MACKENZIE
The pink moment on the Topatopa bluffs

California 100 · a trip

Ojai, the A++ weekend

two Gil Hanse courses at muni prices and a George Thomas original

2 nights · fly BUR · 1h to the first tee · 6h 00m from SF by car · green fees $289–336 a head · 2 of 3 played

The pink moment on the Topatopa bluffs · Forrest Cameranesi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
directions ↗

The two cheapest great courses in California are forty minutes apart, and both are Gil Hanse. Rustic Canyon is the one the architecture people make pilgrimages to: a 2002 minimalist course laid into a Moorpark canyon with huge greens, no water, no houses and a green fee under a hundred dollars — the record already holds it six times, and it is the course on this list to show a friend what golf can be. Soule Park is the county muni in Ojai that Hanse and Jim Wagner rebuilt in 2005 for almost nothing, and it is wide, fast, strategic and absurd value at $44 on a weekday. Ojai Valley Inn is the dessert: George Thomas, the man who built Riviera, in the orange groves under the Topatopas, cart included and the spa next door. Ojai itself does the rest — one street, a Sunday farmers' market, the outdoor bookstore, and the bluffs going rose at dusk.

BUR#7#25#43
BUR ✈ then #7 → #25 → #43 · the dashed line is the order, not the roadmap National Geographic, Esri, Garmin, HERE, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA

the courses

  1. #7Rustic CanyonMoorpark · $65–90 · A++ value · 5h 50m from SF · 30 mi from BURplayed 6×
  2. #25Soule ParkOjai · $44–56 · A++ value · 6h 00m from SF · 22 mi from #7to play
  3. #43Ojai Valley InnOjai · $180–190 · A- value · 6h 00m from SF · 2 mi from #25played 2×
Happy Camp Canyon, the Moorpark canyon Rustic Canyon is laid into — the park, not the course
Happy Camp Canyon, the Moorpark canyon Rustic Canyon is laid into — the park, not the courseNoahfgodard · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

#7 Rustic Canyon

Soule Park from above · Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics

#25 Soule Park

The Ojai Valley course in 1950
The Ojai Valley course in 1950unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

#43 Ojai Valley Inn

the rest of the weekend

Ventura Pier at sunset
Ventura Pier at sunsetBusition · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

the logistics

airport
BUR Burbank, 1h — to Ojai; Santa Barbara (SBA) is 45 minutes and prettier. From SF it is 5h 50m down 101, which is a fine Friday
sleep
Ojai Valley Inn if the trip is a treat, a rental in the Ojai valley if it is not — both put you ten minutes from Soule Park
when
October to May; Ojai is an oven in August. Rustic Canyon's fee jumps if you book more than two weeks out, so hold your nerve and book inside fourteen days.
  1. Fri · drive down 101 or land at Burbank, Rustic Canyon in the afternoon on the way in, dinner in downtown Ojai
  2. Sat · Soule Park in the morning for forty-four dollars, the pink moment on the Topatopa bluffs at sunset, Bart's Books before it closes
  3. Sun · Ojai Valley Inn, the 1923 George Thomas course, then fish tacos at Ventura Harbor and the drive home