San Clemente Golf Guide
by Randy Youngman
Top 5 Golf Courses near San Clemente, CA
Explore our San Clemente golf guide with information on public courses in the city and surrounding area—everything you need to plan the ultimate golf getaway in South Orange County.
A look at each local South Orange County course:
San Clemente Municipal Golf Course
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
It’s a very playable course for beginners or single-digit handicaps, featuring elevation changes, strategic doglegs, and picturesque ocean views.
Easy to walk - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This course, literally, was designed for walking, and a large percentage of loyal regulars take advantage.
Price - $
San Clemente Municipal is budget-friendly, even with an extra charge should you choose to ride in a cart.
San Clemente Municipal is budget-friendly, even with an extra charge should you choose to ride in a cart.
Known as the “Pride of the Pacific,” San Clemente Golf Course was one of the first public courses in Orange County, opening as a nine-hole track in 1930—two years after San Clemente was incorporated as a city—on land donated by city founder Ole Hanson. The course was designed by renowned architect William P. Bell and lengthened to 18 holes in 1955 with the addition of what is now the back nine. As head professional Vinnie Poncino points out, every hole on the course has an ocean view, including the signature par-3 15th hole at the highest point on the course. Management keeps two tee times open every hour for walk-on play, which is beneficial for visitors who want to tee it up.
Shorecliffs Golf Club
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
It’s a fun layout that is playable for all levels, though some of the fairways are very narrow, placing a premium on accuracy and smart club choice on the tee.
Easy to walk - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Though the course features holes on both sides of Avenida Vaquero, tunnels enable walkers (and carts) to navigate the layout without traffic concerns.
Price - $$
Another bargain in this era of widespread triple-digit greens fees.
Shorecliffs Golf Club, an 18-hole public course that opened in San Clemente in 1964, is a quirky layout designed by Joe Williams that winds through a residential neighborhood, featuring holes on both sides of the I-5 Freeway, several of them connected by tunnels. The course became famous as President Richard Nixon’s favorite golf course after he purchased the Casa Pacifica property in San Clemente, also known as the Western White House while he was in office. The club is in the middle of a renovation and beautification project that will feature redesigned holes, as well as a new and expanded clubhouse to replace the one demolished for the construction of a four-story senior apartment complex on six acres sold to a developer.
New Clubhouse opening soon!
Talega Golf Club
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
It’s certainly not an easy course for the average bogey golfer and is challenging for single-digit handicaps playing from the back tee boxes, but it is a fun track the more you play it.
Easy to walk - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The distance between the 9th green near the clubhouse and the 10th tee at the highest point on the course—at least a half-mile—itself makes walking problematic.
Price - $$$
When it opened in 2001, the greens fees were much higher than other area courses, but they were reduced after an ownership change in 2008. They are now on par with most upper-end courses in the county.
Talega Golf Club, the “youngest” of San Clemente’s three public courses, was designed by Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt, with World Golf Hall of Famer Fred Couples serving as a consultant. Spread out over 208 acres, it is a user-friendly course featuring wide fairways, fun elevation changes—from the elevated 10th tee, you can see the Pacific Ocean three miles away—water hazards that come into play on four holes and several challenging forced carries. There are also tempting risk-reward holes such as the par-5 11th hole (491 yards downhill from white tees), the par-4 14th (270 yards from whites) and dogleg-right par-5 15th (468 yards from whites). Collectively, the four par-3s are as picturesque and challenging as they are fun to attack.
Monarch Beach Golf Links, Dana Point
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
It’s a very playable resort course, especially from the forward tees, enabling golfers of every ability (or limited skill) to have a good time. The first five holes on the front nine (all with ocean views) are collectively as good as it gets.
Easy to walk - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
With apologies to Mark Twain, this is a good walk unspoiled. You can walk, hire a caddie, or navigate the course on a Golfboard or a PHAT Scooter. Push carts are also available.
Price - $$$$
The greens fee is steep—the second most expensive in Orange County—but it is a bucket-list destination for avid golfers in Southern California and for tourists from all over the world.
In the beginning, it was called “Salt Creek Golf Course” when it opened in 1983, long before a luxury hotel resort was built along the first fairway. Today, it is called Monarch Beach Golf Links, and it is celebrating its 40th anniversary all year long as a lush-green amenity for the recently rebranded Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club. The Scottish links-style course, designed by legendary architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr. on valuable oceanfront property, was the first upper-end public course in the OC. If you want to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean—and, of course, hear the crashing waves while putting out on the elevated green on the signature par-4 3rd hole—it’s time to enjoy the recent course renovations and celebrate the 40th anniversary.
San Juan Hills Golf Club, San Juan Capistrano
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Measuring 6,317 yards from the blue tees, the hilly, par-71 layout is challenging enough for low handicappers and forgiving for high handicappers. Both nines finish with par-3s, a rarity.
Easy to walk - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Despite the hilly terrain, it’s very walkable for pull-cart enthusiasts.
Price - $$
The course features “dynamic pricing,” so you can sometimes score a big discount if the course isn’t busy.
San Juan Hills Golf Club, a Harry and David Rainville design that opened in 1966, has elevated its status in recent years among the most popular tracks in South Orange County. With renovations, improved playing conditions and some of the best greens in the area, it earned the No. 1 ranking among county golf courses in the Orange County Register’s 2022 “Best of OC” edition. “We have a nice sweet spot between the high-end courses and the smaller ones”—that’s how General Manager Ryan Brown explained the honor. Back nine features several fun holes, including No. 13 (dogleg-left par-4 with a semi-blind tee shot), No. 14 (downhill par-3 over water) and beastly No. 15 (424-yard, dogleg-left par-4 with water on the left), the course’s most difficult hole.
Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, Mission Viejo
Playability - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
It’s the kind of course you never get tired of playing; it features elevation changes—uphill and downhill—short and long par-4s, plus an old mining lake that comes into play on the 17th and 18th finishing holes
Easy to walk - ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
This course is too long with many steep elevation changes, so don’t try to be a hero and carry or pull your bag.
Price - $$
If you sign up for the members’ club, greens fees are much more affordable.
Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, a links-style course designed by Newport Beach architect Casey O’Callaghan and PGA Tour star Tom Lehman, opened in 2004 and proved to be the last of the high-end, daily-fee public courses built in the OC during a 15-year course development boom. Because of its natural, tranquil setting, it’s difficult to believe the course is less than a mile from I-5—and equally difficult to believe it was not built as part of a housing development, a welcome rarity. For fun, try to replicate Lehman’s opening-day ace on No. 4, a 235-yard par-3, or try to drive the green from the white tees on the 282-yard, severely downhill par-4 10th. Keep your eyes open, because it’s common to spot wildlife, including deer, coyotes, roadrunners, hawks and the occasional bobcat, mountain lion, or rattlesnake.