Half Moon Bay Golf Links: Ocean

Located on the dramatic windswept cliffs of Northern California, just under an hour from San Francisco, is the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. The resort is home to 260 luxury rooms and suites, three top-rated dining options that source local ingredients for contemporary dishes and a state-of-the-art spa focused on holistic and locally based remedies. The Ritz-Carlton is partnered with Half Moon Bay Golf Links, allowing guests access to the Ocean and Old courses. In 1973, Arnold Palmer and Francis Duane designed the parkland-style Old Course, considered the easier of the two, the course’s fairways that snake through cliffside bluffs offering an occasional view down to the Pacific. The Old Course has the most scenic and perhaps challenging hole on the property at the finishing par 4 with the Pacific Ocean on the right, forcing golfers to carry a hazard into the fairway, and then an approach uphill and often back into a strong wind. Almost 25 years later, Arthur Hills was commissioned to design the links-style Ocean Course, characterized by open driving areas covering steep elevation changes and playing to heavily sloped and windswept greens. The highlight here is the stunning three-hole closing stretch played alongside the Pacific ocean starting with the par-4 16th, dramatic par-3 17th styled after the seventh at Pebble Beach, and finishing at the intimidating risk-reward par-5 18th, snaking around the Pacific and finishing at the base of the resort.