The Ranch Golf Club

This course is very difficult for the golfer. The setting is spectacular but often even great shots get penalized by the conditions. There are many forced carries and accuracy is a must - as balls that are not on the fairway are often lost.

It's a very challenging front nine, the back side is more playable. Average golfers should stick to playing the white tees. I played bogey golf on the front and was 1 over on the back from the blues. Fairways were in good shape but had some thin patches also. The greens were receptive to soft shots. Putting was slower then usual, but rolled good. If you have good control of your shots, you should try this course. If your wild, bring a lot of balls. Usually pace of play is pretty good, but with their Monday and Tuesday special, the pace of play is slow.

Cart path only is rediculous and made the round last forever. The people at the desk were not friendly. No driving range. Way over priced.

Can be a fun course if you play it with the right expectations. Very very little room for error and you will be penalized for great shots too. Bring all those old lost balls you've found playing other courses, don't waste your money playing great golf balls (unless you are that good) only to lose most of them.

My last round, I had 6 pars and still finished round at 109!! Haha

Played on a Wednesday morning though for 40 bucks. Can't beat that.

When we got there to check-in at 12:55 (Hot Deals) we were told all the greens were being aerated plus only the second nine were open and had to play it twice. It took us about 10 minutes to drive to the 10th hole. Basically all the greens were covered with sand.
Golfnow.com should have indicated this condition. If we did not pre-pay we would have cancelled our Tee time.

Singles booking through Golf Now have no available time slots except at 12:50 and after 4:00 p.m. Head pro told me in a telephone conversation that they don't want to book singles. I was playing there 6-8 times per month, but if they don't want to accomodate singles, I'll take my $250+/mo. elsewhere.

This course is probably best suited for single digit handicappers. If you examine individual holes they're impressive. However you can't take carts on ANY fairway and it's a cart-only course (no walking.) Most of the fairways are heavily contoured so getting to your ball or the green involves climbing like a billy goat. The other strange thing about the course is that some of the holes are separated by almost 1/2 mile - seriously. This completely breaks the flow of a round of golf, as do the speed bumps they put on the sharp downhill cart paths that send your cell phone and beverages flying in the air. Many of the holes have you shooting from an elevated tee at an angled fairway - no distances are given to landmarks so you can hit what appears to be a great tee-ball and it's completely out of bounds. All and all this is just a strange golf course. If you're in this part of San Jose try Cinnabar or even further south Eagle Ridge. Individual holes are equally impressive without the aforementioned quirks.

The course is really challenging and a lot of elevated tees. The greens were well maintained and all consistent. Fairways were groomed and well taken care of. Will play it again soon.

Great and well maintained course for a reasonable rate. One of the most unique courses in the world.

There was almost 90 minutes of open tee time before we teed off, but their policy is not to let players that have paid a lower rate tee off earlier, so we and others wound up having a 5 hr. and 40 min. round. Would not play there again!

The course was in superb shape and not very crowded for a Saturday. Course is spread over a large acreage with lengthy cart rides between many holes. To fit holes into the natural landscape entails many blind target golf shots, short yardage par-5's that you can't use a driver on, etc. Cart paths only slows pace of play. First time at this course and will not return.

Very tough course, missing left or right is dead, good greens but a little slow. Great test if on your game, punishing if not.

Staff was another story, every group ended up waiting for a key to the cart .. no key and starter nowhere to be found for every group.

Counter crew and assistant manager the worst. Would not accept 1/2 off coupon, bad enough .. said because booked through golfnow and asked why I did that then said I shouldn't have .. told him they shouldn't use it if they don't want customers booking through it .. he repeatedly told he I was wrong and I should see it from his point to view .. just horrible and heated which ruined first few holes (once the starter finally arrived with a key)

The bunkers need more sand in them, but the rest of the course is in excellent condition!

This course is extremely long and very difficult the entire way through. Every hole has rivines and thick brush on every side in addition to massive changes in elevation. Be sure to take extra balls!

You are forced to drive a cart and walk to your ball so you get a pretty good workout from goingup and down steep hills throughout the day.

The greens are always multi leveled and make for a very tough challenge if you dont hit near the flag on your approach.

You get great views of San Jose which makes up for the frustration you will probably have from losing 10 balls.

50 bucks on golf now is worth it because its very unique course in the area and a great challenge to just shoot under 90.

You have to imagine the ball trajectory up in the air and the angle the ball will hit the land. Miss shots are just simply punished (gone) but there are drop zones. So it simply costs the course fee plus the ball fee (not so much so if your handicap is below teen or if you use low cost balls).

Greens are punishing as well - for a misjudged landing on the green, you are about to punch the ball up to the 2nd floor of the green (or 3rd), or find your ball down at the lip after hitting ever so soft just to go downstairs.

Overall, planning is the key. You'll have to be conservative sometimes, but be bald more often.

Great views and scenic experience with overall good quality. The course is very challenging -especially front-nine which is extremely narrow in most places, and very tough to reach greens in regulation. For the same reason we experienced very slow pace +5 hours -since most balls need provisionals and time spend on lost balls search. Greens are not easier, but well maintained.

I need to learn how to play more conservatively, because my aggressive approach to most of these holes ended in lost balls and multi-bogeys. The Ranch is a course you enjoy a long round at, it has beautiful views and a very helpful staff. The marshal kept the pace moving and enjoyed watching half of our party golf while surely laughing on the inside at myself and other buddy. Second time I have played there and it makes me think critically about my game more each time, so I enjoyed it.

I have played the Ranch several times, and it has never let me down.It has an infinite variety of interesting and CHALLENGING holes accompanied by major elevation changes....which leads me to a serious criticism: it is CART PATH ONLY, and I see no need for that...many older and less skillful golfers will be eliminated from play because of the BLIND SHOTS with inadeqyhuate yardage information as well as the steepness of the exit paths leading back to the cart.SOLUTION: ( one or both ) add GPS or institute the90° rule..GREAT COURSE WITH TOO MUCH WORK AND TOO MUCH GUESSING!!.. I'LL BE BACK ANYWAY!

Just talked with head pro regarding difficulty in a single making a booking through the Golf Now program. Up until 3 weeks ago if a twosome had booked a tee time, there was the availability for 1-2 players to fill the slot(s). Now the only way a single can play is if a threesome books (not very likely). The head pro told me that they want to discourage singles as they need at least two in a booking--I told him that I was booking as a single, but was joining others who had already booked as a twosome or threesome. He was not interested and said they never allowed singles to book--a strange response since I have been playing the Ranch for the last 4 years using Golf Now and booking as a single at all times of the day and was joining twosomes or threesomes. Obviously, the Ranch does not want my business which had been 1-2 bookings per week. Sad commentary on this business practice.

My tee time is 5pm and finish 18 holes at 8:30 on weekday.