You pick up the cart again at the base of the 18th tee, where you must steel yourself for an extremely difficult and beautiful closing hole, a par 4 of 467 yards. Rivaling Bodega Harbour in beauty and challenge is the Sea Ranch Golf Links at the northwestern tip of Sonoma County. This Robert Muir Graves design features an abundance of wetland holes, with the par-4 16th requiring as much courage as a player can summon to pick the correct angle for his tee shot over the wetlands to the fairway. The par-3 eighth hole is a beguiling beast of 182 yards from the back tee. The green on a rocky outcrop overhangs the Pacific.
Wind makes it difficult to choose a club and play the correct line.
Sea Ranch seems more like a links than Bodega Harbour, largely because it is not quite as hemmed in by housing as are some of the holes at Bodega Harbour. Heading back inland you are likely to pass through Santa Rosa, where if you're lucky you might run into Bill Carson, the general manager of the Fountaingrove Inn, a dandy modern building of impeccable design and an excellent choice of lodging for access to the coast and interior of Sonoma County. Should you stay at the inn, you might find Carson out by the small swimming pool, enjoying a cigar. Carson plays much of his golf at the nearby Fountaingrove Country Club, a recently revitalized Ted Robinson layout that is open to the public though not directly connected to the Fountaingrove Inn. This is a well-conditioned public course that's worth a visit.