Crystal Springs Golf Course

William Herbert Fowler was a British architect who believed golf courses should follow the lay of the land rather than fight it. He demonstrated that philosophy at Walton Heath in England in 1902, and when he came to California two decades later, he applied the same thinking to a stretch of hillside above the Crystal Springs Reservoir in what is now Burlingame. The course he designed in 1924 sits inside a 32,000-acre wildlife refuge owned by the San Francisco Water Department — the same watershed that supplies drinking water to the city — and the result is a golf course that feels completely removed from the Peninsula's suburban sprawl even though it's visible from I-280 on clear days.

The setting has a geological dimension that's hard to ignore once you know it. The reservoir fills a portion of the rift valley of the San Andreas Fault, and the course runs along the Buri Buri Ridge above it. The fairways meander through rolling hillside terrain in the way Fowler always intended — following natural contours rather than cutting through them. At 6,515 yards and par 72, the layout offers a genuine championship test from the back tees, with well-bunkered greens and the kind of uneven lies that a flat-land range cannot prepare you for. From the middle tees it opens up considerably, making it playable for a wide range of skill levels.

The wildlife refuge designation means the course coexists with 61 documented bird species, mule deer, bobcat, and the visual presence of the reservoir on multiple holes. SFO is 11 minutes away, which makes Crystal Springs a practical stop for a round before a flight if you're organized about timing. The course doesn't oversell itself — it's a 100-year-old Fowler design that has been left largely as it was, which in 2024 is reason enough to make the trip.