Baylands Golf Links

Baylands opened as a new design from the old Palo Alto Municipal course. It is a welcome change and addition to the region. Baylands opened to some fanfare a couple of years ago. Upon opening the course clearly suffered from significant issues that remain but that hopefully can be mitigated or eliminated over time.
1) Geese. Geese droppings are all over the place and unavoidable. It is disgusting and a real problem that distracts from the experience and I never would pay the course “rack rate” just on this factor alone. The City and their contractors were supposed to commit to Geese mitigation strategies esp since the course is next to the airport. Those efforts either dont exist or are not effective.
2) Construction and maintenance. Clearly the City and the firms responsible for building the course and doing the “grow in” had some significant issues that have left portions of the course in bad shape already.
3) Design. Overall the design is above average but not really good, and hardly a “links” experience. Too many blind shots into greens. There is, unbelievably, a downhill par-3 that is a blind tee shot. Several of the Par-5s are very weak and boring. . Several of the green complexes are woefully “under-designed” and some are woefully overwrought.
4) Staff in general are very pleasant but several challenges need to be addressed: inadequate Starter and Ranger staffing to facilitate pace of play. Policies prohibiting single golfers even during afternoon, twilight play.
5) Rates. Comparing to other courses and experiences, this design and course is a $50-$70 green fee course. This course and experience is not a $80+ value. Good rates are available on a limited basis if you buy an annual “links card”

In the positive side the current staff and management in general are quite pleasant. This facility has been improved from the old parkland muni course it once was. The bent grass greens are in great shape and roll nicely.

The new Baylands is a marked improvement over the old Palo Alto Muni. The layout is better and the green complexes are fantastic. The only negative is fairway condition: they are bare in some spots and many lies end up similar to what a lie in an old divot is like. That being said, I enjoy playing there for the challenge of the new greens, and their great chipping/putting practice area.

nice setting next to a small airport with planes taking off all day. links style course makes it pretty fun to play, greens were really nice, true and very quick.

The day was cool to start but end up beautiful.
The course was in good shape, Fairways were thin and the grass was patchy but playable.
The greens were fast and fantastic. I love fast greens.!!

I am an adamant golfer with a single digit handicap and, in this area, there is no other course within 30 or 40 minutes that is as fun to play as Baylands. It is challenging, it is welcoming to new or golfers, and it is in all-around great shape.

It may be slow at twilight time but any course is in the bay area. Expect to play a bit slower in the afternoon but you get what you pay for

Excellent course

Over a 5 hour round is too long. Unfortunate to have beginners ahead of playing the back tees and driving in out of bounds areas for lost balls. 5 minutes allowed by rule but spending 8-10 minutes in sensitive grass area. The Marshall should supervise this. Should never take this long on a Wednesday afternoon. Would have also been nice to have beverage cart.

5 hours is too long for a mid day Wednesday. Marshall needs to move people along.

Baylands in Palo Alto checked a lot of boxes for me. - - solid routing with great bunkering
- bold green complexes
wide fairways and no rough
firm and fast
very links-y feel w/ constant 15 mph wind
great conditioning
4 hour rd, walking
$28
fun and challenging.
If I lived in the Bay Area I’d be here twice a week and 46 times on Sunday.

Wow what a course! Great layout, tough conditions with the winds in a beautiful setting. I highly recommend.

What a great fun course. You control difficulty by choosing the tees. We chose white as we wanted to enjoy a course we had never played and we aren't much longer than 200 yards on most drives. Really beautiful links style course with wide fairways, true greens and bunkers with actual sand in them. I thought I couldn't play out of bunkers anymore because I've been playing courses who don't tend them. Not Baylands. Nice fluffy lies. The wind was pretty constant at 15MPH...not enough to make the round torturous...but if you don't strike it well, the wind will play with it. Round was around 4 1/2 and bogged down around 15...but candidly...didn't bother me...my back may have had a different opinion. I loved the round...fun, challenging, great staff. we will be back.

Staff was great and the two guys we played with were lot of fun, regulars. The tee boxes and greens were very good, the fairways need some work. Bunkers were good, sand was a little thick. Might play again sometime. Price was a little high at 85 bucks. Probably a 50 dollar course.

This was my first return visit to Baylands since attending the grand opening last spring following Forrest Richardson's redesign. The course has matured nicely. The fairways were green from recent rains, yet firming up to give golfers the firm and fast conditions the architect wants. And the native grasses that line the wide fairways are growing longer and getting thicker, providing the proper punishment should you miss a shot and also adding to the beauty of the landscape.
The only thing missing at Baylands is combo tees, because the blacks/tips at 6,700 yards are too long for most golfers and the 6,112-yard blue tees are a tad short. I almost felt guilty shooting 82, one of my lowest rounds in a while, and I didn't even play that well. However, I realize we did get lucky with no wind, which is a major defense of the course, especially when the afternoon breeze off the bay picks up steam. A 6,400-yard combo tee setup would be ideal. It's a great walk and good fun, especially around the intricate greens, no matter what tees you play.

I play 2-3x per week at Cinnabar Hills, this was a great changeup and delightful experience.

i approach the first tee and it feels like I am at Carnoustie or Chambers Bay. The entire airways is all bermuda with the extremely firm greens all bentrgrass. Greens have literally no divots of spike marks in them, very firm running at 9/5-10 (yes I brought my stimpmeter).

I left the driver in the bag and played my 3-wood and 17 degree hybrid off all the tee's. If you have a stinger in your bag and love hitting low bleeders, each tee box presents great opportunities to play those shots.

Side Note: Ben at the bar is a boss, really enjoyed his presence and hop-knowledge. They have fresh-baked cookies inside the pro-shop when you pay your green fee's, who can be mad at that?

Had a BLAST! Really enjoyed this course for my first time going after it being renovated. Loved the style of the course and how open it was. Just didn’t like the pace of play and how packed it was. Obviously I’m not in control of how many people show up, but it was a lot of groups.