This Course at Wente Vineyards course review is based on a round played on July 10, 2025.

The Course at Wente Vineyards is a public golf resort in Livermore, CA outside of Oakland, CA. The green fee is around $190/round.

F1C’s Final Score: 61/80 _{^{(Best in State List)}}

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The day before this round, I stood on an absolutely beautiful San Francisco beach, just outside of Half Moon Bay. We had just finished playing Pasatiempo on a perfect day, but as we stood on the beach, the fog rolled in. In that moment, surrounded by such immense beauty, I realized – it’s simply too damn cold here for golf. 60-degrees, a 20mph ocean wind pumping in my face, and the fog reducing any chance of thermal warmth. It is July and I live in the southeast, so I am probably just soft, but I am overly accustomed to scorching hot days with high humidity at this point.

As we rushed back to the car and turned on the heater, I asked the local that was with us if there was anywhere close that got a bit warmer. “Yes, anywhere inland,” he replied. Thus, we promptly cancelled our Half Moon Bay tee time, and after visiting Top100GolfCourses in a rush, we stumbled upon the Course at Wente Vineyards – ranked 83rd in California – with a reasonable public rate (especially on the Thursday afternoon we were playing).

I say all of this to say, I booked this tee time essentially sight unseen with no idea what to expect. What we found when we arrived blew me away. First, warmth. A dry 95-degree heat, which pales in comparison to the 90-degree humidity that I am accustomed to – basically, a perfectly warm day. Second, and most important, we found an incredible golf course.

When we arrived at the clubhouse, the course looked relatively unassuming. Perfectly nice, but the view from the clubhouse doesn’t quite give it away. The staff was great and got us directed towards the driving range, which was a bit of a cart ride from the clubhouse. The drive to the driving range is straight up a hill, likely to the highest point on the property, but when you arrive, the surprise is then spoiled. This Greg Norman design has ridiculous vistas.

From this high vantage point, a lot of the golf course can be seen. Norman wound the course up and down over these large hills, through the valleys, and between the vineyards that grow the grapes for Wente’s wine. Some designers are given relatively benign properties with which to work, but Norman was given an incredible canvas for art amongst the hills of California.

The First Tee

The drive to the first tee, like many of the holes to come at Wente, is significantly uphill. This is not what I would consider a walkable course. It is actually SO unwalkable, I’d be surprised if the clubhouse would even allow it. For example, the walk between the ninth green and tenth tee box may be more steps than an entire 9-hole round at your local muni. The first is no exception, but these uphill cart rides are what creates the main spectacle of the Course at Wente Vineyards: vistas.

The first hole, a straightaway par-4 with a wide fairway, a vineyard running the length of the hole left and a ravine to the right, presents the only hole at Wente without a bunker. It does present a challenge however, with a significant drop from tee to green. The starter told us that the course often plays 300-400 yards longer than the scorecard; this was inaccurate. Most tee shots here are significantly perched, meaning your drives will travel further, but could get more offline as they have a bit further to travel to find ground.

All in all, the first is a very gentle introduction to the course, which I certainly appreciate, and a reasonable chance to start your round with a birdie.

The second is a short, quirky par-4 that requires a pretty precise tee shot threaded through a very narrow opening. Norman chose to force a cut off the tee, with something probably less than driver, as a straight shot through the chute is perfectly inline with a tree on the left edge of the fairway, waiting to swat down an otherwise good shot. However, if the fairway is found, again another reasonable chance for birdie, as a short wedge awaits into a green flanked front, left, and behind with bunkers.

Admittedly, I enjoyed the second hole, and it was quirky and fun, but a bit out of character with the rest of the golf course. It is one of the few holes here I would call “flat” and forces a particular shape off the tee, which was not quite the experience of the rest of the course. This was more like Harbour Town front 9 (the vibe actually reminded me of Harbour Town’s thirteenth while playing it), but the rest of the course is more like Harbour Town’ 18.’s eighteenth (open with options).

The third was one of the two holes that I can recall the tee shot actually playing uphill, as the shorter par-3 plays into a generous but well-fortified green. No tricks here; just target golf with a short iron in hand and a wonderful mountain (hill?) vista behind the hole.

The fourth is where Wente starts to find its character. The mid-length par-4, with a hint of right-to-left shape, plays directly through the vineyards from a slightly elevated tee, with a large dropoff left of the hole. The fourth starts to feel like the meat and potatoes of this course: (1) through a vineyard, (2) elevated tee, (3) open off the tee with no particular shot shape required.

The fifth is a further serving of the same formula, this time par-5 form. The mid-length five shotter plays directly over a vineyard, with a deceptively long carry to reach the fairway.

The fifth was one of my favorite holes on the course and is just an absolute magnificent vista, playing into the foot of the mountain and between the vineyards. It also presents an element of deception from the tee, because the left bunker is not reachable, and the right bunker is in the landing area. The visual feeling from the tee is to take a line that is actually too far right. Once in the fairway, the second and third shots play a bit uphill to a relatively exposed green, protected basically by a large bunker short and left of the putting surface.

The sixth is a wild little hole, and maybe one that needs to be rethought. First, if you are playing the back few sets of tees, the walk to the tee box on the mid-length par-4 is a trek straight uphill. Anytime I have to climb 50 steps to get to a tee box, I’m hoping that there’s a bit of a payoff with the view. Unfortunately, this climb didn’t quite cash the check that the 50-stair climb wrote.

Instead, the sixth is a quirky par-4 that requires less than driver off the tee, down to a flat area that sits significantly below the green, requiring a nearly blind approach. Wasn’t the biggest fan of this hole, and its probably the weakest hole on the course.

However, Norman perfectly uses the climb to the sixth green to frame the seventh and eighth holes.

The seventh is a great longer par-3 downhill to a well-protected green with another incredible vista. It also retains a bit of playability, because the fairway short right does appear to be receptive to something played closer to the ground, and the green here is quite large. But, trouble is around, as a miss in any direction but short right is punished severely, particularly a long miss.

The eighth is the only other shot on the course where I feel like a particular shot shape was required off the tee, once again a fade (or banana slice, if you wish).

The back tees here are a bit blocked out by the tree on the right, and a draw will simply not be tolerated on this long par-5. Fortunately, the fairway is generous, but the player must play something moving left-to-right to reach this fairway. If that need be less than driver, that is okay, because this hole probably isn’t reachable in two for most anyways.

If the fairway is located, the decision probably won’t be deciding whether to go for the green, but rather whether to lay up short of the ravine that bisects the fairway horizontally about 85 yards from the green. There doesn’t appear to be a huge advantage in going over the ravine, meaning most will layup and try their chances with a wedge or short iron in hand. This green was quite severe and quirky in slope and is probably the home to many three putts.

Now I ripped this image off the internet of the ninth to illustrate two points: (1) the ninth is a relatively straightaway and wide par-4, with an uphill approach. Not a ton to this hole. But, (2), this picture was taken about halfway to the tenth tee box. Remember when I said you wouldn’t want to walk this course! Keep this picture in your memory bank should the idea ever cross your mind to try walking here, because there’s another 50 yards straight uphill to the tenth tee!

Making the Turn

Once at the top of the hill, two things await (1) another incredible view and (2) an incredibly fun golf course. Norman used this as the opportunity to create a driveable, risk-reward par-4 with a steep canyon right and high grass left.

An easy layup and a short wedge, or on our downwind day, a 3-wood at the green. I chose the latter and was rewarded, but anything missing the green pin-high is likely a lost ball. This is a really fun golf hole, and the type of hole it would be fun to play for an hour with your buddies to see who could get it closest to the hole. For serious rounds however, the tenth presents a significant birdie chance, whether laying up or going for the green.

The eleventh plays downhill to a large green, canted at a 45-degree angle to the tee boxes, with bunkers guarding the short left, and a steep bank ensuring any ball over the green will be three-from-the-tee. The vista here is a sneaky pretty view, as the contrast of those rolling yellow hills behind the green are certainly eye catching.

Then, on the twelfth, Norman does his thing. I’ve wrote seemingly at length about how Norman almost always puts some type of wild ass, difficult par-5 into the mix in his courses. He notoriously does so at Shark’s Tooth, where I wrote:

Norman seems to have a penchant for incorporating a par-5 hole into his designs that presents players with numerous strategic options, all of which possess significant risk. There’s simply no low-risk way to play the sixth.

He does it again on the twelfth at Wente Vineyards, starting with an uphill tee shot through a bit of a chute.

From there, the whole winds significantly to the right. The tree that is visible in the middle of the fairway ends up representing the right-middle of the fairway, and the second shot is completely blind. Penalty hazard, in the form of the steepest slope on the course, runs the length of the hole left.

There’s a lot of bad ways to play the second shot here, but not a lot of good ones. The tree in the middle of the fairway has to be negotiated, largely blind. If you want to go past the tree, a long club will be required, but as you can see, the bits of fairway left and right of the tree are very narrow, meaning precision will be required. If you decide to lay back behind the tree, do so at your own peril, because you have to judge the distance perfectly (again, uphill and blind) to prevent being blocked out, and again hit a precise shot because the fairway here is actually narrower than next to the tree.

The thirteenth is another super quirky but fun hole, as the tee shot here plays WAY down hill to a fairway in the flat. The challenge here is simply judging the distance of the tee shot correctly. The hole is a shorter par-4, and due to the elevation, the green may actually be driveable for the longer hitters, if there were any clue of where to aim. Unfortunately, there isn’t, and the green is well protected by the vineyards left and bunkers right. However, the approach shot, even with an iron off the tee, is still played with a short iron or wedge, and the hole should yield a reasonable birdie opportunity if the tee shot is conquered.

The fourteenth is a bit of a tough mid-length par-3, as the wind freshened in our faces here. The challenging downhill par-3 requires a precise tee shot, as the green is perched in a flat area on downslope. My pulled tee shot bounced down those hills never to be seen again.

The fifteenth is actually a great, shorter par-5 that plays along the foothills of the hill that the twelfth and thirteenth sit atop, beginning a four-hole march from the furthest end of the property back to the clubhouse. The straightaway par-5 has a demanding tee shot with one of the few water hazards on the course running the length of the tee shot right. The second shot is open to all but a short right miss and should encourage a player to give it all they have to reach the green.

The sixteenth is a fun par-4 of mid-length. The slight dogleg right features a small ravine that horizontally bisects the hole around 310 yards from the tee. For this reason, a few in our group took fairway metal to lay up near the bunkers on the left. This bisecting ravine becomes a major feature of Wente’s closing stretch, as it bends from horizontal to vertical, and runs the length of the seventeenth on the right side of the hole.

The seventeenth is a longer dogleg right par-4 playing around this ravine and squarely between the vineyards on either side of the hole. The ravine bisects horizontally of the sixteenth, runs alongside the seventeenth as mostly a driving hazard, so naturally, Norman had to figure out another way to use it on the eighteenth, and chose a verticle biscetion straight down the middle of the eighteenth – a double fairway.

The eighteenth is a brutally long par-4, playing over 500 yards on our date of play straight into the wind (also known as: a par-5). The challenge doesn’t end in negotiating with the ravine, as Norman asks the player on the last shot of the day to negotiate a flanking pond on the right of the eighteenth green.

Admittedly, I think the eighteenth was perhaps a touch difficult for my liking. I’m not sure what the purpose of the right fairway is because it is: too narrow and narrower than the left, creates a worse angle into the green, and creates a forced carry second shot and a near impossible layup. With questionable design, the eighteenth leaves a bit of a bad taste in a player’s mouth headed to the clubhouse – perhaps like the perfect wine with a questionable aftertaste.

The fairway on the left, being wider and safer from the tee, should come with some reason NOT to use it: which could be accomplished by reorienting the pond to make the more desirable angle/carry to be from the right.

Something like this would completely solve my issue with the hole, making the layup more penal from the left fairway and the carry longer. Currently, the right fairway should only serve as a catchers mitt for the most grotesque of wiped fades.

Final Thoughts

It is truly rare in this day and age that I find a golf course that I would consider a hidden gem. Maybe I just needed to be 2,000 miles from home and book a tee time on no notice. Perhaps Wente is not exactly “hidden” to locals. But, it is hidden from GolfDigest’s Best Courses in California. It is buried on Top100’s list in California at #83. So, to some extent, it is hidden, and it IS a gem. I got to play some high-ranked stunners on this trip to California, and I got on the plane thinking about the Course at Wente Vineyards.

Let me finish here: there is no way that there are 82 better golf courses in the State of California than the Course at Wente Vineyards. It isn’t possible. Wente combines incredible vistas, near perfect conditioning, and quality golf design as good or better than many courses on Golf Digest’s Top 200 list, much less a best in state list. I’d consider this course an absolute must play in the bay area for a visitor. But perhaps I should say less and spare a local bay area golfer who knows how fortunate they are to play a course THIS FAR under the radar.

F1C’s Final Rating:

Shot Options: 7
Challenge: 7
Layout Variety: 7
Distinctiveness: 8
Aesthetics: 9
Conditioning: 8
Character: 7
Fun: 8

Total: 61/80

Read More: How We Rate Courses

Rating Scale Details

> 70: Top-50 U.S.
65-70: Top-200 U.S.,
60-65: Best-in-State List
57-60: Best-in-State List Contender
53-57: Very Good
48-53: Good
40-48: Average
> 40: Poor