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My golf buddies and I were just talking about taking another golf trip to the Sea Ranch Golf Links.
When we Googled green fees, we got the cruel news: Sea Ranch is closed "indefinitely" as of Jan. 5.
Not only has California lost one of its best hidden-gem and bargain courses, it has also relinquished something even more important: one of its ocean holes.
Oceanfront holes in California are rare. Only 20 courses offer them, mostly at expensive resort playgrounds like Pebble Beach Resorts, Torrey Pines, Half Moon Bay and the Resort at Pelican Hill, or exclusive private clubs like Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Cypress Point.
The reasons that we fell in love with Sea Ranch - an uncrowded but scruffy course with ocean views - also led to its downfall. When I visited in 2023, management swore more money would be invested into improvements. That well ran dry.
A statement from management at the Sea Ranch Lodge states:
After much careful consideration and thorough analysis, the team has made the difficult decision to close the golf course indefinitely. While they reopened the course after its initial closure, the financial losses have remained significant, and the ability to generate sustainable revenue given the course’s location is a constant challenge. Despite their best efforts to explore all avenues, it has become clear that continuing to operate under these conditions is no longer viable.
That golf at Sea Ranch isn't sustainable shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who's visited. The community is small and hard to reach. There aren't enough golfers, locals or visitors. Out-of-town golfers must be willing to tackle the winding Pacific Coast Highway three hours north of San Francisco to get there.
But that doesn't make the loss any less disappointing. Robert Muir Graves laid Sea Ranch Golf Links, completing the first nine in 1974 and the entire 6,649-yard routing two decades later in 1995. It felt like an undiscovered Irish or Scottish links with more than a dozen really compelling holes.
Sea Ranch isn't the only California course to potentially close for good within the first week of 2025. Desert Dunes Golf Course, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in Desert Hot Springs in the Coachella Valley, announced its closure just two days before Sea Ranch's demise.
“We are sad to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances the Desert Dunes Golf Course has permanently closed,” the course's website reads. “Management thought this would be a good year. The course was in great shape and management even ordered a new golf cart fleet. Unfortunately, a combination of the weather, the well on sixteen collapsing, the watering system needing to be rebuilt, and continuing losses caused the decision to close.”
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