Note: This is a review from 2000 I found and updated for my former home course. Granite Bay is semi-private (play is open on Mondays).
With only two holes without a crink, angle or dogleg in them, designer Robert Trent Jones Jr. developed a tight, compact course with the land available to him. Numbers 1 & 9 straddle the same lake that tempts most golfers with the long shot with greater rewards and greater risks, but always gives the shorter, straighter shot its due in the next shot selection.
The holes following No. 1 seduce the first time golfer into thinking this is an easy course. The fairways are relatively open and approach shots fire into large greens. However, most greens on the course have tiers, slopes and wicked breaks on short putts and may make the errant golfer want to toss their clubs into the nearest watering hole and crawl away.
The course opens up after No. 7, a short, downhill par three with a sumptuous green, but protected on three sides by sand. The tee box is elevated, usually translating to a one-club advantage and the wind in the Sierra Foothills also come into play, with a usual left to right wind that pushes the ball into the smallest bunker, where one’s head is about level with the green.
No. 8 is a “short” 440 yard par four, with space to draw, fade, or smash it down the middle. The approach shot is an easy five iron for most golfers onto a back to front sloping green. But the green is slightly off-set from the fairway, and players would be encouraged to aim to the left side to allow for an easier approach shot.
The back nine begins to reward those who either took a cart or had been in the Army in their youth. After driving to the largest oak in the middle of the dogleg right, par four, a small hike ensues, where one meets the meandering creek and takes an immediate turn for the uphill walk to the ball. The approach shot allows an easy iron into a large green with only a few ceremonial bunkers.
After playing the slightly double dog-legged par five No. 12, the dogleg effect comes drastically into play on number 13. It doglegs to the left with a downhill slope leading to a collection area. A 5-wood from the tee is the smart play, as it will leave you on the top of a shelf for the approach shot. A well stuck driver will leave you in one of two red-staked hazards.
Number 14 is Granite Bay’s signature hole, a 200 yard par three over a valley that requires at least an accurate 190 yard shot. OB lines the left of the hole, and a slope on the right precludes any recovery. After the hike back up to the green, golfers are rewarded with a green the size of Bill Gates’ mansion, where one wished to tee the ball up on the green to get it to the pin.
After a short par 5 with a downhill drive, Nos. 16, 17 and 18 will come into play. For the tired and weary golfers, these are not the friendliest holes on the course and whomever has a two-hole lead could press their bet to double down the wager. No. 16 is a 400 yard par four with a slope that begins around the 160 mark, funneling balls to the right for most drivers. A beetle preservation area will punish any fades from the tee and the woods to the left will only reward players who were able to find the 15th fairway with a blind shot, as opposed to a punch-out situation. The green slopes back to front and the player should fire their shot short of the flag placement to ensure an uphill putt. Any side-hill putts may trickle down to the bottom of the green.
No. 17 is an uphill dogleg right with a bowl shaped green and a few tactically placed trees to discourage the normal shortcuts golfers might want to attempt. An uphill slope protects the right side of the green, and any shots hit to that area will bounce back down to the putting surface, though the up-hill shot will add at least a club to the distance.
The last hole at Granite Bay is a 440 yard, downhill, dogleg left par four with OB to the left and granite boulders on the right. It is for the straight hitters advantage, as the elevated tee box will carry the distance for the approach shot into a kidney shaped green and deep bunkers.
The greens at Granite Bay are usually very large, approximately 40×30 yards, where the golfer must take heed of the color of the flag in making their shot selection. Also, there is only one flat green, the rest are either bi-level, have a back to front slope, a few undulations, or any combination of the three.
The greens are also slick and the ball has a tendency to break in the last six feet of the putt, so accuracy is much more important than distance in these greens. Also, the sand bunkers that guard the greens are usually very deep and immense, where it is not impossible to hit the ball into the same bunker you are in.
Lastly, the fairways at Granite Bay are not very generous. With such a compact course, Granite Bay could not afford to give the golfer a wide sweeping fairway, but rather ones where the next shot is usually one into the green, whereas the golfer that finds the rough wishes that he or she had brought their chain saw instead of their sand wedge.
This is a course that a good golfer having a good day will want to come back and beat his old score, but a golfer having a bad day will want to come back only to beat the golf course in his or her next round.