Wildlife such as loons, grebes, gulls and pond turtles, distracts golfers at Bodega Harbour Golf Links in the fishing village of Bodega Bay, about an hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The ability to sandblast comes in handy here in the fifty-eight bunkers on the front nine and thirty-six on the back nine, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

Bordering a protected bay and crossing a huge freshwater marsh, the last three holes present a spectacular finishing sequence. The 16th requires a deft touch to hit the landing zone across an expanse of gorselike scrub, and depending on the wind, you may need anything from a pitching wedge to a fairway wood on the 17th. The 476-yard 18th commands your last scrap of concentration with a green lurking below the fairway in the watery clutches of the marsh and grassy dunes.

Nearby Bodega Bay Lodge has luxury suites and fireplace rooms with ocean views, and a new facility, the Ocean Club Fitness Center and Spa, where golfers relax with "Salt Glo" massages, kelp facials and marine mud wraps. Fourteen of the warmest of Northern California's beaches lie along the Sonoma Coast, from Bodega Bay, north to Jenner at the mouth of the Russian River.

San Franciscans waited for decades to play the Presidio Golf Course in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. Built in 1895, it was the much-coveted private sanctuary of the U.S. Army from the 1950s until 1995, when the Presidio Army base became a National Park. A $9 million upgrade by Arnold Palmer Golf Management Company added bent grass greens, a glitzy new clubhouse and the Presidio Cafe, where golfers enjoy a view of the 18th green, live jazz and California cuisine on the heated terrace.

On a peninsula of woodlands and bluffs between the Pacific and San Francisco Bay, the Presidio layout winds among dense stands of 100-foot-tall Monterey cypress, eucalyptus and pines. Peregrine falcons and eagles are often seen circling above, and wild rhododendrons explode into clouds of red and white blooms from January through April. Sidehill, uphill and downhill lies are the order of the day, plus erratic winds off the Bay. Rare and endangered native plants are marked with interpretive signs.

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