The Ranch Golf Club

Bunch of shady people in front drinking beer (?) and playing slow so that a single behind us had to join us. Marshal came around couple of times and said "Guys in front slow huh". As its is the course takes over 5 hrs to play the guys in front made it worse.

It was challenging and you need to bring lots of balls. However it has many interesting holes. I guarantee you like it if you enjoy tough course.

The Ranch is very fun and the views are spectacular. You have to pay the price of a few rounds to gain local knowledge as to where to aim. Each tee box gives a course a different play as the further back you play from not only adds distance but changes the angles into the fairways. Many elevated tees with diagonal canyons that you have to hit over on several holes. There are no opposing fairways that you can hit into. Pretty much OB left and right on every hole. You have to stay on the cart path and get a lot of walking in. The course will present plenty of uneven lies. The greens are in good shape and the fairways excellent. Pretty wide open mid week. Bring plenty of ball and watch out for poison oak around the OB areas by the creek.

The most ridiculous course I have played. Crammed in a bunch of houses and tricked up to make it stupidly difficult, a first time player has no chance. It will be my last time.

If you are first time player you will have hard time knowing where to hit the ball from the tee box. If you didn't study the course map ahead the first 9 holes (which are the toughest holes) will get you in trouble - make sure you study the course ahead.

Also, two par threes in the back nine are ridiculous - almost a makeshift holes - less than 100 yards both from the blue tees.

It is easy to see why this course gets so little play. Very funky holes and punitive to excess. It is a housing development that happens to have a golf course. Nice views, bad golf.

Not for the faint of heart. I'm a single handicapper and was extremely challenged all day. The greens are very difficult so expect some 3 putts and bring an extra sleave of balls as many holes there is no forgiveness for errant drives.

Decent rate for a fri, but weekend rate...4hrs quick pace, but the greens were punched. Very difficult course.

It is a beautiful golf course. You better prepare at least 20 balls if you don't hit consistently.

Have played it before and come back to overcome challenges.

I always look forward to playing The Ranch. A friend and I have been playing it more frequently of late and have not been disappointed through our recent run, It has stood the test of time--2 years now--as one of our all-time favorite places to play.

I've been fortunate enough to play the Ranch once during a Thursday at 12pm and once with my mom starting at 2, and the pace of play was good both times. During the week you'll have the course to yourself, but I can't speak for the weekend and I've heard it gets jammed during mornings and afternoons will be a bit slow as well. My mom and I barely finished (2-6:30pm) as we were behind a few slow groups. When I went on a Thursday there was absolutely no one there. I played two balls for the entire 18 holes (3 balls on some holes), took the time to walk up to spot blind landings, and really soaked in the course. It is challenging, but if you know some of the nuances and keep good control you'll be ok. My only complaint is that I know for a fact some of the yardages are mismarked. I think the yardage on the 4th hole is mismarked because without a laser sight it seems very difficult to gauge the carry on the 2nd shot. A few other holes are gimmicky, but the back 9 is actually very manageable. You won't find more pristine fairways than at The Ranch, but the greens are far from immaculate. 4 stars for average quality greens (bumpy, slow) and lack of yardage markers. Not as good as other courses in the area but still fun and a good challenge for your game. Take a weekday off and take your time to learn this course, then go back with your buddies on the weekend and school them!

The Ranch lives up to its reputation as the hardest course in the Bay Area. There are plenty of forced carries, forced lay ups, narrow landing areas, and tricky yardages. This is a course where you need to play several times to get used to the yardages, landing areas, elevation changes, blind shots, etc. As a first timer, expect to lose a number of golf balls equal to roughly 1/2 your handicap. The front nine places a strong premium on both driving accuracy and distance. The back nine plays much more fairly. The wind makes everything that much harder. The biggest downside (other than the difficulty) were the bunkers. They played like hardpan and could use some attention. Other than that it's a challenging course everyone should experience at least once. By the second or third time you should score better as you learn the appropriate club selections.

Beautiful course with nice greens and fairways. I have a 13.8 index, the blue tee is too tough for me, when I play from the white tee, it's much easier. It's a tough course, take it easy you will enjoy more fun playing golf than looking for balls... however, you will still lose balls at this course. The amount of lost balls at this course is about the half of your handicap. say you have a 25 handicap... make sure you have a dozen of balls in your bag. :-)

Interesting layout from an architectural standpoint, but not really that fun to play.

Very narrow course. Bring a lot of balls if you don't hit it straight. Great value. Very pretty

Toughest course around, not fit for hackers, which of course included the group in front of us. Made for a 5 hour round waiting on every shot. Where were the marshals?

Tried to play the Ranch with a friend in town from Seattle. Booked T-time on line with Golf Now. When we arrived we were informed that the front 9 was closed, the back nine had freshly plugged and sanded greens. They claimed there was a disclaimer on the reservation, and maybe there was, but I never saw it. Maybe I missed it? We decided to play the back nine with the sanded greens twice. My friend rented clubs that were terrible for $35. They looked like they were from the 80's. I've played the course a few times and find it beautiful and very challenging and I wanted my friend to get that experience but we didn't. At the end of the round I asked the staff if we could drive the cart around the front nine so my friend could at least see it, we wouldn't take clubs or get out of the cart but we were not allowed to. Not sure why. To me the front 9 is about as difficult as any in California and if we couldn't play it, I was really hoping my out of town friend could at least see it, but we were told absolutely not, no way, and in a fairly unfriendly manner. It was about 6 pm with about 1.5 hours left of sunlight so we asked if we could head out to the back nine again, a couple holes before it got dark. There was almost no one on the course, parking lot empty and we really felt like they could've made up for some terrible course conditions by letting us hit a few more balls before dark. They said we'd have to pay another $30/ea. Felt very ripped off. Staff was so rigid and unfriendly. Overall, the experience was extremely disappointing. Staff was rigid and unfriendly. It's a shame how such a beautiful course can be so poorly managed.

Whilst the staff are pleasant - the course is not the best or easise to play .... for bothe the experienced and novice player ..Take lots of golf balls ! the chances of more thn 6 balls lost - to both the experienced and beginner are very high ..the greens are not well maintained for the price charged to paly n the course ..poor value for money ...

Nice place. Mean and discourteous club house staff. Beginners really hold up pace of play.