Rob Golfing At Sea Ranch Over Summer Vacation
August 5th, 2008

While on summer vacation this year, we stayed at a rented home in Mendocino. This meant that the closest golf was either 90 minutes along highway 1 to Bodega Bay or 5 minutes to The Sea Ranch, described by multiple media reports as “the Pebble Beach” of the north. Let’s take a look, shall we?

It’s 630 am on a Tuesday and we have arrived for our 7am tee time as carts are being lined up outside of the Sea Ranch clubhouse.

Unfortunately, the club house is locked and closed. In an odd twist of things, they schedule their first tee time for 7am, which also happens to be when they actually arrive to open the course.

This is a good sign. As we were picking our asses waiting for someone to open the clubhouse, these two geniuses spent 20 minutes fixing the mower so they could prep the practice green.

Speaking of practice, this is what the Sea Ranch describes as their “world class practice facility.” That’s right folks, 6 whole stations at a brown driving range that you can’t use if you happen to be teeing off at 7am because the sprinklers are on! World class, indeed.

7:09 am and we are ready to begin…

And here we have the gorgeous first hole, complete with the hole marker growing moss, grass and mold on it.

Notice this warning sticker in our cart, indicating that the glass windshield is not necessarily going to protect us from golf balls. I especially enjoy that one of the shards is heading directly at the stick figure’s eye.

Ok, truth be told, the course is actually really cool. It’s terribly run and it’s no Pebble Beach, but it’s a great lay out with some very challenging holes, like this par 5 number 6 hole. You have to hit a 250 yard drive over those reeds to a landing area that is literally less than 15 yards wide (no shit we measured it).

Here, on hole #7, we begin to get a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean which is behind that house in the distance.

Here we are on the green of their signature hole, #8, a par 3 of 175 yards straight uphill with a huge cavern between you and the green and a cross wind off the Pacific.

This is the approach shot on #9. You have to hit a tee shot of 200 yards to a finite landing area and then face this on your second shot. This course is all about smart target golf. It has a lot of risk/reward shots which really challenge the ego.

This is the finishing hole which is a doozy of a par 4. The tee shot is fairly blind, directly over those trees, with a ravine running across the middle of the fairway if you hit too far. There is a road on the left and OB on the right and the hole makes a hard turn to the left at the end. Other than that, it’s a can of corn.

One thing I did not like was the alleged sand. We’re at the beach!!! Why are the sand traps filled with mud?

This also sucked. Check out this horrible “course guide” they gave us which offered the least helpful advice I have ever seen from a golf course.

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