No Place Like Home

BED TIME: If you want to stroll to the first tee at Torrey Pines from your hotel, you have two options: the Craftsman-style Lodge at Torrey Pines (right; 858-453-4420, lodgetorreypines.com) and the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines (858-558-1500, www.lajollatorreypines.hilton.com).

The 170-room Lodge overlooks the 18th green of the South Course and is the pricier of the two. A stay-and-play package for two that includes two nights (the minimum) in a courtyard-facing room, one round of golf per person on either the South or North and daily breakfast costs $1,695; a room with a view of the course and, several fairways over, the ocean, is $2,150.

Down the 18th fairway, the Hilton has 394 rooms, all renovated last year, most with patios or balconies that face either the gardens or the course and the ocean in the distance. A room for two, golf on the South Course and breakfast starts at $799 per night; for the North Course, the price starts at $649 a night.

MY TOP RESORT COURSE
Barona Creek Golf Club ★★★★½, Lakeside, $120-$200, barona.com, 619-387-7018.
This course, host to last fall's Nationwide Tour Championship, thrills golfers with emerald fair-ways, 100-plus jagged-edged bunkers, wide swaths of native grass and harrying streams. The huge roller-coaster greens look like an earthquake designed them.

Barona's vast vistas make distances look longer and landing areas smaller, inviting you to overswing. Trust your yardage. Five sets of tees stretch the course from 5,296 to 7,393 yards, making this splendid layout a challenge for all. Sign up for free for the Club Barona card and save 20 percent off green fees.

Barona Creek features more than 100 bunkers and has greens that look like they were formed by earthquakes. Here, the 16th hole.

MY VALUE PICK
Coronado Golf Course ★★★★, Coronado, $25, golfcoronado.com, 619-435-3121.
This palm-studded track on a peninsula across the bay from San Diego is one of the great bargains in golf. The $25 green fee applies whether you hail from Coronado or Corpus Christi.

At 6,590 yards, this is stress-free golf, with wide, lush fairways and big, manicured greens. Coronado's fit, tanned and relaxed residents appear to be stepping out of a spa as they walk off the 18th.

Former First Golfer Bill Clinton claims to have broken 80 for the first time here in 1996, but he was known to grant errant shots presidential pardons. Undisputed is the feat of local golfer Ian Langdon, who took only four strokes to play the par-4 12th and par-5 13th on April 11, 2005. A marble plaque in the 13th rough marks the spot from where he buried the last shot of his eagle-albatross.

This is the toughest tee time in town. Reservations are awarded two days in advance, either by lottery at the course starting at 6 a.m., or by phone starting at 7 a.m. For an additional $38 per foursome, you can bypass the speed dialers and secure a time three to 14 days out. It's still a steal.

Like playing through botanical gardens: The 489-yard 10th hole at Four Seasons Resort Aviara.

MY SPLURGE
Four Seasons Resort Aviara Golf Club ★★★★½, Carlsbad, $215-$235, fourseasons.com/aviara, 760-603-6800.
If you feel like a sucker playing this spendy course, the marshal passes out Tootsie Roll Pops on the front nine. It's one of the little luxuries lavished on you at this Arnold Palmer layout 30 miles north of downtown San Diego. The attentive staff sends you out with coffee and apples and welcomes you back with hot towels and cookies.

In between, carts with the latest GPS system carry you to 18 of the prettiest holes around. It's like playing golf through botanical gardens, each hole framed by exotic flowers that present a ceaseless riot of color. Towering eucalyptus trees lining the fairways add to the serenity and seclusion. Aviara's middle tees are only 6,054 yards but have a Slope Rating of 133. Elevation changes mean few flat lies, and the water hazards are big enough to sail on. Finding the massive greens is easy; sticking approaches within two-putt range is the trick.