I played here on 04/07/12 from the tips at 73.3/149/6696. This course has been on my list of Norcal courses to play, but the price has always kept me away. The weekend rate is $100, but it can be booked through the website for $70. I found an anytime play certificate on Golfguide.org for $45 and this is an awesome play for that price. The course’s claim to fame is that the owners started building the course without the proper permits. Many of the articles that I found about the course detail the struggle of the owners to secure the correct papers from the city or county to continue operations and not about the course itself. This is a shame as there are some dynamic holes out here.

The course is in the foothills and like a lot of the foothill courses, this one has some tricks. I had an idea of what to expect before playing here, so I was not completely surprised to find that there are some crazy holes. The front nine plays to a par of 35 and is short with many doglegs while the back nine is a par 37 and is a lot more open. The course did not flow very well as the 1st hole is quite some distance from the parking area and one hole required a u-turn to get to the next tee box.

Immediately the tricks grabbed my attention as the slope on the 1st green makes the back half unusable for a pin position. However, that didn’t keep the greenskeeper from putting the pin there when we played. In fact, the greens on the first three holes are nuts because they slope so much. The 3rd, a short par 3 down a hill, is one of the signature holes. My tee shot rolled for a good 10 or 15 seconds after hitting the green because there is so much slope from right to left. The last twelve or so holes are more tolerable design wise, but still tricky. The 13^th hole features a blind tee shot on a huge dogleg left par 5. If the tee shot isn’t involved enough then the layup is just as challenging. The layup area is small and slopes hard from left to right. If the layup gets lucky and stays in the fairway then the 3rd shot is straight back up a hill. This kind of difficulty was displayed throughout the course. The 15th is another scenic hole. The hole is a par 4 that plays from elevated tee box over water to a fairway divided by a lone tree. The18th is a long par 5 with a hazard that cuts across the fairway. Then, the approach is over trees to a green that slopes hard from left to right. I played a 9 iron 50+ feet left of the hole and my approach rolled down by the hole. Overall the course is fun to play and very memorable. I would not expect to put up a good score because of the cement hard greens with massive slopes and the big elevation changes. However, the greens are arguably the smoothest and fastest that I have ever putted on. The folks in the proshop (who I think were the owners) were nice and the course is not much of a drive from Stockton either. The views of the foothills are spectacular and I had a great day even shooting a million.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):