With the absolutely stunning weather in good ole NorCal this past week, a buddy and I headed up to the foothills to play some golf. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Dark Horse, it opened to rave reviews in 2002 and was ranked on Golf Digest's Best New Affordable Courses list. The Keith Foster designed course takes advantage of the rolling and sometimes severe topography of the area. The course starts slow, but it's the variety of the holes that makes it special.
Believe me when I say, the course was in average condition. However, they had quite a bit of rain, and several of the bunkers were still washed out. The fairways and roughs were spotty, but the greens were rolling very well. Keith Foster did an absolutely outstanding job on the green surrounds and the putting surfaces. Their is substanial movement on a number of holes on and around the greens. This made for some very interesting shot making options.
I would certainly recommend this course if your in the area, let's say within an hour. The course is fairly reasonable, as fees run under $70. The more I think about the green surrounds and routing of the course, the more I like it.
The website does utilize one of the best Virtual Tours I have seen. However, don't expect the course to look like that if you play it. Housing around the course is progressing and it appears many trees have been removed, and that's not a good thing because its for benefit of the homeowners. I guess they want to see the golf course.
Here are some pictures from the day.
18th Green. A short Par 5 playing downhill. The creek runs down the left side of the fairway and then cuts in front of the green.
16th. A short par 3. Utilize the hill on the left to kick ball onto, or across the green.
Very tough uphill dogleg right Par 4 14th. Its a 285 yd carry to clear the bunker on the right.
Green of the driveable Par 4 14th. Only 306 yds. from the tips.
Severly downhill Par 3 13th. An extremely difficult hole to judge the distance, especially in the wind.
Downhill Par 4 10th. Great Bunkering. Cartpaths
Very tough green on the Par 5 7th.
One of the best green settings. The 170 yd. par 3 6th.
Opening Teeshot on this downhill par 4. The greenside bunker is visible in the middle right handside of the picture.