Playing golf in California takes some gamesmanship. You must have a skilled hand to avoid the mob of urbanites looking for some turf to abuse. Thankfully California golf courses have risen up to the task, with dozens of classy tracks well worth the drive from the city.
The conditions at California golf courses are usually impeccable. The greens run true and are flawlessly manicured, the fairways heavenly green without being too tight, and the tee-boxes well maintained. Water hazards come into play on many holes, and most of the greens are well bunkered. There might be a few forced carries and the odd blind tee-shot, but most of the holes set up clearly from the tee-box.
A little local wisdom definitely doesn’t hurt. If you push your tee-shot to the right or left by a few yards, some kind of Golf Leprechaun seems to wait a couple beats and then pitches it onto the middle of the green. Maybe it’s just the hillside gravity, but the idea of elves makes for a better story.
The signature hole is always a risk-reward beauty. The pros may just grip it and rip it, but even if you hit the green on your tee shot, there might be an unreal putting surface with lots of bumps and turns. What’s all this mean? It means you get courses with wide open fairways, few trees and a couple of features – a bunker cluster or a little lake or ridge – that pops up on every hole. Surely challenging but welcomed by the most avid golfers..
