Buchanan searched long and hard for an ideal site in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a site above the fog belt but below the snow belt that would require few earthworks. Built in the field from Buchanan's routing without benefit of a blueprint, the layout has plenty of muscle from the PGA markers but is eminently playable for higher handicappers from the forward tees. Fairways are generously wide, the swift bentgrass greens are subtly contoured, and the many flashed-face bunkers, each strategically placed to signpost a fairway or defend a green, hark back to those created by A.W. Tillinghast at San Francisco Golf Club and by George C. Thomas Jr. at Riviera Country Club. Saddle Creek's quartet of par threes, each of a different length and origin, range from excellent to thrilling. The downhill 232-yard 14th, patterned after the Redan hole at North Berwick in Scotland, is the standout among them, its canted green embraced by four huge bunkers.
Confident players can carry the imposing walls of sand when the hole is cut to the left.
All others can carom their tee shots off a hill to the right and allow the ball to feed down to the pin. Different approaches, comparable results. The sixth, a beastly par four with a grassy swale down its right side, is that rare uphill hole that exudes grace and charm, while each of the par fives is an artfully plotted, risk-reward gem that plays in a different direction. Three of them tempt better players to go for the green in two, but not without consequences for a failed effort. Although a real estate development is planned at Saddle Creek, homes will sit high above the fairways and won't intrude upon play.