La Purisima Golf Course opened in 1986 outside Lompoc, where developer Kenneth Hume Hunter, Jr. set out to build the purest test of golf he could and hired architect Robert Muir Graves to design it. The course occupies 309 acres of gently rolling, oak-studded ancient sand hills about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara, and, like Hunter's other projects at Sandpiper in Goleta and Hunter Ranch in Paso Robles, it was laid out with no housing or commercial development on the property. Its credentials were confirmed early: the final stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School came here in 1996.

On the course

The scorecard reads 7,105 yards at par 72 from the back tees, and the USGA currently rates the tips at a 143 slope, a number that puts La Purisima among the sternest public tests on the Central Coast. Play opens with a par 5 past water to an elevated green, and the pressure rarely eases: fairways move through real elevation change, bunkers guard the obvious bailouts, and the rough grows thick. The defining hazard is wind. Mornings can be calm, but the Lompoc breeze arrives around midday as a heavy, persistent Pacific wind, which is why locals nicknamed the course La Piranha.

Who it suits

Graves routed tees close to the preceding greens, so the course walks far better than its terrain suggests. Reviewers note conditions are the best they have been in years, with renovated bunkers and new ownership reinvesting in the property. This is a course to pick when you want a demanding day: mid and low handicappers get an unrelenting examination, and a morning tee time improves anyone's odds against the wind.

The all-grass practice facility is among the best in the Santa Barbara area, with grass hitting stations, a short-game area with practice bunkers, and chipping and putting greens, including a putting green beside the first tee; an on-site golf academy handles lessons. With a pro shop and grill in the clubhouse, La Purisima suits the golfer who wants pure, uninterrupted golf and is willing to earn it.

Architect: Robert Muir Graves · Opened: 1986