Bayside and wooded courses from San Rafael to Novato
Marin's golf is compact and unusually varied — five public courses between the Golden Gate and the Sonoma line, and no two are alike. StoneTree Golf Club in Novato is the headline: a 2000 design by Johnny Miller, Sandy Tatum, Jim Summers and Fred Bliss that runs 6,782 yards to a par 72, opening across valley floor before climbing into oak-studded hillside. Peacock Gap Golf Club in San Rafael, a William F. Bell layout from 1960, plays 6,261 yards to a par 71 on flat ground beside San Pablo Bay with Mount Tamalpais on the skyline. Indian Valley Golf Club, Robert Nyberg's 1958 course in Novato, is the tight one — 6,374 yards, par 72, tumbling through wooded canyon. The public golf courses in Marin County also include two genuine nines: Mill Valley Golf Course, a par-33 dating to 1919 and the oldest course in the county, and McInnis Park Golf Center in San Rafael, a par-31 executive nine paired with a lit driving range.
Marin sits between the Pacific and San Pablo Bay, and the golf reflects it. Marine fog pushes over the ridgeline on summer mornings and usually burns off by midday, while winters here run wetter than almost anywhere else in the Bay Area — Mount Tamalpais wrings the rain out of incoming Pacific storms. That makes late spring and early fall the dependable windows, with firm turf and calm mornings. Distances are short enough that the whole county plays like one golf trip: no Marin course sits more than about twenty-five minutes from another. Golf The Bay compares live Marin County tee times across every booking system so you can lock in the lowest rate before you cross the bridge.
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Make the most of your golf trip to Marin County
Old-growth coast redwoods twelve miles from the Golden Gate
Views across the Bay, the Pacific, and the Marin Headlands
70,000+ acres of dunes, the lighthouse, and Tomales Bay oysters
The classic Golden Gate view from Hawk Hill and Battery Spencer
Local spots worth the detour
Plantains and citrus-garlic pork, a San Rafael institution
Marin staple
Mill Valley roadhouse since 1937 — oysters bingo and smoked ribs
Post-round classic
Sausalito dockside, sustainable catch and dungeness crab rolls
Waterfront picnic tables
Hillside Sausalito trattoria looking over the harbor
Special occasion
StoneTree Golf Club in Novato is the most ambitious — a 6,782-yard par 72 opened in 2000 by a design team including Johnny Miller and Sandy Tatum, with a hillside back nine that is the best stretch of golf in the county. Peacock Gap in San Rafael is the easy-walking bayside alternative, a 1960 William F. Bell par 71, and Indian Valley in Novato offers the tightest, most wooded test of the three 18-hole layouts.
It spans a wide range. StoneTree sits at the premium end of Marin golf, Peacock Gap and Indian Valley occupy the middle, and the two nine-hole courses — Mill Valley and McInnis Park — are the cheapest rounds in the county. Rates move with day of week, time of day, and season, and weekend mornings run highest everywhere. Golf The Bay compares live prices across every booking system so you can see the lowest rate before booking.
Two, and they serve different purposes. Mill Valley Golf Course is a par-33 walking nine dating to 1919, the oldest course in Marin, tucked into the hills above town. McInnis Park Golf Center in San Rafael is a par-31 executive nine built in 1993 alongside a lit driving range, which makes it the practical choice for a quick round after work or for players just starting out.
Late spring and early fall are the most reliable. Marin winters are genuinely wet — Mount Tamalpais pulls rain out of Pacific storms and the county records some of the highest rainfall totals in the Bay Area — so course conditions soften from roughly December through March. Summer plays well, but expect marine fog on morning tee times that typically clears by midday.
