Las Positas Golf Course- Livermore

First thing I gotta warn you about Las Positas is this: It’s windy. Don’t be fooled by the relative calm around the first tee and the practice green. It’s calm in the eye of a tornado, too.

Once you get away from the big trees that shield the area around the clubhouse, you will be making drastic club and alignment changes to account for the wind.

Now, if you’re all right with that, you’ll like this course.

Las Positas is a nice little track for the money. It’s not too long and not too short. Not too flat and not too hilly. There are some killer holes that border on unfair, but there are also plenty of straightforward ones.

It’s usually in good condition, although it doesn’t drain well after wet weather. And it’s not tough to get a tee time.

Now that they have added a map with yardages to help you navigate the tricky first hole, which requires a layup between two ponds, you will probably be happily clipping along in your round until you get to No. 5. At that point you be thinking it sure did get a lot more windy in the last couple minutes.

You’ll also notice that that pleasant wind that kept your ball out of the water on No. 4 is now threatening to dunk it right in there. You’ll swallow hard as you look at this sharp dogleg right. Your mind will tell you that all you have to do is hit a little 5-iron about 175 yards, then you’ll have a little 9-iron into the green. Piece of cake. The problem of course, is all that wind blowing toward the water on the right. You know that the more you aim left, the more likely you are to slice it right into the drink. Well, I’ve come up with a new strategy for this hole. Drop in the fairway and hit your third shot. It’ll save you a ball.

The next memorable hole is No. 9, which I believe is the toughest hole I’ve played in the Bay Area. It’s a par 4 that measures 427 from the blues and 418 from the whites. The hole turns to the left just about halfway between the tee and the green. That means you essentially need to hit two shots of about 210 yards. Ugh. And if you leave your tee shot to the right, you might still be in the fairway, but you’ll have 220 or 225 to the green. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the water in front of the green. Or the bunkers. Or the trees that hang over the left side of the green. Let’s just say when I walk off this hole with a 5, I feel pretty good about myself.

On the back you get some mild elevation changes to make things interesting, but the holes are generally straightforward. You don’t need quite as much finesse and course strategy as on the front.

I like this course because you can usually get on as a single, and even if you can’t there is a very nice little executive course there. It’s a par 31 that is really a small golf course, not a pitch-and-putt. There is water, sand, everything. You’ll use every club in your bag at least once in a round there. And if you can’t get on to the executive, you can practice. They have a grass driving range and a chipping green with a bunker, in addition to the regular putting green.

And I’ve got to throw out this plug: this is the course where I had my lessons. Mark Lafferty is the genius who converted me from hacker to respectable golfer. The world would be a better place if we all had golf lessons.

By Jeff Fletcher
Editor, sfbaygolf.com

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