Sweat equity

No, it wasn’t an early-season race. Instead, it was a gathering of maintenance workers. All who showed up went out and cut down weeds, filled in ruts and just generally spruced up the 2.95-mile course for the upcoming cross country season.

The Crystal Springs course has come a long way in a couple of years. In April 2020, about a month after the COVID-induced lockdown, the College of the San Mateo and by extension, the San Mateo Community College District, which owned the permit for the course, was planning on shutting it down, saying it was no longer willing to deal with scheduling and upkeep, in addition to the ongoing issues with a small group of local neighbors.

You have got to hand it to the cross country community, both local and around the Bay Area at large, who stepped up and helped the course stay open. This wasn’t just a San Mateo County issue, it was a Central Coast Section issue as well as a number of leagues that comprise the CCS also used the course for league championship meets, as well as every-other-year CCS championships.

Now the local cross country community has stepped in to handle what used to be done for them, meaning they now go out and maintain the course and do whatever else it takes to make sure one of the best cross country courses in the country is available for runners for years to come.

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Someone on golf Twitter Sunday was lamenting the fact that the FedEx St. Jude Championship leaderboard was bereft of “name” guys.

First, only someone who doesn’t pay attention to PGA Tour golf wouldn’t recognize a majority of names because they weren’t Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy or Justin Thomas.

Second, a no-name leaderboard is only boring if there is no drama. The same can be said even with a stacked leaderboard.

But that was certainly not the case during Sunday’s final round as about a dozen players were within striking distance of winning the first tournament of the FedEx Cup playoffs. As golfers fell out of contention as the round progressed, it eventually came down to two players: fan-favorite Will Zalatoris and emerging Austrian Sepp Straka.

Those two guys put on a show down the stretch, eventually moving into a playoff. And that’s when the fireworks started. Both guys found all kinds of trouble in the sudden-death overtime. Both guys scrambled for a pair of pars after playing the 18th hole twice in the playoff.

Things got really interesting on the third playoff hole, the par 3 11th. Zalatoris hit his tee shot just short of the green and was flirting with the water. His ball landed on the stone wall separating the green from the water. It bounced not once, not twice, but seven times on uneven stone, before finally settling in a depression between the stone wall and the collar of the green.

Straka followed suit. His tee shot, also, came up short. But he was not nearly as lucky as he ball bounced once on the stone wall and then plopped into the drink.

After both guys took drops, Zalatoris won his first-ever Tour event by draining a seven-foot bogey putt.

While Zalatoris is a known quantity — before Sunday’s win he was the “best player not to have won a tournament” — he certainly doesn’t have the cache of other big-name players. But like a good auction, you only need two people to ramp up the drama. Zalatoris and Straka did just that Sunday.

***

As long as we’re talking about golf, I got a special treat last week. My wife works at the Moraga Country Club — located right next door to Miramonte High School, about a three-minute drive from Campolindo High School and a seven-minute drive from the St. Mary’s College campus.

One of the perks of her job is golf privileges. She doesn’t play golf. I do and after three years of her working there, I finally got a chance to play the course.

You should know I’m no country club guy. I play my local muni almost exclusively and have, on occasion, gotten on a country club course. I really enjoyed the Moraga course and the mostly immaculate conditions. Fairways weren’t baked out, the fairways weren’t full of divots, the greens didn’t look like the surface of the moon and there were no lengthy delays at tee boxes.

Secondly, despite being told the Moraga course is “short,” playing to par-70, it seemed perfectly long enough for my game. The golf pro in the shop told me that the course was not one to “spray and chase.”

“This is target golf,” Sasha said.

It’s an interesting course. It’s carved into the eastern side of the Oakland Hills and instead of sprawling out laterally, the Moraga Country Club course moves vertically, especially on the back nine. Because the course moves up and down, there are several holes that feature elevation changes. There are a number of holes that offer blind second and approach shots.

While I would normally enjoy playing a round by myself, this was one of those instances I would have liked to play with someone else, just for the local knowledge. But I managed my way around the course — in about three hours — and broke 100 despite three-putting half the holes.

I said I play golf. I didn’t say I was good at it.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.