Benbow Valley R&Country Club

Garberville sits deep in Humboldt County, in the heart of redwood country where Highway 101 winds through some of the most dramatic forested terrain in California. Benbow Valley Resort and Country Club occupies this unlikely but memorable setting — a private resort course carved into the hills along the South Fork of the Eel River, where the scale of the surrounding timber makes even a full drive feel modest by comparison.

The course plays through a genuine valley landscape, with elevation changes, tree-lined corridors, and the kind of natural framing that no architect could simply manufacture. This far north of the Bay Area, the golf culture is unhurried and local in character — you're not in a resort corridor here, you're in a working stretch of the Northern California coast range, and the course reflects that honestly.

For travelers, Benbow functions as a destination unto itself, tied to the historic Benbow Inn and the slower rhythms of the Redwood Highway. Expect a round that trades prestige for authenticity, solitude, and scenery that is genuinely hard to replicate anywhere else in American golf.