2023-01

With lots of elevated tees affording great views and hilly terrain, The Golf Club at Rancho California is a championship caliber test that's sure to appease all kinds of golfers. The course, which opened for play in 1971 as Murrieta Golf Club, has endured through ownership changes to remain one of Southern California's best competitive venues. In 1994, the Southern California Golf Association bought the course, and it became SCGA Golf Club. It was the home of the California State Open and other professional and high-level amateur events. Today, The Golf Club at Rancho California is a Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed golf course that plays 7,036 yards and a course rating of 74.6. But it has five sets of tees, starting at just over 5,000 yards, so all levels of players can enjoy the layout. The Golf Club at Rancho California has many interesting and challenging holes. The par-4 third, for example, is one of the holes with great views from an elevated tee that looks down on the fairway and lake below with mountains in the background. The no. 2 handicap hole, the 12th, plays more than 400 yards with water all down the left side of this dogleg. And the 18th, another dogleg left, plays nearly 450 yards from the back tee. The club also has excellent practice facilities with a full driving range, short-game area and practice putting green. Inside the clubhouse is a very well-stocked golf shop, restaurant and wedding, and banquet facilities.

Laid out in a pristine, natural setting, CrossCreek Golf Club is a challenging, scenic Arthur Hills design at one of the best courses open to the public in the Temecula Valley. With no homes around the course, the semi-private golf course traverses over rolling terrain with beautiful hillside views, creeks and plenty of mature sycamore and oak trees. The par-71 course, which opened in 2001, has six sets of tees, ranging from 4,483 yards to 6,780 yards. In typical Hills fashion, the course features plenty of risk-reward holes. Take a more aggressive line on some of them, and you can be rewarded with a shorter shot to the green, but it generally brings trouble into play. The golf course has a mixed of open holes and more tree-lined holes, and there's plenty of elevation change and uneven lies. The no. 1 and no. 2 handicap holes respectively are nine and 18, both long par 4s. The ninth has water left of the green, while the 18th is a 437-yard sharp dogleg right. Besides the golf course, CrossCreek Golf Club offers a large grass driving range with target greens, and a large practice putting green and chipping green. Lessons are also available from the staff pros. Inside the clubhouse is a well-stocked golf shop that offers the latest in apparel, accessories and equipment. And the CrossCreek Grille, which doubles as a sports bar, offers a varied menu that features seasonal produce, plus a nice selection of cocktails and beer.

The 18-hole "California Golf" course at the Cherry Hills Golf Course facility in Sun City, California features 6,908 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course rating is 72.6 and it has a slope rating of 122. Designed by Milton Coggins, ASGCA, the California Golf golf course opened in 1963. Lou Skovron manages the course as the General Manager. Its layout is incredible and the course provides golfers of every skill level the perfect amount of challenge. The greens are conscientiously cropped, the fairways are faithfully cared for, the sand traps and water hazards are perfectly placed.