Woodland Hills a
 terrific find

Woodland Hills certainly doesn’t need our accolades. It’s earned an ocean’s worth of awards
despite its location far away from any beach, the latest being a five-star rating from Golf Digest earlier this year.

I’m in no position to say this is one of the best in the nation, but Woodland Hills subtly combines many of the facets golfers love, including one that is fairly surprising.

Mature trees line narrow fairways, which wander in and out providing great risk-reward scenarios. You can lose yourself – and your ball – on many of the holes with the tall, lanky trees.

But here’s what separates Woodland Hills from some other top-quality courses in the area– my group of three played 18 holes on a Thursday morning for under $50 and in 3.5 hours (and we were held up by a slower group the first four holes.)

That alone makes up for any drive you might make. Then throw in the quality of the course and the challenging holes, and you can’t say it isn’t a great a course.

Before you get philosophical about this place being for great golfers, it is and it isn’t. It plays 6,592 yards (a demanding 6,600 yards through) from the back tees, and one tee up drops you to around 6,200 yards.

Now that you’ve seen the yardages, you can guess this is a shot-maker’s course. Like any course, it can be broken down into simple steps. Almost anytime you put a ball in the trees, you are costing yourself a stroke.

You’ll wonder what state you are in when you tee off No. 9 and see the large clubhouse back-dropping the last hole before the turn.

Meanwhile, it’s a whole lot of fun to have a course consistently challenge your game.

A closer look
The fun-slash-challenge really begins at the par 5, No. 2. From the tee box, you can see the trees that make this course a beauty. The approach shot is perhaps the toughest as the fairway narrows and the bunkers await. They say No. 3 is an easy-looking, hard-playing par 4. The fairway and surrounding rough are probably the most open areas on the course, but the tiered green puts an emphasis on the second shot.

Some of the tougher courses tend to separate themselves from the others because of their lengthy par 3s. Players find themselves in between clubs, or even worse, without that type of shot all together.

At Woodland Hills’ No. 4, you need to run a straight fairway wood or hammer a long iron to reach the green, which is listed as 217 yards from the back tee.

The next par three, No. 6, is better yet. Water surrounds the green on three sides, and out of bounds gobbles up any shots too long.

My favorite hole is No. 7. The green is tucked away on an upward slope in the trees, and off the tee, you are forced to navigate around an overhanging tree to set up a clear approach shot.

No. 9 is fun because the green is reachable, or at least irresistible. The five bunkers surrounding the green play a big-brother role, making the tee shot a big risk-reward challenge.

The back nine starts with an easier tenth hole followed by another narrow fairway at eleven. No. 12 is a shorter par 3, but water still lurks nearby and deep mounds add a few degrees of difficulty to short chip shots.

No. 13 I like for this reason: you have to think yourself through the hole. Simple math should and a steady ego should allow you to reach this tough par 4 in two. But the hazard is troublesome to many. The key is to take a bit of yardage off your drive, then aim for the right half of the green on your second shot.

The scenic bridge signifies you’ve reached hole No. 14. You must hit a drive over water and short of the trees backing the landing area off the tee. There isn’t a whole lot of breathing room behind the green.

Back-to-back par fives await at 15 and 16. No. 15 is long and straight, and 16 is actually longer and straighter.

No. 17 is a lot of fun when the pin placement is behind the bunker guarding the front of this par 3, and while the finishing hole lacks the trees that spruce up Woodland Hills, the fairway ascends to a sloping green that is guarded by a large bunker on the right, making the final approach another tricky one.