Green Hills Country Club

Tucked into the rolling hills of Millbrae on the San Francisco Peninsula, Green Hills Country Club is one of Northern California's most storied private golf clubs. Designed by the legendary Dr. Alister MacKenzie and opened in 1930, the course stands as one of the architect's finest surviving works on the West Coast — a masterclass in strategic design that rewards intelligent play while remaining genuinely enjoyable for golfers of every ability.

MacKenzie's fingerprints are everywhere at Green Hills. The small, subtly contoured greens demand precise approach play, while the course's natural topography — steep, dramatic changes in elevation, deep barrancas, and creek crossings — provides the kind of inherent challenge that the architect prized above all else. The bunkers, many of which have been gradually restored to their original MacKenzie character over recent decades, are positioned not merely as penalties but as strategic guides, shaping how a thoughtful golfer approaches each hole. It is a course where course management matters as much as ball-striking.

The layout plays to a par of 71 over 18 holes, stretching to approximately 6,428 yards from the championship tees. Despite its relatively modest length by modern standards, the course has long served as a qualifying venue for the USGA U.S. Open and Senior Open, as well as numerous NCGA and WGANC events — a testament to the difficulty and quality MacKenzie packed into its 143 acres. The terrain is hilly enough to make every lie interesting and every club selection a genuine decision, while the tree-lined fairways and native California landscaping lend the course a quiet, unhurried beauty that feels worlds away from the urban sprawl just minutes to the north.

The opening hole sets the tone immediately: a dramatic downhill short par four that demands a considered tee shot and rewards those who leave themselves the right angle into a back-to-front sloping green. From there, the course rolls through a series of uphill and downhill par fives, testing mid-iron par threes, and challenging par fours that consistently require golfers to think before they swing. The stretch of holes 13 through 15 — affectionately known as the club's own "Amen Corner" — provides one of the most demanding sequences on the property, culminating in the par three 15th, which plays across the course's largest barranca to a two-tiered green.

Condition is a point of genuine pride at Green Hills. The bentgrass greens and fairways are consistently regarded as among the finest on the Peninsula, and the club's commitment to presenting the course in outstanding shape year-round has earned it a reputation that extends well beyond its immediate neighbourhood.

For those fortunate enough to play it, Green Hills offers something increasingly rare: a Golden Age design that has been carefully preserved and sensitively restored, set on a property of real natural beauty, and maintained to the standard its architect would have recognised and approved. It is, in every sense, a course worth the visit.