The Preserve Golf Club

The coastal private clubs get all the love - Cypress Point and MPCC - but The Preserve can stand with any of them to deliver a once-in-a-lifetime round of golf. It takes passing through three privacy gates and eight miles driving up a mountainous road to get to this pastural paradise. Not a blade of grass was out of place, and you virtually have the place to yourself. The course gets progressively harder ending with a couple brutal challenges among the finish holes. If you can shoot a score here, you're a player. Consider yourself lucky if you ever find yourself standing on the first tee.

Fortunate to have a chance to play this private club in the Carmel hills. A Fazio gem, the Preserve Golf Club is effortlessly tucked into the terrain. In flawless condition (they only get about 11,000 rounds per year), the greens were rolling at about a 13 on the stimp. Just pure golf, off the tee the holes are presented fairly straightforwardly, however it’s the green complexes that require some local course knowledge to know where to play to. Left myself above the pin on a couple greens and found myself putting a few right off the front. This course absolutely deserves its top-100 ranking annually by Golf Digest.

My Son and I have played almost all the best courses from San Francisco to Carmel. When you take many factors into account, we feel the Preserve is the best course out there. It's the course we would choose if we could play only one course for the rest of our lives. Are there more beautiful courses? Yes. Are there more challenging courses? Yes. Are there more exclusive courses? Yes. Are there courses with better weather? Maybe no. More friendly staff? No. But, taken together, the Preserve is top 2% on all of these metrics in one location. It's special, it's rare. It's an amazing place to play.

My wife and I played as guests of a Preserve member. I asked our caddy to drive the cart for my wife while I walked. The course was in good condition although dry due to the drought. Very fair from tee to fairway but the greens are lightening fast and challenging. The clubhouse is small but very nice and practice facility is wonderful and quiet - great place to work on your game. The overall Preserve Club is nothing short of world class.

This ultra private club isn't easy to get to. If you take the non-resident way up, it's a windy, narrow road up the mountains to an inconspicuous gate, which reveals an understated clubhouse for such a grand golf course. From the very first hole, you know what you're in for, with elevated tees and views as far as the eye can see. As a walking course, it's a fair workout, having to climb down and up to greens, but very enjoyable. From the rearward tees, the carries can be pretty intimidating, especially the 18th. Wildlife variety is also a common site at the true refuge away from it all.

Vastly overrated and is not a top 100 golf course in America. Set amongst beautiful mountains with great vistas the course itself is relatively forgettable. Relatively non-descript holes make the Preserve nice, but not great. I was waiting for the spectacular moment of the course and it never came. A serene setting gives the Preserve the air of exclusivity, perhaps making it too empty. I saw only one other group the entire day. Elaborate clubhouse and nice bar and grill room, but 30 minutes from any civilization. Really tough to compare the Preserve to the iconic clubs in the area, playing inland golf on the Monterey Peninsula doesn't seem right. If given the opportunity, sleep in, get brunch and go for a walk on the beach in Carmel instead.

This course was fun to play and the views were really nice as well. The journey to get there is another story but it made for an adventure, that's for sure.
The preserve had a ton of cool wildlife and the course was nice as well. There are a lot of elevation changes and the caddy was very helpful for our group. The greens are very large so accuracy is very helpful here.
The clubhouse is one of a kind.