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Golf Index | Hole guide

Boundary Oak
3800 Valley Vista Rd.
Walnut Creek, CA
925-934-6211

Course cost:
$20 - $50. Check with pro shop for special rates.
Architect:
Robert Muir Graves (1969)
Hoofing it:
One of the better walking courses around. It's pretty and more importantly, pretty flat.
Practice Facilities:
Driving range (mats), putting green
Food & Booze:
Clubhouse with full restaurant and bar. Snack bar and food/beverage carts.

Course lowdown
Boundary Oak Golf Club is rough-and-tumble, but that's what makes it so much fun. It's a picturesque, bumpy hillside layout durable enough to withstand a weekly stampede of suburban novices while maintaining tournament conditions and attitude.

There is plenty of water at Boundary Oak and plenty of oaks that usually kick golf balls outside of the course's playable boundaries. Robert Muir Graves designed this gem in 1969 before the town of Walnut Creek suffered yuppie implosion.

What he had in mind was an economical use of a smaller property with that classic San Francisco type of golf architecture -- an overlapping links design with trees as borders. A maze you get lost in.

Now, due in part to Boundary Oak's wooded charm and its still-reasonable fees, it's very popular and populated, but most of the locals know and respect the game, even if they occasionally play it slowly.

Driving the ball well is the key to scoring here, but placement still rules over sheer distance — 7,063 yards from the black back tees (6,739 from blue) and tight landing areas might convince you that this track is tougher than its 126 men's slope.

FYI: Boundary Oak's head pro, Bob Boldt, led the Senior PGA Tour in driving distance in 1988.