Played here yesterday on a beautiful day on the coast. Sunshine and low wind aided in an enjoyable day here.

Course opened in 1974 and was done by Robert Muir Graves who did many fine courses in CA. He did the first 9 in 74 and the back 9 in 95. Locals say that was due to environmental decisions at the time. But I love his courses and put this one in my top ten of them. Anyone familiar with Westridge? Look him up and you will recognize many of them and played a lot of them w/o knowing he did the design.

In January 2025 – Management shut down the golf course indefinitely because of unsustainable financial issues. And it reopened in October 2025 after the Sea Ranch homeowners' association arranged a new lease, with management handed over to Kemper Sports.

They like to call this course a "links course" and while there are many great views from the course only # 8 is overlooking the ocean. But not on it like many links courses are in Ireland and Scotland. But most of the course is in a meadow and cypress groves and it reminded me of Pacific Grove in some ways.

So after playing Bodega Harbour in the morning I drove up here along the coast on Hwy 1. Very slow going with the Labor Day weekend traffic, the winding road and it took about an hour and spent the night in Gualala about 15 minutes N of the course. The hotel rates in Sea Ranch are outrageous and this area has the best selection of lodging if one decides to come up here.

It is a trek to get up here no doubt and IMO one should play Bodega Harbour and then spend the night N of Sea Ranch and play the next day. The course was not crowded even being the Labor Day weekend and they gave me a great rate of $75 due to being a veteran. It really makes for great golf trip either with golfing buddies or the family.

I found the course to be in very nice playing condition. Nice driving range and putting green to get warmed up.

It is a good challenging course and choosing the right tee will enhance the round. B 6604 Blue 6217 W 5423 R 4802. Graves did a great job in the layout of this course and the design of his holes. Add in the trees some creeks what they call sea grass rough and you can add up the score quickly. So stay in the fairways as much as possible.

Tee boxes were all playable.

Fairways had good coverage and lies and decent rollout.

Rough is bad farther off the fairways and good luck finding your ball. And I hope they find you if you go too far LOL

Traps are playable but being near the ocean and with winds you can find some better than others in sand coverage.

Greens are great and chipped/putted just fine with good speed all round.

The customer service is excellent at all levels. There is a small cafe on site and plenty of great restaurant choices in the area.

As I said before if one is looking for a different type of golf trip within CA this might just be it. The area in both areas is beautiful. The drive along Hwy 1 is great. Golf is great. Lodging is very good. And the prices are not Pebble Beach prices.

And as a side note in history. Bodega Bay is where Alfred Hitchcock filmed the movie The Birds.

Played here this morning. Very heavy fog for the first 3/4 holes and then the sun came out. And then you saw the beautiful area you were in.

While the course is lined with homes you really are not affected by them unless you are so wild then you should not be playing golf. And the views of Bodega Bay and the ocean are prevelant on almost every hole adding to the beauty of the area.

I was fortunate enough to play with two guys from Santa Rosa who play here often and that was helpful. They said the first 4 holes are difficult and the last 3 are as well. But I found only the first two holes difficult and the last 3 I would not use the word difficult. But this is a family site after all (more later).

As I said when the sun came out you could see what a great looking course this is. Unfortunately the fog had been so heavy that the course was very damp most of the round.

I would not call the course very long (6284 B 5892 B 5465 W) but with the elevation changes and the routing of holes with many side hill lies and rough that is thick and nasty + many traps it plays harder than what the scorecard shows. Add in a day of fog, wind and that would make things even better LOL.

A great mixture of 3, 4, 5 pars to keep you interested the whole round.

Tee boxes all level and clean.

Fairways wide with great coverage but early morning dampness controlled roll out but the lies were great all round.

Traps were in excellent shape. In two and no issues playing out of them. Same for my partners.

Greens are large. Much larger than I expected. Most have undulations and they to were damp so putting was slow for the first 9 holes but back 9 they had speed and you did not want to be above any hole.

Now for #16, 17 and 18. (You can see pics on the club site.) And they are all on the ocean.

16 and 17 are in an environmental marsh. I have never seen anything like this before. You have to park your cart and take clubs or your whole bag (pull carts are provided but they are old and heavy) and walk over the wooden walkways to play these two holes.

16 requires you to hit over high marsh and your landing area is at least 190-215 yards from the Black, Blue and White tees. The Gold tee markers are on the other side of the marsh for we seniors LOL.

#17 is a par 3 and also you hit over the marsh to an uphill green guarded by a front bunker.

I have no idea what happens if someone in your group has trouble walking? But my guess would be they skip those two holes? And a handicap player would not play them either.

So after playing 16/17 you put your clubs back on your cart and proceed to the 18th hole. And what a finishing hole.

459 yds from B/Blue and the tee sets 50/60 yards below the fairway. White tee is up on the hill above and level with fairway. And the green sits some 50/75/100 + yards below where the fairway ends depending upon how long your drive is. Huge trees line the left side down the green which is gaurded by one huge bunker and large undulating green.

So start out with 2/3/4 hard holes and end with 3 unique holes like nothing I have ever seen before in all my years of golf and you have a round of golf that will stay in your mind for years to come.

I am glad I played it and I would go back again w/o hesitation. $80 w cart I felt was good price for a resort course like this.

Great customer service. Small shop and snack bar. Hitting bays to warm up. Two good putting greens. Great carts with a good GPS. Excellent restaurant on site called Bluewater Lounge with great food, drinks and views.

Bodega Harbour is conveniently situated along the Sonoma County Coast, only an hour from San Francisco and two hours from Sacramento. Using 101 N, US 1 N or I 80 W to Hwy 12 through Napa and Sonoma.

I am not going to say this a "Pebble Beach" look alike. But it is a great great links golf course that anyone who loves golf would love to play.

Highly recommended.

Played here this morning.

This course was built in 1968 by Jack Fleming (Lake Course and Olympic Club) and Bob Baldock (look him up amazing # of courses familiar to many of us) one of the most prolific post-war course architects in the western United States.

The design is a traditional, walkable layout that routes through the gradual elevation changes surrounding the estuary of the Napa River. Mature trees line many of the fairways, and water comes into play on the majority of the holes.

From the Black tees the course stretches to 6,681 yards with a rating of 72.8 and a slope of 131, providing a solid test for stronger players. Four sets of tees, down to roughly 5,660 yards from the forward markers.

$39 with cart M-F and F-Sun $49 so good value. If you are in the Napa area this is a very good course to play. Especially if you like to walk.

Course is in good shape at the moment.

Tee boxes are all playable.

The fairways have good coverage decent roll out and good lies. Except for hole # 15 which has some issues in the middle of the fairway where grass just not seem to want to grow.

Traps are all clean and playable no issues.

Greens are not large but several are elevated from the fairways and protected by bunkers so good iron play is crucial. They are in great shape and chip/putt just fine.

Both # 8 and # 18 are par 5's that have water and marsh that come into play making it a fun hole for those who want to go for them in two.

Great selection of Par 3's on the course as well.

No houses are on this course and the views of the Napa Valley are great. I will say that the cart paths and carts could use some TLC and updating.

Great customer service in the shop and a small grill has good service as well.

Got out early on a very cool day here. 59F at tee time after previous days of 80's and 90's. N CA weather is definitely strange up here.

Course is in nice shape in all areas.

Tee boxes good and fairways had good coverage good lies and decent roll out.

Rough was not bad and one could easily find their ball and advance it.

Traps were all in good shape and I heard no complaints.

Greens are not as large as Rancho Solano but the do have IMO more undulation and were in great chipping/putting shape all round.

Great customer service in the shop.

This is a great walking course and if one is a member of their Loyalty Tee club the rate is $37.

Nice to have two great courses that are different in design so close together in one city.

Played today on a great cool day compared to the last few days.

Having played the E the last few times here I jumped over to the W. Which is the older of the two courses. Also many more elevated fairways and holes compared to the E. IMO much more challenging as well.

But a great selection of par 3's on both courses.

Course is in good shape at the moment.

Tee boxes fine.

Fairways a little damp but still some good rollout and good lies.

Traps all playable.

Rough sticky and wet difficult to play out of w/o a good strong swing.

Greens in good shape for chipping/putting and had some decent speed all round.

Always good customer service in the clubhouse.

Very small grill so I usually don't stop in after playing.

Played this morning at a later time than usual and something I will not do in the future.

Turns out Wed is ladies day and the way these ladies play here is not conducive to great POP.

Weather is getting warmer up here after some very nice cool days. And the course is showing its colors from the heat. Lots of brown patches where the water is not reaching. And other areas were the water has not drained well.

Had no issues with tee boxes. Nor any rough as it has all been mowed down.

Fairways have some firmness in them in some areas so rollout is good on some less on others. But good lies regardless of the grass.

Traps are all playable and most of the players here know how to use racks. Must be all us older ones?

Greens were soft and slow due to being watered against the heat. Practice putting green was the same way so that was good as one knew what to expect.

Good course to walk and plenty of trees to provide shade. And one of the few courses I have seen in a long time that has a bench on every hole when having to wait on players in front.

Two nice putting greens. And a very nice, though small covered driving range.

Played early this morning as it is starting to warm up again and to hot to play later in the day.

Course is in good shape at the moment. A little wet but that's to be expected with the warm weather.

Tee boxes all playable.

Fairways wide and good coverage with good lies and hit miss in the rollout depending upon fairway and elevation.

Traps all clean and playable at this time of the day.

Rough is playable and able to find your ball and advance it.

Greens are slower than normal due to watering but still large and very important to land in an area to get within good distance to the flags. My new LAB putter is working just fine at the moment.

Always good customer service in the shop and from all employees encountered.

Played this AM. Last few rounds here have been very windy. Getting a great downwind game but not so good into it. Wind speed 18 with gusts to 23.

I am finding out that the main reason locals avoid the course is because of the windy conditions due to the location of the course. Me I am checking conditions better before I make future reservations.

Lucky we got out early. When we made the turn we found the area around the clubhouse packed and staged for a tournament. We were not even notified of this happening when we checked in. I guess they assumed we and others would finish before this started. Wrong.

When we were teeing off on 18 the carts for a shotgun start started coming down from the clubhouse. Lets just say we let the guy in the clubhouse know how we felt.

Tee boxes all clean and playable.

Fairways had good coverage on most holes with decent lies but the only rollout was on downwind holes.

Rough was playable.

Traps had been all cleaned so we had decent sand to play out of all round.

Greens had been mowed and chipped/putted at good speeds. But hitting them in the wind was a challenge as well as putting into and with the wind. And many of the greens are elevated from the fairway so trying to factor in wind direction and speed was not fun.

Had a great $6.50 breakfast including coffee after the round so that helped the days frustrations somewhat.

Played this AM on a very cool foggy morning. Felt like fall instead of middle of Aug.

Course was very wet from tee to green and everywhere in between.

Tee boxes were not in the best shape today and were good last week?

Fairways wet soggy very little roll and OK lies and some had just been cut and clippings lying all over. Not ideal.

Traps were all bad. Damp crusty and hard packed. Some appeared unplayable.

Rough was high and wet and easy to loose a ball.

Greens were soft and left divots from balls landing and they putted slow all round.

No idea what happened from last week to this but it did not give any of us a good impression.

But they only charged us $34 w cart so at least that was a postive.

Great customer service in the shop.

I guess early dementia has set in? Disregard the Rancho Del Sol as I know I live in Fairfield at Rancho Solano. Man.

Anyways played twilight last evening on a beautiful evening up here for $35 w cart and could have walked (probably would have got lost) for $22.

Course in great shape at the moment as the weather has been great lately.

Tee boxes fine.

Fairways wide good roll and lies all round.

Traps could have used some raking but it was late and I guess to be expected in rough shape.

Greens are large but in nice speedy shape. Finally understand the elevations and undulations of many of them the more I play. Helps to eliminate 3 putts when knowing where to land to avoid them.

Great service as always from the shop.

Its a great public course that gets a lot of play but the keep it great shape.

Love living 1 mile from the clubhouse especially this time of the year.

Out for my Friday day of walking and playing golf. Great cool morning. The weather patterns here in the area are strange. 62 F at 6:30 tee time and it stayed cool all round.

Course still in good shape.

Good tee boxes, fairways, rough, traps and greens.

The greens here are smaller than most courses I play up here and it helps in the ball striking to play to such greens IMO.

As I have said the course is short but many trees, OB and water comes into play to ruin a round. And fairways are very narrow.

But for $18 I will keep coming back as long as I can.

Played today on a cool and windy morning. 22 MPH with gusts to 25 and sometimes felt like 30.

The course sits E of the AFB in farming, cattle raising and walnut orchards. And very close the Sacramento River San Joaguin River Delta where the winds come from. Great at night after a warm day but not so great when playing golf.

The course is in good shape but has dried out over the summer months and some fairways have dried out areas.

Tee boxes were all fine.

Fairways had good to decent coverage but great rollout down wind and even into the wind. Good lies as well.

Traps were just OK but playable. I was only in one and thankful for that.

Rough is short and easy to play out of.

Greens were in good shape. They chipped/putted just fine but with the wind you had to consider which direction it was coming from when you putted to get the right speed.

POP was right on 3.5 H and the cost for veterans is $21 to walk and $35 to ride. Acceptable. Course is easy to walk but not on days like this.

Great customer service in the shop and great food and prices in the cafe.

Recommended.