CLAREMONT CC

The East Bay hills provide a dramatic amphitheater for this William Bell design that treats elevation changes as strategic theater rather than mere eye candy. Bell's routing sends you careening through eucalyptus groves and across ravines where precise iron play separates the confident from the foolhardy—especially on the downhill par-3 16th that plays two clubs less than the yardage suggests. This is public golf with private club bones, where shotmaking trumps raw distance and local knowledge pays dividends on every approach.