Once you’re at the tee on the Ocean Course at Pelican Hill Golf Club, you’ll easily see why this seaside golfing paradise was named The Best New Resort Course by Golf Digest in January, 1993.

Carved into the canyons and bluffs north of Crystal Cove in Newport Coast, California, this Tom Fazio designed course features the Pacific as a backdrop on every hole.

Although its $175 green fees would discourage many, Pelican Hill has played close to capacity since the first day it opened on November 16, 1991. From Bermuda fairways lined by eucalyptus and pine trees, to dramatic canyon-crossing tee shots, The Ocean Course at Pelican Hill is 6,634 yards of golfing splendor.

Signature Hole Comments: Two of Pelican Hill’s more memorable holes are the 16th and 18th, the latter being a quintessential finishing hole with the tee box chiseled into the canyon wall. It requires a 175-yard first drive over a chasm to make the fairway and then the dogleg right forces golfers to hit back over the winding canyon again.

The 16th hole looks like the last golf hole on the edge of the earth across a canyon on the point of a knoll sits a lone Toyon tree with the flag silhouetted by the ocean. Play it once and its lonely beauty will be forever etched in your memory.