I grew up in northern England, and now live in Southern California. As you can imagine there are great golf courses in both these areas, both they are extremely different. In the UK I played links golf almost exclusively, I lived on the ocean and very near to Royal Lytham, St Annes - the British Open course. Amazing, tough, inspiring course that is a pleasure to play. Other than it being a links course the thing that separates it from the LA area courses is that i usually got a round in under 4 hours. There is though the big issue of weather. Very few places can match the year round climate of Southern CA, which is perfect for golf. There courses are really good and there is a huge selection. The biggest issue with playing here is the slowness. i have yet to play a round on the weekend here in under 5 hours, they are often over 6!