Dark Horse GC - Auburn, CA (Pics)

[Jonathan McCord]

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.

 

[Ramon Ware]

This is easily one of my favorite golf courses in the area!

Great pics.  A very challenging course with quite a few different sets of tees.

The 1st hole is a great starting hole, that's pretty forgiving.

For me, the hardest hole on the course is the par 5 that is a double dogleg...  I believe it's #11.  Very difficult hole that requires quite a bit of shotmaking.

I've always enjoyed #5, which is a par 4 that has a HUGE fairway, and pretty much and grip it and rip it.

I love Darkhorse because you can literally hit driver on every par 4 and par 5, unlike Whitney Oaks Golf Club in Rocklin, CA.

Another incredible course in the area (haven't played it yet, but hear rave reviews) is Winchester CC.

Thanks for the awesome pics!

[Jon Spaulding]

Thanks for the pics; I played there in October and forgot the camera. Overall, I liked the course; very tough and in a nice setting.....but not a classic. Conditioning was very weak (after a dry summer), and some of the holes were not of my personal taste (the par 5's). I'd echo Jonathan's sentiment on the housing.

[PThomas]

thanks Jonathan!  Foster does some good work

[Matt_Cohn]

Jonathan,

You mentioned the difference between the appearance of the course on the website, and the course as you found it. I realize it's a summer to winter comparison, and not completely fair. Dark Horse does have some great publicity photos.

Can anyone comment on the summer condition of the course? Does it live up to what's shown on the website?

[Lynn_Shackelford]

I have played it twice in the summer months and thought the conditioning was pretty good.  One of the best deals in Northern Cal for the price.

[Kyle Henderson]

On my first visit to the course (2003), the conditions were immaculate aside from the fact that the green complexes were still very new and rock hard (I had a ball bounce twice in the rough short and left of the 5th green... and then four more times in the rough into the marsh behind the green.)

In my other two visits (2005 and 2006), the conditions had deteriorated greatly, some examples of this being a host of unkempt bunkers, huge divots in the tee boxes and landing areas, weed invasion in the fairways, pock-marked greens, ect. There were even places where the turf was bulging upwards due to water pockets that were forming underneath (and it hadn't rained in a week). I'm not a stickler for conditioning, as long as a course is relatively playable, but I am genuinely worried that the course will fall to an unrecoverable level of disrepair.

It's certainly a fun design. I hope it gets the tender love and care it deserves.

[Jon Spaulding]

I was making a recommendation to my brother to play here, I had a look at the "new" website, which now contains perhaps the best "virtual" tour I've seen.

http://www.darkhorsegolf.com/golf/proto/darkhorsegolf/virtual_tour/index.html

[Kyle Henderson]

Played there yesterday. Greens were in very good condition aside from the occasional burn patch. The bunkers need new sand, but the new owners seem to have DarkHorse back on track. I'll post some photos if any of them turned out.

[Michael Dugger]

This course looks like a blast to play.......

Most visually appealing Keith Foster I've seen so far......

[Kyle Henderson]

A few photos I took on 5/25/2008. It was gloomy out, so I hastily boosted the color saturation (hence the ethereal look).

Enjoy.


2nd

4th

6th

13th

17th

[Les Cordes]

darkhorse apparently went bankrupt and was taken over by the banks mid-late 2007..i can find no updates on its financial status...but that certainly might explain course conditioning decline...and the relative sparcity of homes.....les