Golf in Folsom

Staffed by experienced professionals and computers who’ve sworn allegiance to the Three Laws of Golfing Robotics, GolfTec’s syndicate of golf training centers grooms games with a five-pronged approach enhanced by technological refinements. Score-shaving wisdom resonates within the walls of the indoor facilities, where certified personal coaches point out flaws and strengths while providing golfers with tips to permanently improve their game from tee to green. By utilizing video swing analysis and motion-measurement software, instructors can assess pupils’ abilities with objective data and a fact-based tact superior to traditional hearsay-oriented coaching strategies. To further enhance performance, GolfTec offers club-fitting services to match each swing profile with its ideal set of sticks.

Copses of serene pines, oaks, and redwoods cluster along no fewer than 36 rye-grass fairways at Lincoln Hills Golf Club. Even after creating its first 18-hole Hills course, designed by professional golfer Billy Casper and famed course architect Greg Nash, the club decided it wanted another. Its ambition created a second par 72 layout—the Orchard course—giving golfers a choice between two courses where large greens nestle amid rolling hills and naturally occurring wetlands.

The older Hills course unfurls over 6,876 yards. Its second hole demands a tee shot over a lake and onto a tight fairway before players even begin to aim at a green guarded by a bunker on the left. The newer Orchard course also makes golfers sweat at the second fairway, its hardest, which earns a par 5 by coming in at 598 yards and offering a plethora of sand bunkers as well as a 75-foot slope from the tee box to the green.

Instead of smashing cell phones to make rudimentary compasses, golfers navigate the course in GPS-equipped golf carts. The club also entices players with an 8-acre driving range, a practice area for putting and chipping, and individual or group lessons with professionals Steven Treadway and Patty Snyder—a former LPGA Tour player.

Mare Island Golf Club, whose 1892 founding makes it one of the oldest courses in the country, attracts golfers with breathtaking island scenery. Built near old Marine barracks, the course—which wasn't expanded into an 18-hole layout until 2000—originally sported sand greens, dry fairways, and a cast of unusual inhabitants including a Marine lieutenant's horse, who was drawn to the grounds by career aspirations of becoming a golf cart.

Today, the par-70 course begins with nine traditional, tree-lined holes before opening up on the back nine with a links-style layout designed by renowned Pacific Rim architect Robin Nelson. As golfers swing toward distant greens, views of San Pablo Bay and—on a clear day—the Golden Gate Bridge appear from certain vantages and sand-trap oases.

To perfect a backswing or spell out a marriage proposal with golf balls, players head to the 225-yard driving range with a bucket of balls. Patrons should arrive at least 20 minutes before tee times and can grab a bite in the restaurant or look for one of the 10 ammunition bunkers scattered throughout the course, which serve as a reminder of its connection to the military during World War I and II.

Designed to incorporate sparsely populated groves of trees, Foothill Golf Course’s nine-hole, par-3 layout tests golfers' short to mid iron skills across 1,096 yards of holes that range from 100 to 155 yards. On certain nights, the course invites guests to tee up phosphorescent golf balls and pummel them into the darkness during rounds of glow golf. An indoor sitting room and an outdoor area lined with picnic tables await golfers after rounds, where they can enjoy beverages from the pro shop and speculate about which water hazard has eaten the most golf balls.

Course at a Glance:

• 9-hole, par-27 course

• Length of 1,096 yards

• Course rating of 27.0

• Slope rating of 90

• Scorecard

Ken Sawitzky’s lifelong devotion to golf began in 1958, when he studied under the tutelage of Johnny Goodman, the last amateur to win the U.S. Open. Since then, his golf career has blossomed like a greenside bougainvillea, encompassing 15 years of experience correcting swings, smoothing out putts, and framing interestingly shaped divots. Ken now splits his time conducting golf classes for the Davis Parks and Recreation Department and roaming the verdant hillsides of Wildhorse Golf Course, tirelessly searching for new score-shaving methods to sprinkle upon the unsown swings of his pupils.

For almost a century, Haggin Oaks Golf Complex has been racking up awards as a premier golfing destination for skills development, the latest in golf gear, and on-course play. Visitors walk in the footsteps of some of the game's greatest players, including Sam Snead, Walter Hagen, and the legendary Ben Hogan, who won his first professional paycheck here in 1938, when paychecks were still oversized and had to travel by mule. The complex's array of amenities lives up to it historical pedigree, helping players develop through lessons with nationally recognized pros, encouraging them to practice their swing on the 100-stall lighted driving range, and setting them loose on one of two 18-hole courses. Beginners can ease into the game at the developmental Arcade Creek course, and those looking for a more traditional and difficult layout can try their hand at the Alister MacKenzie Golf Course.

Designed by the great architect Alister MacKenzie, whose projects include some of the most storied courses in the history of the game, such as Augusta National, Cypress Point, and Royal Melbourne, MacKenzie Golf Course envelops players in a pristine, 350-acre alleyway that offers almost no distractions from the outside world or to-do lists written in sand traps. After looping either course, players can stop in at MacKenzie's Sports Bar and Grille to replenish calories burnt on the links through traditional pub fare and 15 beers on tap while they watch sports on 10 flat-screen televisions.

Winner of Golf World's Top Public Golf Shop award, the Golf Super Shop showcases an inventory of gear from hundreds of top brands across 15,000 square feet of retail space. A 1929 Ford Model T truck hoists hundreds of Callaway golf balls, a 1,000-square-foot indoor putting green invites players to test out putters, and large spaces dedicated to Nike and Adidas apparel offer plenty of clothing options for your next outing. Additionally, the shop's club fitters use a variety of club-fitting technologies to ensure a set of irons doesn't end up colluding against its new owner.