Rams Hill Golf Club Review

Texas Outside Rating: 9.5

Golf - Public Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Borrego Springs, CA
Website

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Rams Hill Golf Club Review

Review & Rating of Rams Hill Golf Club in Borrego Springs, California

Wow, Rams Hill Golf Club, formally Montesoro Golf Course, is one impressive track - scenic, challenging, fun, lots of variety, near-perfect conditions, and very memorable - one of the best layouts we have played.  Rams Hill Golf Club was redesigned by Tom Fazio and opened for play in 2007 and the following year it was ranked by Golf Digest as the "Best New Course" for 2008/2009.  Rams Hill was also rated in 2017 by Golf Week as the third best resort course in California, after Pebble Beach and Spyglass.

Fazio has created a desert masterpiece that is as visually stunning as it is fun and demanding to play.  Bring your camera - every hole has at least one Kodak moment and a potential poster for your wall.  And if you're not a golfer, it's worth renting a cart and just driving the course as it twists and turns up and down the desert. Fazio stated, "golf courses should reflect the natural beauty of their landscape and Rams Hill is one of the most amazing pieces of desert real estate that I have ever been able to design."  A true masterpiece!

The fairways roll through the desert like a green carpet with cacti, rock outcroppings, sparkling blue lakes, and desert fauna with a variety of colors.  The front nine plays through the Rams Hill Golf Club housing development and some nice homes sit well back off the fairway.  The back nine which from our perspective is even more spectacular as well as a little tougher heads out toward the desert and then back up to the clubhouse.  Both nines offer unparalleled vistas of the Santa Rosa Mountains and the Anza Borrego Desert.   

Almost every hole requires club management and some strategic thinking if you want to score well.  You need to manage the forced carries, tight landing zones, tough approaches, wind, huge bunkers, and the slope and contour of both the fairways and greens.   On some holes, you might be better off leaving the big dog in the bag and make sure that on each shot you study the GPS and leverage the slope before you hit each shot or you'll likely end up in a deep swale, water, desert, or a treacherous bunker. 

But all of that is what makes golf fun and Rams Hill Golf Club one of the best.  Some of the other reasons we loved this course include:

  • the fairways and cart paths are lined with well maintained and beautiful desert landscaping including a variety of trees, cactus, and desert plants of different colors - blue, green, yellow, red, orange, and purple
  • the vistas are magnificent - tall majestic and rugged mountain ranges (some of which were snowcapped when we played) and panoramic views of the Anza Borrego desert
  • every hole is different with no two holes looking or playing the same and each will throw a little something at you to test your game
  • the contrast between the lush green fairways, the colorful desert fauna, the huge white sand bunkers, the sparkling blue ponds, the trees and boulders, large stately palms, the mountains, and the dry arid desert are stunning
  • you'll find something of everything that makes playing Rams Hill fun and challenging and during your round, some of what you'll encounter includes: steep and deep and treacherous bunkers; fairways with swales, mounding, lots of contour, and some with significant slope; sparkling blue lakes to carry or get around as well as a cascading creek that follows the fairway all the way to the green; plenty of uphill and downhill shots plus several dog legs; good risk-reward opportunities; and very challenging green complexes

Don't let all those challenges scare you - just pick the right set of tee boxes and don't bite off more than you can chew, study each shot, relax, enjoy the view, and have fun.  This is a must-play course.  And you won't forget the 18th hole - a 577-yard par five with a magnificent view from an elevated tee box, a tight severely sloping fairway that doglegs right around a beautiful lake with huge stately palm trees, 9 monstrous deep bunkers, a challenging uphill green with a cascading waterfall on the left side of the green, and majestic vistas of the mountains and the desert - a perfect finish to an excellent layout. 

Most of the fairways are ample but bunkering and the slope cause you some trouble - I sadly watched what looked like some great shots roll into the desert, water, or a bunker. 

Practice putting before you head out - the bent greens normally run very fast, around 11 on the stimpmeter!  The greens have gentle to severe slope, undulation, spines, and tiers and some of the greens are elevated and turtle back!  And they are all shapes and sizes, most are pretty big.  But they hold the ball very well and run fast and true. 

The bunkers are something else and you need to do whatever you can to avoid them.  They are typical Fazio bunkers - huge, treacherous, steep faced, very deep, and there are lots of them strategically placed just about everywhere your ball wants to go.  The white sand is soft and deep.  

If you visit Borrego Springs you can't leave before playing a round of golf or at least enjoying a cocktail overlooking the 18th hole.  La Casa Del Zorro offers a good stay and play package with Rams Hill.

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Black 7,232 75.4 141
Blue 6,369 71.2 131
White 5,824 68.5 124
Gold 6,830 73.5 136
Red 4,979 69.3 121

Course Information

Course Architect:
Tom Fazio
Greens Type:
Bent
Greens Condition
9.0
Greens Difficulty
9.0
Fairway Condition
9.2
Bunker Condition
9.8
GPS:
Yes
Walkable:
Hard - very hilly
Scorecard
Beware of water on 8 holes and the 89 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
9.5 out of 10
Beauty:
9.7
Difficulty:
9.0
Variety:
10.0
Fun to Play:
10.0
Value:
9.5
Condition:
9.2
Front Nine Rating:
9.5
Back Nine Rating:
9.8
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FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $95.00 to $130.00

Service is very good, the pro shop is well stocked, and the practice facilities are good. The clubhouse, bar, and restaurant, and excellent

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Here's How Texas Outside Determines the Scorecard Rating

The Texas Outside rating scale ranges from 1 to 10 – a perfect 10 course would be something like this:  links along a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean and bordered by tall trees; lush fairways on rolling hills with lots of natural hazards; water (which is crystal clear) on most of the holes; immaculate greens (but they are undulating and tough); lots of variety and character (each hole is completely different and includes blind shots, elevation changes, doglegs, and significant challenges); perfectly manicured traps with the whitest and prettiest sand you’ve ever seen; a nice club house with great food and a 19th hole; a GPS; plenty of beverage carts or your own cooler and ice; and it only costs $40 bucks! What this means is that you probably won’t find any 10s in Texas – try Cabo San Lucas, Pebble Beach, or some of the Hawaii courses! 
Texas Outside rates courses on the following:

  • Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be flat, bushes or cactus instead of trees, and some grass but mostly weeds
  • Difficulty – a straight, 300 yard par 4 with no traps or hazards, no out of bounds or water would probably get a 1; if it is a 460 yard par 4 over two ravines, with water along one side, natural hazards on the other, strategically placed traps or that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway, we are talking a 10. 
  • Variety – what would you give a course where all the holes looked and played exactly the same (“I thought we just played that hole!”); were side-by-side, which is good for finding or dodging other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you can see the flag from every tee box?  That’s right, it gets a 1.
  • Fun Scale – a 10 is where you walk off the course and say “now that was fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes
  • Value – a 5 is $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $30, and 1 is $200 or so – of course all of this is dependent upon how you liked the course.  For example, if a run down, boring municipal course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1.
  • Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways. A 10 commands very lush perfectly manicured fairways, compared to a 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!
  • Condition of Greens and Difficulty – very hard to read greens with lots of undulation and tough pin placement, rate very high on the difficulty scale.  Condition is self-explanatory.  

All of the above determines the overall score for the golf course.  In other words, we like courses that are pretty, fun, very challenging with a lot of variety, and fairways and greens in excellent condition – all for $40.  We also tend to play the courses that are affordable for the masses, which means in the $30 to $80 range. We rate hard and we haven’t found a 10 in Texas yet – don’t worry we haven’t given up and we’re still looking.