The Hills Are Alive With Sound of Cursing Duffers

The logo for the Anaheim Hills Golf Course is a set of stylized mountain peaks. Believe it.

Pack some climbing ropes and oxygen in your bag when you come here, and be prepared for some ferocious side-hill lies if your shots stray, because Anaheim Hills is easily the craggiest course in Orange County.

You’ll know it from the moment you dig in on the first tee. The hole looks straightforward enough on the card--a fairly linear 467-yard par 5--but that green is waaaaaaaaaaay down there. The tee box might as well be an eagle’s nest.

Quite a bit of the layout is like that, with much of the course lying around the sides of a long valley. Flat lies are as rare as the need for a driver.

That’s right. As big as the course looks from the upper edges, it tends to shrink in the face of actual, and prudent, play. Professional Golfers Assn. pro Ward Lyon says you may want to pull the driver only on holes 1, 9, 14, 15 and 16. The rest of the time, he says, wise play often dictates a smaller weapon off the tee--a 3 wood, for instance, or even a long iron.

The reason, says Lyon, lies in the narrow width of many of the fairways, and the trouble that often lies just outside their boundaries: barranca and, occasionally, lateral water.

Don’t let the total distance of 5,966 yards fool you; this course can bite you. The course record attests to it: 64. Lyon sums up the course strategy in two words: target golf.

Beware particularly the par 5 12th hole. Several pros have rated this as one of the toughest golfing challenges in Orange County, and with good reason. It’s a 497-yard stretch with a sharp dogleg left that often forces the golfer to make a blind shot up a steep hill to the green. It used to be possible to actually lose yardage on this hole if your approach shot fell short; it could roll all the way back down the long hill, past your original lie. Lyon says the hill will now, blessedly, hold a short shot.

Listen to the lyrical description of the hole that’s printed on the back of the score card: “Oh boy! Dogleg left. Condor refuge! Two- or 3 wood off the tee. Straight out, watch the water, then a 4 or 5 iron belt, or two, up to the green high left.”

(Remember to turn that score card over, because each hole is described in pithy detail on the back, and strategies are occasionally offered. It’s a fun little read and a feature that other courses would do well to adopt.)

The greens at Anaheim Hills tend to be fairly swift--medium to fast, Lyon says. And, he said, if you’re bewildered about the breaks of the greens, as a result of looking at the slopes of the hills that surround them, it’s good to remember that most of them tend to break toward the creek at the bottom of the valley.

Remember, too, that there’s a nature center nearby, and the course is home to a good variety of wildlife. Bobcats have even been spotted, Lyon says.

If you’ve never played this course, expect it to beat you the first time out. And--that first time, anyway--get a cart. Lyon says that about 98% of all golfers who play the course ride rather than walk. And pack mules aren’t allowed.

The Good: Pleasant views and great variety of terrain; requires thoughtful strategy.

The Bad: One tiring hike if you decide to walk it.

The Ugly: High tension wires occasionally spoil the scenery.

A Matter of Course

Anaheim Hills Golf Course, 6501 Nohl Ranch Road, Anaheim Hills, 92807. (714) 998-3041.

Distance: 5,966 yards.

Par: 71.

Greens fees: Weekdays, $16 ($11 twilight rate); weekends, $20 ($12 twilight rate).

Carts: $20 ($13 twilight rate).

Driving range: Small bucket, $3; large bucket, $6.

Lessons: $30 per half hour. Package of six lessons, $150.

Reservations: Automated system; you can call seven days in advance, 24 hours a day, at (714) 748-8900.