Del Rio Golf & Country Club

Del Rio Golf & Country Club, which calls itself the Jewel of the Valley, is a private club about seven miles north of Modesto in California's Central Valley. It spreads over 325 acres and has 27 holes split into three nines, the Oak, the Bluff and the River, each a par 36, played from four sets of tees.

The Oak and Bluff nines form William P. Bell's original 18. The fairways are Santa Ana Bermuda hybrid, the greens Pure Distinction, the tees bent grass and the rough rye. From the blue tees the Oak/Bluff combination carries an average course rating of 71.2 and a slope of 124, and it gets tougher from the women's White tees, rated 75.3 with a slope of 132.

Practice is taken seriously. The facility covers more than 26,000 square feet, with 1.5 acres of grass tee at the range and target greens for short and long shots, three practice bunkers of different depths, a chipping area and two big putting greens beside the pro shop, plus a wedge range on the Oak course. Lessons are led by PGA Class A professional Bill Johnson, who has 35 years of teaching behind him and was the NCPGA Teacher of the Year in 2013.

Off the course, members have two full-service restaurants, including the Redwood Room overlooking the golf course, a patio with views of the 18th hole, a 3000 sq. ft. fitness centre, seven lighted tennis courts, six pickleball courts and two bocce courts.

The club opened in 1946. Billy Bell, whose earlier work includes Bel-Air and Riviera, laid out the first 18 holes that year; the club likes to say the design began on a cocktail napkin, and that Bell, standing by a great valley oak, declared it a great site for a golf course. The sandy soil and gentle slopes suited his classic style.

The River 9 came much later. Robert Muir Graves designed it, and after years of talks with officials and environmental groups over the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, the 150-acre mix of riverside habitat and golf was built in 1996 and opened in 1997. In 1998 John Harbottle rebuilt all of the tees, greens and bunkers on Bell's 18, and in 2002 he redesigned the 9th hole on the Bluff nine.