Hey everyone,
I'll be visiting Livermore CA for a week during xmas, looking for golf recs. Are courses open year round up that way? I'm coming from the southwest where golf is available year round.

Thanks in advance for recs/suggestions...

I live in Vancouver B.C. but our Head office is in CA. I've played Wente Vineyards a few times. It's a great track by Greg Norman that hosts a Nationwide event every year. Check out their website.

tons of great courses and the weather will be nice

hit up Wente, Poppy Ridge for higher end golf

Wente hands down over Poppy Ridge. Callipee is about 20 minutes away. It is a great track and less expensive than Wente.

Poppy Ridge... good track, in alright conidtion right now. Greens good.. I hate the bunkers because they are inconsistent.

Wente.. nice to look at, but very gimmicky to me from the back tees. Nationwide is not going there next year anymore.

Callippe. (pleasanton) has some gimmicky holes as well. Course gets pretty busy and I rarely get a fast round in there.

Los Positas. livermore public course.. tends to be on the wet side during the winter.ok at best

Dublin Ranch..(dublin) short course par 62 or something like that. greens are nice usually

Go into San Ramon (20 minutes?) and play The Bridges. You can cuss Johnny Miller like the rest of us have.

Or, go ~30 minutes up into Brentwood and play Roddy Ranch. I thought that was one of the best courses in the area.

Woo

Depends on your budget (the prices I quote come from the NCGA Bluebook and are green fees only). At the less expensive end of the spectrum is Tilden Park ($16-$55) in Berkeley. (There are also some nine hole courses close by Livermore).

Las Positas ($31-$42) in Livermore borders the freeway but is also not bad. Also in Livermore is Poppy Ridge. It's a NCGA members' course, so if you're not a member, it's a bit pricey (pushing $100 for non-NCGA members).

Callippe Preserve ($36-$62) is in Pleasanton (near Livermore). It's not as pricey as Wente and is nice.

San Ramon ($11-$46) is near Livermore.

On the pricier side ($100 or more) is Wente (in Livermore).

Of course if you want to drive a bit and play nicer courses there is Coyote Creek (one of the two courses is a Nicklaus design) ($34-$102) in South San Jose along with Cinnabar Hills ($42-$105).

In San Francisco is Harding Park ($30-$155) where the President's Cup will be played in 2009. North of that is Stone Tree ($120)

At the other extreme are Half Moon Bay, Pasatiempo, Spyglass Hill, and Pebble Beach.

Tell me how much you want to spend and how far you are willing to travel and I can be more specific, if you'd like.

Dan

Skip Las Positas. This is a muni that is always in so-so shape. It is slow, and guy are in jean shorts and shirts with the sleeves cut off. Play Callippe, it is a pretty course.

Otherwise use this to find a course that you think you will enjoy:
http://www.hookedongolf.com/courses/northe...rnia/index.html

Stay classy Las Positas

I'd second the comments on las positas, I used to play there a bit and after a couple years away I went back and really realized just how mediocre that place is, and the freeway is quite distracting. The layout is nice IMO, conditions are so/so, price is great, and it's usually not to busy. If you're traveling las positas is not the place to aim for, but for a local it's OK.

Wente is the best course mentioned so far, If you get a chance to play some other tracks in the area, I'd recommend hiddenbrooke, eagle vines, callippe and poppy ridge. Then go to cattlemans and try to eat your weight in steak.

Thanks to all for the quick replies. I appreciate all your help.

I'll bookmark this and hit it back up in a months time!

Happy holidays.

Here's a good resource for golf courses in the area. Greenskeeper.org