Pelican Hill (Ocean South)

The Pelican Hill Resort features a couple of Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole layouts: Ocean South, which debuted in 1991 and Ocean North, a slightly longer sibling that came along a couple of years later. Both courses are laid out on a cliff top setting at Newport Beach and both deliver a good, solid resort golf experience that offers spectacular Pacific vistas aplenty.

Measuring a rather modest 6,580 yards from the back markers, the Ocean South course is routed close to the coastline, with golfers crossing Newport Coast Road a couple of times during a round. The architect made the most of the limited ocean frontage available to him by siting back to back par threes at the 159-yard 12th and 131-yard 13th and the second of these short holes is rather unique as it features two sand protected greens which sit adjacent to each other.

Other notable holes include the par four 5th, which plays along then across a ravine, the right doglegged, uphill par four 15th and the 453-yard closing hole, where the fairway twice crosses a gorge on its way to the home green.