Rams Hill Golf Club

Ready to roll

9/29/2020

Critically acclaimed Rams Hill
Golf Club reopens for play this month

The critically acclaimed Rams Hill Golf Club in Borrego Springs may be located in the middle of proverbial nowhere, but it truly is a hidden gem that matches the hype.

Golfers will have the chance to play the top-ranked Tom Fazio-designed track again soon, too, as the course re-opens the weekend of October 23-25 with a grand-opening celebration after taking its customary summer break, when temperatures consistently top triple digits. The weekend will feature golf, food, games, prizes, and a commemorative poster for those teeing it up.

Situated in a stunning setting with the majestic Santa Rose Mountains as a backdrop, Rams Hill is, literally, an oasis in the desert because of its location on a remote mountain hillside overlooking the desert floor in the center of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the country’s second-largest state reserve.

Located about 85 miles northeast of San Diego and 90 miles south of Palm Springs, Rams Hill has received many accolades, including in 2017 when Golfweek ranked it No. 32 on its list of Best Resort Courses in the U.S., placing it third in California behind Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. (That means it was also the No. 1 Resort Course in Southern California.)

Offering five sets of tees ranging from 4,979 yards to 7,232 yards, Rams Hill features generously wide and lush green fairways; elaborate and well-groomed bunkering; streams, lakes and waterfalls that come into play on eight holes; spectacular elevation changes; and bentgrass greens that are immaculate, as smooth as at any private club in the Coachella Valley.

The course is aesthetically striking, with native grasses and shrubs, cacti, lantana and rock outcroppings framing the greenery, offering photo op after photo op with the 6,000-foot peaks of the Santa Rosa mountain range in the distance.

There are a number of holes that are worthy of signature status, like on many Fazio gems: No. 5, a 206-yard par-3 guarded by water on the left, No. 8, a 498-yard par-4 that deserves its rating as the course’s most difficult; No. 10, a 213-yard par-3 with more water features; No. 11, a 556-yard par-5 that can be reached in two when it plays downhill and downwind; No. 17, a tempting drivable par-4 when played from the white (270 yards) or blue tees (280); and No. 18, a 577-yard par-5 that features a downhill tee shot to a wide fairway that slopes toward a large lake on the right and plays uphill to a green guarded by bunkers and a picturesque waterfall.

Another highlight of Rams Hill is its location in Borrego Springs (population 3,500), a small tourist town better known for its winter/spring wildflowers and its year-round astronomy activities. (It was California’s first “International Dark Sky Community,” which explains the absence of stoplights in town and its minimal night-time lighting in business areas so as to enhance the bright star-lit skies.)

Getting there from most parts of Southern California requires an eye-opening, steering wheel-clutching drive, mostly along two-lane country roads, past Native American casinos and countless farms, orchards, vineyards and equestrian properties. And if renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan were still around, he would have noted passing “billions and billions” of boulders on the way to Borrego Springs – especially the last few miles during the serpentine descent on Montezuma Valley Road, on the way to the floor of the Borrego Valley.

CLICK HERE for more information on the opening weekend at Rams Hill or to book tee times. For accommodations, guests can rent homes on the course, stay at the upscale La Casa Del Zorro Hotel and Spa a half-mile away or at the nearby Borrego Springs Resort, which has a beautiful 18-hole course of its own.

Watch it now!

Watch the story of how Rams Hill Golf Club bounced back after the 2008 financial crisis that eventually forced it to shut down until it re-opened in 2014.