The Sea Ranch Golf Links

Nice Robert Muir Graves Design; front 9 is original 9, very old world design. Back 9 was built in the 1960's, a little more modern feel than the front. Nice layout but wish there were more holes on the ocean. Greens were soft and slow but not a bad golf course

Been looking forward to playing Sea Ranch for some time now. What a disappointment. Other than a decent and challenging layout, there was not much else, although the views were nice. The course was very dry and the rough and the fairways were hard to distinguish between them (I realize this is a links course). The fairways were more like pastures and the cart felt like it had square wheels as there were so many bumps and pits - my bag actually flew off the cart even though it was strapped in one bump was so bad. I was never sure I would be in a hole or in deep grass on the fairway - so winter rules had to apply. The greens were like playing a pinball machine and extremely slow (at least not many three putts). Even the sand traps were crusty. This course has so much potential, but as it is I cannot justify even $58 for a twilight round.

If this course was in great conditions it would be a challange. Definitely not a "resort course." Given the lack of watering and lack of maintenance (can't blame it entirely on the drought) this course plays much much harder. I had no less than three decent shots kick off of sloped hardpan into junk and lost.

Definitely recommend playing from the white tees your first time out even if you're a single-digit handicap. I am a 15 hdcp and made the mistake of going from the blues and played by myself so no course knowledge other than an iPhone GPS app, which tells nothing about conditions of course. lots of blind teeshots. I shot a 94 with only one three-putt on 18. Greens were in great shape with painted-in white holes like on Tour. Bunkers were packed, wet dirt as far as I could tell. Rest of the course was poor with hardpan and weeds where there should be fairway. I'm not talking about areas they're purposely not watering like the first 100yds or so of a par 4 just past the tee boxes. We're talking landing areas and 100 in from the green where you'd hit a wedge.

The course was nearly empty on a Sunday during summer. So it was very strange for the gentleman in the proshop to tell me I couldn't move my teetime to play a little later in the morning without paying more (I got a discounted web rate). Any other near empty course I've played usually has a "thank you for playing here" attitude and this guy seemed to miss that memo.

If you stay in the Sea Ranch / Gualala area this is the only course. Just beware and pray for rain and perhaps a new irrigation system for the course. Bring lots of extra balls and an attitude to match.

*I will post photos along with a copy of this review on Yelp. No photos on GolfAdvisor.com apparently.

Beautiful course, never too busy. Greens are in pretty good shape, but differ in speed from hole to hole, making them a bit challenging to read. Amazingly different looks from hole to hole as well, so it never gets boring, even after playing it over 10 times.

I would recommend the course if you are in the area.