Of course, Tejon Ranch is big enough and has enough lawyers that they could make going through that golf course cost as much as building the rest of the line (including the tunnels) without even breaking a sweat. Pick your fights carefully.

A problem with all of the HSR tunnels (potential Tejon, Pacheco Pass, shorter but still substantial ones along the Tehachapi-Palmdale alignment) is that we really don't know where all the faults are - you can't tell even that most of the faults are there until you find them while digging. The fault that broke in 1952 and (among other things) trashed the SP wasn't even thought to exist that far east and certainly wasn't considered to be a serious hazard by geologists at the time - and BTW it broke in a reverse-vertical direction as much as or more than it did horizontally. Yes, you can arrange to cross the known big faults at grade (and White Wolf is now known) but there are lots of others hiding in those mountains and also in the Coast Range between the Valley and the Bay Area. It's a fact of life that can be handled with enough time, money, and engineering, but it's better to avoid the problem if that is reasonably feasible (e.g. 2nd or 3rd best otherwise). I suspect that the HSR studies that dissed the Tejon Tunnels, even the 2nd time around, didn't include enough contingency for those kinds of discoveries. Coast tunnels (whether Pacheco or Altamont) will need that too.

There's a new problem for the Tehachapi alignment: Tejon Ranch & Nature Conservancy have bought up a "wildlife corridor" (in the NC's recent magazine issue) connecting the Sierra and the Ranch that goes right across 58 and the proposed HSR alignment. Unless HSR will be in a tunnel thru there (possible but I'm not sure) there will be a major problem with biological impacts ... and the hits just keep on coming. BTW, being in a tunnel doesn't save you, necessarily, from wilderness or wildlife habitat problems ... as would also be the case with the Tejon Tunnels.