Now playing . . . : Finally! A good television spinoff

Golf Digest, April, 2001 by Ron Whitten, Ron Kaspriske

It wasn't their favorite pastime, but Hawkeye and Trapper John often teed it up during the long television run of "M*A*S*H." Turns out good golf terrain was right outside their tent.

The exterior back lot for that series in Simi Valley, Calif., is now home to the Lost Canyons Golf Club. Featuring 36 holes by Pete Dye, both courses are folded into parched ravines and treeless hillsides of the Santa Susana Mountains, about 40 miles northwest of Hollywood. The 7,250-yard, par-72 Sky Course sits mostly on a plateau with nice vistas. The 7,005-yard, par-72 Shadow Course is a continuous loop down a narrow canyon and back again.

Both courses reflect Dye's prevailing attitude toward par 4s. He builds them either very short and downwind or very long and into the wind. Do it the other way around, he says, and all the par 4s play the same. So the opening holes on both courses are less than 330 yards, while other par 4s extend as far as 485 yards.

Lost Canyons offers a pricey all-inclusive fee that features the complete run of its lavish practice facilities and use of a mandatory forecaddie. (A $40 tip per foursome is recommended. For another $40, a caddie will drive a cart so players can walk.) I suppose a forecaddie can prove useful considering the hilly terrain, but Lost Canyon's forecaddies smack of a military escort. Hawkeye and Trapper John never would have put up with that.