Golf in Santa Rosa

Dave Johnson has been coaching golfers for over 20 years and through more than 40,000 lessons. His style is intuitive and all about connecting with the students. Enjoy the benefit of his deft professionalism during your two-hour golf lesson. Three different clinics are available for all skill levels, from high-level hobbyists to recent mini-golf graduates, and classes are capped at eight students to ensure personalized attention. Pick up multiple Groupons to attend multiple clinics.

Carefully crafted by renowned course architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr., The Links at Bodega Harbor’s 6,290-yard course brings the coastal majesty of Scotland’s famous links to the seaside hills of Northern California. Stunning elevation changes test golfers’ ability to adjust their yardages for up- and down-hill targets, while hillcrests offer picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean and dolphins using echolocation to chip in golf balls from tough lies in the ocean. Knee-high native grasses and cavernous pot bunkers threaten to ensnare errant shots, and fast, multi-tiered, bent-grass greens make golfers earn every two-putt. The 461-yard par-four 18th is rated the second-hardest hole on the course, ending the round with a dramatic flourish as golfers must launch their approach shot over a brambly ravine to reach a heavily-bunkered green stationed just steps from the sandy beachfront.

Those looking to enjoy bayside views without having to keep track of autonomous golf balls can retreat to The Bluewater Bistro & Bar. Glasses of Sonoma County wine let guests toast to the career of a sandwedge that decided to retire in the ocean as they lounge on couches next to a stone fireplace. The elegant diner serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus anchored by fresh fish and locally-sourced ingredients.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

• Length of 6,290 yards from the farthest tees

• Course rating of 71.5 from the farthest tees

• Slope rating of 129 from the farthest tees

• Four tee options

• Scorecard

Dan Sacks and his team of veteran instructors at Bay Area Custom Golf boost swing skills and course confidence with custom club-fitting services and personalized instruction in a state-of-the-art 1,100-square-foot facility. During private 45-minute lessons, instructors use video analysis to help identify any quirks that may affect swing. Once grip, alignment, posture, and proper plaid pairings have been tweaked, students can send dimpled spheres soaring into a practice net. The facility also offers services for custom club fitting, pairing players with clubs by boiling down elements of a golfer's stroke and current club dynamics.

Led by Golf Range’s Top 50 Golf Instructor Ralph Landrum, World of Golf’s staff of game-improvement gurus help players lower their golf scores with an array of golf-related activities. Private lessons conducted inside a climate-controlled swing room allow students to launch golf balls out onto the range while four cameras capture bad habits such as flat takeaways or saying “um” too much during their follow-through. Afterward, players can use their instructor’s pointers to build muscle memory on the rest of the complex’s practice facilities, which include an outdoor range with 24 mat tees and two sets of grass tees, indoor hitting nets with eight stalls, and an indoor putting and chipping green.

As soon as golfers feel they’ve practiced enough, they put their newfound knowledge to the test on the executive 18-hole golf course, with 14 par 3s and four par 4s, or the miniature golf course. When weather renders either course unplayable, thwackers move indoors to the golf simulator, which recreates the look and feel of more than 50 courses or a hodgepodge of 18 famous holes but without the extremely long between-hole travel times. World of Golf keeps a busy schedule of lessons, classes, and leagues, all of which can be found on the calendar.

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.

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.