Ryan Ranch

About a year ago, they built a new course in Monterey called Ryan Ranch. They first put in 18 holes and then later added another 9 holes. Over the last year, the club has been steadily improving the course. They have added signs, altered holes, cleaned up brush, etc. I have heard random good comments about the course. Thus we were looking forward to playing this course.



I really liked this course. The first 18 holes were a good balance of interesting holes. By balance, I mean that the holes are a challenge for experienced golfers, but still fun for newer players. It really is a skill to design holes like this. Too often holes are easy and thus boring for experienced players or are a challenge and frustrating to newer players. Plus there were a number of scenic views.

I was not as thrilled about the last nine holes. They are all loooong open holes. I enjoy a few big holes interspersed in the course, but 9 in a row gets monotonous.



The course lies under the approach for the Monterey airport. This airport is not super busy, a plane would land about every 15 minutes. It was kind of strange to see a plane flying low overhead.

On the way back to Santa Cruz, we stopped at the Central Texan BBQ Restaurant in Castroville. This place has a very good reputation for BBQ. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed, it did not live up to my memories or its reputation. It was not bad, it was just not as good as I remembered.