at more than 100 courses.
With its idyllic weather consistingof 350 days a year of sunshine, Palm Springs has been a tourist haven and Hollywood getaway since the 1920s. It is a desert oasis cradled between tall, picturesque mountains – the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south.
“The Desert” is what locals call Palm Springs, itself shorthand for the 30-mile string of seven communities – including Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Indio – that more or less ooze into each other and make up the Coachella Valley.
La Quinta Resort (Courtesy of La Quinta Resort)
Everything about Palm Springs, the best known and farthest west of the Desert communities, is dreamy, from the red bougainvillea draping the Spanish-style buildings to the renovated mid-century modern buildings giving it its charm. Running a close second to the smorgasbord of forgiving fairways in Palm Springs is its culinary treats. It can stand on its own two feet as a bona fide foodie destination. (Unfortunately, my trip was during the pandemic and restaurants were only doing takeout, so circumstances were less than ideal for reviewing the food.)
The palm trees that line streets named after Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry and Dinah Shore really do sway in the breeze, and lounging poolside here is a sport, if not an art. Palm Canyon Drive, the main thoroughfare of Palm Springs, is packed with alfresco restaurants with views of the bustling sidewalks and the latest boutique shops.
Yes, in this bastion of Bentleys and bling, worldly pleasures rule. It begs a question of where to enjoy this paradise: to stay close enough to walk to the first tee, or in the heart of Palm Springs at any one of a handful of the decadent spa resorts? The answer is: Choices abound. Palm Springs tends to cater to those seeking a tax shelter, not a night’s shelter. Nonetheless, affordable lodgings are fairly abundant, especially in summer when the mercury rises into triple digits.
La Quinta Resort (Courtesy of La Quinta Resort)
Since the dual purpose of my visit was to watch the PGA Tour pros at The American Express in January, I set up shop in La Quinta, at the other end of the valley about a 45-minute drive to Palm Springs. La Quinta Resort is considered the granddaddy of them all. This posh hideaway introduced the first golf course to the Coachella Valley in 1926 and remains a gem. The 45-acre enclave, with 41 pools on property, 23 tennis courts, both hard and clay surfaces and a top-notch teaching staff, harks back to the golden era of Hollywood when film stars lined up at the door. Guests still gather in the lounge, with its deep sofas, high-vaulted beamed ceiling and wood-burning fireplace that gives off the fragrance of mesquite. In a day of high-rise mania, low-rise La Quinta with its quaint Spanish-Colonial style casitas rates at the very least five stars for service, five hearts for romance.
Najee Harris working nonstop to give back to the community!
Former Alabama running back Najee Harris was drafted No. 24 overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harris wasn’t present at the draft in Cleveland to greet NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Instead of getting to walk across the stage and take a picture with his new team’s jersey, Harris celebrated at a homeless shelter in California.
Harris, a native of Martinez, California, was at one point homeless while growing up.
He recounts sleeping on couches and sharing a van with his family that would be parked in the parking lot of a local park.
In a video posted to Twitter by California Governor Gavin Newsom, Harris tells his story and says that he wants to help fight homelessness.
.@ohthatsNajee22 is an inspiration. He experienced homelessness & eviction at a young age and is now paying it forward.
From Torrey Pines to Barona Creek and beyond, there’s plenty of courses to play and things to do in San Diego’s inviting climate.
A few years ago, I was working on a story about America’s municipal courses that could use a nip and tuck. Someone suggested Coronado Golf Course nestled in the serene, upscale beach community of Coronado, just minutes from downtown San Diego. For setting, playability and price, it’s arguably one of the country’s great munis, but could it be even better?
I reached out to my friend Tod Leonard, then the longtime golf correspondent for the San Diegonewspaper (who has since joined Golf Digest) and an authority on golf in his neck of the woods, and proposed my question. His answer was short and sweet: He wouldn’t change a thing.
That about sums up how I feel about San Diego, one of those cities that is lovely to visit and even better to call home. It’s a hard city to squeeze into a phrase.
For starters, it capitalizes on one of the Pacific Coast’s best harbors, which has made it a home of a Navy and Marine Corps base since 1846. It has a tourist neighborhood with a Victorian Gaslamp District, beloved by baseball fans streaming out of Petco Park, conventiongoers and college students. While outclassed by the Bay Area and neighboring Los Angeles in attracting foodies, it has developed a vibrant roster of restaurants. Its world-class zoo and 1,800-acre Safari Park, 30 miles northeast, draws throngs every day. So do Sea World and Legoland. And Mexico – Tijuana, Baja California and the rest – beckons a few minutes from San Diego’s southern boundary.
It is Spanish tiles, palm trees, tropical blooms, year-round flip-flops, bonfires on the beach and fresh fish tacos – try the Taco Stand with locations in La Jolla, Encinitas and downtown San Diego or Oscars Mexican Seafood with locations in Pacific Beach and Hillcrest, as suggested by native Xander Schauffele.
The city, however, may be most famous for its glorious sunsets. If San Diego has a cohesive identity, it’s a shared embrace of an easy, breezy Southern California casualness.
Where to play golf in Carlsbad, California? Start with this sampling of courses, then work your way to the beaches and the resorts.
CARLSBAD, Calif. – It’s been dubbed the Silicon Valley of golf and compared to Detroit for the auto industry or to Akron, Ohio, the rubber capital of the world. Over the last 30 years, Carlsbad, this sleepy little beach town and agricultural community located 35 miles north of San Diego, has exploded into the golf equipment epicenter. And not surprisingly, a haven for golfers too.
Carlsbad rises from ocean to hills. A pioneering speculator dug a well there in 1883, discovered mineral water believed to restore health and earned the city its name after the spa town of Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) in the Czech Republic. Health seekers and sun worshipers have been coming in droves ever since for the fine, uncrowded beaches, and, of course, the water.
Pebble Beach, Pasatiempo, Spyglass Hill and Torrey Pines: Check out the top public-access courses and more in California.
There’s no surprise in where to find the No. 1 public-access golf course in California, as Pebble Beach Golf Links has a long and storied place among the best tracks in the world. The Pacific Ocean, Carmel Bay, the Monterey Peninsula, holes atop the rocks – it’s hard to beat Pebble Beach.
But following Pebble Beach on Golfweek’s Best ranking of public-access layouts in the Golden State is a diverse sampling of fantastic courses stretching most of the length of a state that runs 770 miles from top to bottom. Desert courses. Mountain courses. Coastal layouts. Wine country. California has just about everything a traveling golfer could look for.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as layouts accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
Designed by amateur golfers Jack Neville and Douglas Grant and opened in 1919, Pebble Beach Golf Links is No. 1 on that list. The course has seen changes since then from a wide range of architects – everyone from Alister MacKenzie to Arnold Palmer has renovated parts of the layout that has hosted six U.S. Opens, with a seventh scheduled for 2027.
Pasatiempo Golf Club in California (Courtesy of Pasatiempo)
Following in Pebble’s wake is an incredible lineup of public-access courses, several of which that would rank No. 1 in most other states.
No. 2 in California on the Best Courses You Can Play list is Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, a Mackenzie layout built at the behest of women’s golf pioneer Marion Hollins that opened in 1929. Built on rolling, sandy hills overlooking Monterey Bay, the course became a favorite of MacKenzie’s.
Pasatiempo’s layout was restored by Tom Doak in the late 1990s, with continuous improvements since at the hands of Jim Urbina. Aside from being the No. 2 public-access course in California, Pasatiempo ranks No. 12 on the Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play list for the U.S. and No. 34 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list.
Spyglass Hills at Pebble Beach in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach Resorts)
No. 3 among the public-access courses in California takes players back to Pebble Beach, this time for Spyglass Hill. The course opened in 1966 with a design by Robert Trent Jones Sr. that offers sweeping ocean views and holes atop the dunes before wandering into the Del Monte Forest. Spyglass Hill also ranks No. 13 on the Golfweek’s Best Resort Courses list, No. 14 on the Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play list and No. 31 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for layouts opened in or after 1960 in the U.S.
The No. 4 public-access layout in California is Torrey Pines’ cliffside South Course, host site of the 2008 and 2021 U.S. Opens in San Diego. Originally designed by the father/son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell and renovated several times since opening in 1957 – most recently by Rees Jones – the South is the annual site of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open. The course also is tied for No. 40 on the Top 100 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list and ranks No. 107 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list.
Torrey Pines South in California (Courtesy of the USGA)
No. 5 among California’s best public-access layouts moves away from the shoreline and into the hills northwest of Los Angeles. Rustic Canyon opened in 2002 with a natural, lay-of-the-land layout by Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and blogger/author Geoff Shackelford. It also ties for No. 57 on the Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play list and No. 165 on the Modern Courses list.
California doesn’t slow down much from there. Rams Hill, CordeValle, Torrey Pines North and on and on, the state keeps offering so many options, making it one of the top destinations for public-access golf in the country. Check out all the state’s rankings below.
How would you like to see this guy patrolling the Irish’s secondary?
When Kyle Hamilton leaves Notre Dame, he will leave a big gap to fill in the Irish’s secondary. Even if he isn’t around for the distant future, his legacy will be felt, at least in the short term. That’s why new defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman must prepare for that inevitability. To that end, he has presented an offer to Peyton Woodyard, a safety recruit out of St. John Bosco in Bellflower, California:
Woodyard only has completed his freshman season, so his potential time in South Bend wouldn’t overlap with that of Hamilton, who’s about to begin his junior year. Still, he’s getting a taste of what it’s like to play for a school with a rich athletic history, which he is at St. John Bosco with alumni like D.J. Uiagalelei and Josh Rosen. With his school’s reputation and his talent, he’s already gotten offers from programs like Florida State, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Michigan, Arizona State and Penn State. This undoubtedly is an exciting time for him.
