A Place Where Eagles Rarely Soar

If you’re the easily bored type who can’t get past the front nine on any single golf course without stifling a yawn, you might want to move the Tijeras Creek Golf Club a few notches up on your dance card. This finely crafted Ted Robinson-designed layout in the back acreages of Rancho Santa Margarita is about as two-faced as Eddie Haskell.

“A lot of people have the feeling that they’re playing two different courses,” said assistant pro Chris Nelson. “The higher handicap players will come back and say they never lost so many balls in their lives, but they still love it.”

Not much more than 2 years old, Tijeras Creek might be thought of as a well-tricked-up fun house, the kind that scares you while you’re in it but makes you want to go right back in.

There are good reasons for such masochism. Despite being young and lacking mature trees, the course is scenic with a changing terrain. You’ll find yourself hitting across several elevations here, and over and around wicked-looking canyons and well-placed trees. And, on both the front and back nine, flat lies are rare.

The course is well-manicured and maintained, and the mandatory use of carts helps speed up play . . . if you hit the ball straight. Stray on a number of holes, and you’ll not only be out of play, you’ll be off the course, and your ball will descend into that twilight zone where balls go to disappear forever.

Most of those ball-eating holes are on the back side, where the course runs along the ridges of a series of canyons. This back nine is the wild side of Tijeras Creek, and the score card even warns of snakes and mountain lions. The front nine appears tamer, with wider fairways and fewer dramatic changes of elevation. And instead of canyons, the fairways wind through condos.

But, Nelson cautions, the front shouldn’t be considered the tame side. It’s more than 200 yards longer than the back, and there are more potential birdie opportunities on the back side. There is also some frightening water on the front, as well as an abundance of tricky little downslopes and sideslopes on fairways that make standing at the address an adventure.

Both sides of the course are scenic. But some of those fine sights, when viewed in the context of your game, can be chilling. The par-3 fifth hole, for instance, features water--with waterfalls--that stretches all the way to the front edge of the green and around to its right side.

“It’s a scary-looking tee shot,” Nelson said. “It probably intimidates more people than any hole out here.”

There is debate among players as to which side is tougher, but no debate whatever on winning strategy, which never hurts to repeat: Hit it straight. Keep the ego in the bag. If you hit the driver long but often crooked, and your long irons straight but often short, use the irons. Straight, on the often frighteningly narrow fairways, will allow you to score; crooked can put you over the edge and into the kinds of canyons that can translate into near-double digits on score cards.

More bad news: Nelson said that the usually medium-paced greens are getting quicker, the result of a new superintendent. Also, some undulate significantly and can produce “pretty treacherous putts,” even at their present speed, Nelson said.

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A Matter of Course

* Tijeras Creek Golf Club, 29082 Tijeras Creek Road, Rancho Santa Margarita. (714) 589-9793.

* Distance: 6,220 yards.

* Par: 72.

* Greens fees: $45 Monday through Friday, includes mandatory cart; $70 Saturday and Sunday. Twilight fees, $25 Monday through Friday, $35 Saturday and Sunday.

* Lessons: Series of five half-hour lessons from head pro Doug Booth, $125. Single lessons, $30 per half hour. Lessons from assistant pros, $100 for five-lesson package or $25 for individual half-hour lesson.

* Driving range: $2, $4 and $6 buckets.

* Reservations: (714) 589-9793. May phone up to seven days in advance, starting at 6 a.m.

* How to get there: From Interstate 5, take Oso Parkway exit, go east about two miles to the dead end. Turn left to Tijeras Creek Road.

Los Angeles Times