2 excellent golf courses. Both totally different. Must play both. Greens are excellent and fast. Any con would be the practice facilities. Chipping green is ok. Practice putting green is good.

World class hotel. Four seasons on unbelievable ocean front location. Best coastal resort in san franciso bay area except for carmel area.

Ocean course. Pure links style. Good layout. Some excellent holes, some not-so good holes. Overall great course.

Old course. My favorite. Excellent layout going through houses. Some good holes, some not so good holes, too but overall great course. The 18th hole is the most picturesque finishing I have ever play. Ocean front 18th hole tees off on elevated tee going down to fairway then in turn making you hit an approach shot from a downhill lie to elevated green. Such a tough hole. Adding to the drama is about 50 patrons on the patio next to the 18th green. Feels like a tournament every time. Haha. Unbelievable views with ocean bordering the 18th hole in its entirety.

Must play both courses.

Cons: Expensive. Insider tip: if you become part of the email specials, you can play for way lower prices.

Customer Service

World class resort. Customer service emulates 1st class service.

Played here while on vacation during the week. Booked t time about 2 months in advance from my club pro's reccomendation. Got to course and checked in. Staff was cold and could care less. Started our round and played the first 6 holes ij great time, then ran into a log jam. The ranger finaaly comes around. wed ask what the hold up is and his laughing response was "It's ladies day, u ain't gettin around here in under 6 hours!" Hmm, think they could of told me this BEFORE I booked a t time. Wound up leaving after 11 holes and 4 hours. Staff also thought it was funny when he asked how our round was. Clowns. Go elsewhere. Numerous great courses in the area besides this one.

Customer Service

Terrible. Read above.

Played the Old Course as the Ocean Course was being used by the LPGA. The course was in fantastic condition and the greens were fast and smooth.

The course is like many public courses that you would find in upscale developments around the country on holes 1-16. Holes 17, and especially 18, are what make the course worth the price. Be sure to bring your camera as you might be able to convince your buddies that you played Pebble Beach or a course in Scotland.

Customer Service

Considering that the LPGA was playing on the other course, the people were very accomodating. We were a large party and the crew did everything they could to make us feel welcome.

Greens. Good test.

Layout too close to housing.

I made the mistake of playing the Old course as a twilight round. Had to be the most expensive $90+ dollar round I've ever played, because this place is basically housing with a course through it. Course was in good condition, but not worth the money in my opinion. All holes were average at best. Nothing too interesting except for the 17 par 3 into the ocean cliffs and the 18th into the Ritz. Those two last holes made the round otherwise, I wouldn't recommend for the price. Greens, although soft, were suprisingly fast. I had a tough time judging the pace because of how soft these felt.

Customer Service

Decent but exact check in time 10 minutes from tee time was annoying / weird.

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Play the Ocean course for better return on your money (i.e. closer to real links + no housing ... yet)

The views are good.

Boring.

Two courses here, the Links and the Ocean courses. I have played both and I like the Links course better. The Ocean course is a poor example of a true links style course. Yes, it is by the ocean and has lots of views. But, other than that, it has none of the flavor of a true links. There is no gorse or iceplant or sand dunes. There are no barrancas or pot bunkers. It is really just grass, ocean and flags, and is fairly boring, strategy wise. I think they could have done a lot more with the property they had to work with. Two, Seventeen (a par three on the cliffs) and eighteen are pretty fun holes. The rest of the holes sort of all seem the same and are not memorable in any way.

Customer Service

Starter (about three years ago) was kind of a jerk, egomaniacal and rude.

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No range

Links Course - challenge plus the views on the 17th & 18th
Ocean Course - the views anywhere on the course

Cost - Links is $115 and Ocean is $135 on weekends. These rates will likely go up when the Ritz opens early 2001.

No driving range and no place to put one either.

Parking - with the hotel opening I don't know where they'll put all the cars!

Of the two courses located here (Ocean and Links), the older Links course is definitely the more challenging regardless of which tees you decide to play from. Although it winds through the gated community, the recently remodeled back nine has lots of risk reward situations. The undulating fairways, done to cure its drainage problems, add to the challenge with many uneven lies. When the greens are at their best, they're smooth and fast for a public course.

The front nine is currently closed for its makeover (also by Arthur Hills) and all signs point to a slightly tougher course experience than before. As on the back nine, fairway bunkers have been relocated more into the fairways and greenside bunkers have, in some cases, pinched the run-up area forcing you to be more accurate on approach shots. The remodeled front nine is expected to be open in early spring 2001.

The Ocean course affords an ocean view from at least somewhere on every single hole. This is one course you probably don't want to play during nasty weather given its exposure. On a calm day, it's a rather benign course as long as you stay out of its nasty native rough which can grow to a foot or more (guaranteed lost ball in that case).

Customer Service

They always seem to try to get single players out.

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The entire clubhouse was redone a couple years ago and is excellent.

layout, views, always seems to be in good shape

get ready for high scores when it's windy

I have played the Ocean Course here on a couple of occasions. I think it is an excellent example of links style golf, and has some fun layout features: fair carries, elevated greens, deep rough. Its ocean views are magnificent. The one factor that makes this already tricky course a real tough test is the wind, which can come off the ocean and create havoc.

There's a new Ritz-Carlton being built here, between the two courses. It looks like it will be quite beautiful, and it will make this golf resort one of the top facilities between Pebble Beach and the Oregon border.

Customer Service

Good, not overly friendly, but certainly professional.

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Caddy's features an excellent menu. Blue cheese burger was out of this world.

Beautiful views. Well maintained.

Winds through housing so if it's windy ... be careful.

Wonderful course next to the ocean. Not too bad if it isn't windy ... since it is next to the ocean probably doesn't happen very often. Played the links style course which does wind through housing.

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None

Unique holes in a few instances. Good vistas of pacific ocean, beach.

No range, relative easy holes between 4 and 15. Parallel bordering fairways with no rough between them on many holes. Cart path only (lots of walking out and back). Extremely expensive pro-shop! Hotel construction through 2000. Few people seemed to be repairing ball marks - I repaired at least 5-6 per green.

This is a 2-course facility. No range but a putting area for practice is there (a range would be nice). Our group played the H.M.B. Ocean Course a couple times in early June, 2000. Overall, a somewhat easy course with a few interesting holes which seem a little bit like Balybunion Old Course in Scotland with high native grasses bordering the rough. The most interesting holes on the course are #1,2,3,16,17,18 with some links-style paralleling-fairway holes in between. There is a new hotel being constructed near the #18 hole on the Ocean course which took away from the vistas. The ocean course plays different daily - we had two different wind-directions in two days there. The Links course winds through the housing area - should be more difficult due to more trees and tighter play.

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Good little restaurant.