California Central Coast Courses

[Knockglock]

So what are the best courses on California's central coast? especially in San Luis Obispo county!

Thanks!

[billm408]

La Purisma in Lompoc (about an hour south of SLO) is the best.
Check the ncga.org site. Avila's OK, there's also a Peter Jacobson course up there but I can't remember the name.

[Ben]

Yeah, La Purisima is GREAT. If of course you like getting kicked in the balls when you play golf. A great, tough golf course. Never very busy and relatively priced.

[Crim]

I will be in San Luis Obispo in late March, looking to play a couple different courses. Any others besides La Purisima?

[mchepp]

I will be in San Luis Obispo in late March, looking to play a couple different courses. Any others besides La Purisima?

It depends how far you are willing to drive. And also your budget/expectations.

La Purisima is the best course in that area, but in March you had better be prepared for potentially the toughest round of golf of your life. This course is pretty dang hard with no wind, but in March the wind comes up and it can blow 30-40mph and just make near impossible to play a decent round of golf there.

Alisal which is fairly close to La Purisima is nice, has two course. Both are nice.

Cypress Ridge, in Arroyo Grande is a Peter Jacobson design and is a great course. For me this is right up there with La Purisima

Avila Beach, much closer to SLO has a great back nine, but the front nine is quirky.

San Luis CC is private but if you know somebody it is a very nice golf course.

You can head up north to Paso Robles and play Hunters Ranch. This is very nice golf course.

[Golfingdad]

It depends how far you are willing to drive. And also your budget/expectations.

La Purisima is the best course in that area, but in March you had better be prepared for potentially the toughest round of golf of your life. This course is pretty dang hard with no wind, but in March the wind comes up and it can blow 30-40mph and just make near impossible to play a decent round of golf there.

Alisal which is fairly close to La Purisima is nice, has two course. Both are nice.

Cypress Ridge, in Arroyo Grande is a Peter Jacobson design and is a great course. For me this is right up there with La Purisima

Avila Beach, much closer to SLO has a great back nine, but the front nine is quirky.

San Luis CC is private but if you know somebody it is a very nice golf course.

You can head up north to Paso Robles and play Hunters Ranch. This is very nice golf course.

I've played the River course at Alisal and really enjoyed it.  It also got a bit windy (this was our anniversary, so would have been late October) but was quite empty and very enjoyable.

Another beautiful-looking, albeit pricey, course in the vicinity that I've always wanted to play is Sandpiper in Santa Barbara .  It looks like a poor man's (and I use that term loosely and relatively) Pebble Beach.  Not sure if you're gonna want to drive farther to pay more, but just throwing it out there.

[mchepp]

I've played the River course at Alisal and really enjoyed it.  It also got a bit windy (this was our anniversary, so would have been late October) but was quite empty and very enjoyable.

Another beautiful-looking, albeit pricey, course in the vicinity that I've always wanted to play is Sandpiper in Santa Barbara.  It looks like a poor man's (and I use that term loosely and relatively) Pebble Beach.  Not sure if you're gonna want to drive farther to pay more, but just throwing it out there.

Not to contradict my good man @Golfingdad staying far away from Sandpiper. A terrible bargain in my opinion. There are a few ocean holes but nothing like Pebble and it is overpriced.

I recommend Rancho San Marcos if you want to play towards Santa Barbara.

[Big C]

Rancho San Marcos is an awesome course with two big caveats

1. It's located on the San Marcos pass just NW of Santa Barbara, so if you are staying in San Luis Obispo, it's gonna take you about an hour and a half to get there. There is great golf much closer to SLO, so I can't recommend making the drive (this holds true for Sandpiper, and -  to an extent - La Purisima and Alisal).

2. The CA droughts have hit RSM extremely hard. They stopped watering the fairways about a year and a half ago due to lack of water and are only maintaining the greens. As a result 90% of the course is brown. I'm guessing it plays just fine, but from a visual standpoint, it's a little off putting.

Closer to where you are staying, Hunter Ranch is a great course in Paso Robles and I have heard good things (although never played) Monarch Dunes in Nipomo. Another course that was not mentioned but is very close is the Morro Bay course. It's a muni, so the conditions are not going to be resort quality, but for the price, it's a great deal. The greens are very tough and the back nine has a couple of holes that overlook the ocean, so you get some really nice views as long as it's not too foggy.

Maybe I caught it on a bad day, but I could never recommend Avila Beach. It was kind of a goofy course, with holes criss-crossing drainage channels, oddly placed OB stakes, holes that butt up against mountains awkwardly and huge doglegs which require circus shots to shape to the course contours.

[mchepp]

Rancho San Marcos is an awesome course with two big caveats

1. It's located on the San Marcos pass just NW of Santa Barbara, so if you are staying in San Luis Obispo, it's gonna take you about an hour and a half to get there. There is great golf much closer to SLO, so I can't recommend making the drive (this holds true for Sandpiper, and -  to an extent - La Purisima and Alisal).

2. The CA droughts have hit RSM extremely hard. They stopped watering the fairways about a year and a half ago due to lack of water and are only maintaining the greens. As a result 90% of the course is brown. I'm guessing it plays just fine, but from a visual standpoint, it's a little off putting.

Closer to where you are staying, Hunter Ranch is a great course in Paso Robles and I have heard good things (although never played) Monarch Dunes in Nipomo. Another course that was not mentioned but is very close is the Morro Bay course. It's a muni, so the conditions are not going to be resort quality, but for the price, it's a great deal. The greens are very tough and the back nine has a couple of holes that overlook the ocean, so you get some really nice views as long as it's not too foggy.

Maybe I caught it on a bad day, but I could never recommend Avila Beach. It was kind of a goofy course, with holes criss-crossing drainage channels, oddly placed OB stakes, holes that butt up against mountains awkwardly and huge doglegs which require circus shots to shape to the course contours.

I forgot about Monarch Dunes. But yes a good recommendation.

Avila definitely has some strange character. I don't like the front nine at all, but the back is nice. We used to ask the play the back nine twice.

[Golfingdad]

Not to contradict my good man @Golfingdad but I recommend staying far away from Sandpiper. A terrible bargain in my opinion. There are a few ocean holes but nothing like Pebble and it is overpriced.

Please, by all means ... CONTRADICT!  Like I said, I have never played there and I only know what I see in pictures.

I'm glad to know that it's not worth the price before I go waste my money there!

[Crim]

Thanks ya'll! I'll look into those courses.

It looks like the very first course I'll be playing is Seapines a par 9 executive, very cheap to play but looks pretty nice...especially for the price. And its close, it will be a nice warm-up.

[No Mulligans]

Thanks ya'll! I'll look into those courses.

It looks like the very first course I'll be playing is Seapines a par 9 executive, very cheap to play but looks pretty nice...especially for the price. And its close, it will be a nice warm-up.

I've played Sea Pines, twice.  A quick round, not crowded, good price, and beautiful scenery.  It can get windy by about 11 am and gets winder into the afternoon.    (BTW, I'm 5'11, my nephew, he's taller).

[No Mulligans]

And... I've heard Morro Bay is a great course to play and very popular amoung the folks that live in the area, so says my nephew.

My nephew is at school at Cal Poly which is also where I went. He's got some kind of golf managment major in the Agriculture school. He's a 5 hcp and works at San Luis Obispo CC.

[Crim]

Great pictures! Thanks for the info!!

[No Mulligans]

2. The CA droughts have hit RSM extremely hard. They stopped watering the fairways about a year and a half ago due to lack of water and are only maintaining the greens. As a result 90% of the course is brown. I'm guessing it plays just fine, but from a visual standpoint, it's a little off putting.

Those pictures above are Sea Pines in Sept. or Oct. of 2014 and we've gotten rain in Calif. since then.  But, I agree with your statement.  My nephew suggested playing courses near the ocean like Morro Bay or Sea Pines as the marine layer/fog keeps the ocean courses green.  Agreeing with you, he said the courses inland are brown.

[No Mulligans]

I traded texts with my nephew who plays several times a week in the San Luis Obispo area.  His favorite public course in the area is Dairy Creek he said right now the fairways are green (no more brown fairways like there was in the fall).

Also, you can experience a zero waste golf course.

[Crim]

I've heard good things about Dairy Creek! Will most likely put it on the list.

Well it looks like I'm spending the first two days in Los Angeles. Not sure if I'll check out any courses around L.A. but if any of you know of any solid ones...i'm all ears.

[Crim]

Dairy Creek was absolutely fantastic. I'm glad I rented a cart for all of the elevation changes. It's a difficult course that has a lot of character.

Here's a look at the view you get from the first hole tee box, and it just gets prettier and prettier as you make your way through the hills. You know the scenery is good when it looks decent on my crappy cell phone.

I was pretty psyched to par that first hole, and then I went on to shoot 102. Not my best effort, but it's always hard to get a good score on a difficult course when you don't know what's hiding around the corner.

Sea Pines was ok for a course where you'd want to have a few beers with a friend and just hack around. The scenery throughout the course was pretty mediocre aside from a couple pretty holes. The fairways at Sea Pines have probably seen better days, it looks like the drought hit them pretty hard. It's a very average 9 hole, but good for beginners.

Had a great time in Cali.