Singing Hills Golf Resort (Oak Glen course)

Singing Hills Golf Resort (Oak Glen course): Formerly called Sycuan Resort and before that Singing Hills Country Club, the extensive facilities at Singing Hills include the enjoyable Oak Glen and Willow Glen championship golf courses, and the also 18-hole Pine Glen par-3 course. These popular and well-maintained layouts may not be San Diego's longest or most demanding, but they offer relatively easy-going, easy-walking outings in a pleasantly natural parkland setting.

The Oak Glen course is laid out in two nine-hole loops. Boulder clad hills, home to a smattering of unobtrusive real estate, rise up on either side of the glen (Scottish for narrow valley), which is in fact the start of the Dehesa Valley. This relatively flat course occupies the valley floor, with the Sweetwater River and four small ponds ensuring the presence of water hazards on several occasions.

Only at the tee-boxes of the par-3 6th and par-5 7th will you have any sense of elevation change; the par-5 7th also being one of the tightest holes, skirting alongside a nicely wooded hillside. Feeling a little more compact than its companion, although with generally more room for your tee-shots, the fairways here are lightly tree-lined with oaks, pine and tall eucalyptus trees all in evidence. Most of the bunkering is found around the not overly elevated greens, which provide plenty of chip & run possibilities when approach shots land either short or wide.

The toughest hole is the par-4 5th, requiring a carry over the river then a long approach into a tight, partly tree-encircled green. The well bunkered and slightly downhill par-3 15th is our pick of the short holes.

Stay&Play at Singing Hills: onsite accommodation available, see Where2Stay section below.