Pelican Hill Golf Club (North course)

Pelican Hill Golf Club (North course): Although Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines may regularly scoop top honours as the best of California's publicly accessible world-class coastal golf courses, Pelican Hill is right up there with them. Recently upgraded by original designer Tom Fazio, both the Ocean North and Ocean South courses provide a fabulously scenic and challenging golf experience.

Unlike the South, the North course (at one time called the Links course) doesn't quite get down to the sea shore, but makes up for that with a truly superb layout, and many spectacular sea views along the way. The coastal bushland terrain, riven with deep canyons and chasms, creates the undulating topography onto which Fazio has sculpted (and recently "re-perfected") a masterpiece. The constant elevation changes create a succession of testing and stylish holes, with the rugged natural bushland threatening anything too wayward. Plenty of impressive bunkering adds to the challenges.

This is a course that will appeal to big-hitters and technicians alike. Fazio gives you sufficient space for your tee-shots, but increases the demands for accuracy as you approach the large and undulating greens. Many holes and several tee-boxes give you an "on top of the world" feeling, with panoramic views down to the ocean, along the Newport coastline and occasionally, as at the par-5 8th, into picturesque valleys. This is a fabulous course, as scenic, demanding and natural as they come.

Stay & Play at Pelican Hill: luxury onsite accommodation available, see Where2Stay section below.