Sandpiper Golf Course

Few settings in American golf match the visual drama of Sandpiper's clifftop stretch along the Pacific, where the back nine runs directly above the ocean and the Santa Barbara Channel opens up beneath you on clear days. The course was designed by William F. Bell and opened in 1972, and it remains one of the most scenically arresting public-access layouts on the California coast — a reputation that has held for more than 5 decades.

Bell routed the course through the coastal bluffs north of Santa Barbara in Goleta, and several holes demand carries over ravines and exposed terrain where the sea wind is as much a club selection factor as yardage. The par-3 holes along the ocean are the ones players tend to remember longest, combining legitimate shot-making demands with views that make it genuinely difficult to focus.

Santa Barbara's climate keeps Sandpiper playable year-round, and the course attracts a wide range of visitors drawn as much by the setting as by the golf itself — which is saying something, because the golf holds up on its own terms.