The Story
At the southern end of the Santa Clara Valley, where Silicon Valley finally gives way to oak-studded hills and vineyard rows, Robert Trent Jones Jr. was given 1,700 acres and an unusual instruction: disturb as little of it as possible. The course he opened in 1999 threads between creeks draining the surrounding hills, and Jones routed his fairways around dozens of ancient oaks and sycamores rather than through them — trees that were standing long before anyone in the valley had heard the word 'startup.'
CordeValle grew into one of Northern California's most complete retreats — a Rosewood-managed resort with a spa, guest villas, and its own wine story, with the Clos LaChance estate vineyard bordering the golf course itself. But the golf always came first, and it was good enough to bring the professionals: from 2010 through 2013 the PGA Tour's Frys.com Open was played here each fall, a launching pad for careers — Bryce Molder and Jonas Blixt both earned their first Tour wins at CordeValle, and in 2013 a 34-year-old journeyman named Jimmy Walker broke through for his first victory, the start of a run that carried him to the 2016 PGA Championship.
That same summer of 2016, CordeValle hosted the U.S. Women's Open — and produced one of the most dramatic finishes in the championship's history. In a three-hole playoff, television replays caught Anna Nordqvist's club brushing the sand in a fairway bunker on the 17th, a two-stroke penalty that opened the door for Brittany Lang, who calmly parred her way to the national title.
Today CordeValle remains what it was built to be: a private, unhurried valley of golf an hour from San Jose, where the standard of conditioning is tournament-grade every day and the loudest sound on the back nine is usually the wind moving through hundred-year-old oaks.