Silverado's South Course dates to 1966, when a young Robert Trent Jones Jr. reshaped the Napa resort's original golf grounds into today's North Course and added the South as a second eighteen. The newer course soon built a tournament resume of its own: from 1989 through 2002 the Champions Tour visited each fall for the event played variously as the Transamerica and the Napa Valley Championship. After an investment group fronted by Johnny Miller bought the resort in 2010, Miller updated the South in 2011, adding length and bringing more of the bunkering into play for the modern game.

On the course

The routing is classic Napa parkland, a par 72 of 6,612 yards rolling gently through corridors of mature oaks. Fairways run a touch more open than the North's, but water does more of the talking on this side of the property: a lake crowds the left of the par-5 11th, ponds force carries at the 13th and the par-3 15th, and a creek wanders across the long par-3 17th. The greens reward a controlled short game over raw distance.

Who it suits

The practical catch is access. Silverado reserves its golf for resort guests and members, so a South Course tee time generally means staying on property. For golfers who make that trip, this is the mellower of the two rounds: scenic, gently rolling and kinder to mid-handicaps than the tournament-hardened North, which makes it a natural first-day or recovery round on a Wine Country golf weekend.

Practice amenities include a driving range, putting green and a well-stocked golf shop, with instruction from the resort's PGA and LPGA professionals plus club rentals and fitting on site. Pick the South if you are staying in Napa and want Silverado's oaks, creeks and Champions Tour history at a friendlier scale; players chasing the PGA Tour-tested examination should book the North and treat the South as the warm-up.

Architect: Robert Trent Jones Jr. · Opened: 1966