The toughest course in the Sacramento-Roseville, CA combined area is Lahontan Golf Club, at slope 146 — ahead of Martis Camp Club at slope 146 and Del Paso Country Club at slope 145.
All 56 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Sacramento-Roseville, CA is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 56 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lahontan Golf Club | slope 146 |
| 1 | Martis Camp Club | slope 146 |
| 3 | Del Paso Country Club | slope 145 |
| 4 | The Ridge Golf Course Events Center | slope 144 |
| 5 | Apple Mountain Golf Resort | slope 141 |
| 5 | Winchester Country Club | slope 141 |
| 5 | Yocha Dehe Golf Club at Cache Creek Casino Resort | slope 141 |
| 8 | Granite Bay Golf Club | slope 140 |
| 8 | North Ridge Country Club | slope 140 |
| 8 | Northstar California Golf Course | slope 140 |
| 8 | Old Greenwood Golf Course | slope 140 |
| 8 | The Golf Club at Gray's Crossing | slope 140 |
| 8 | The Links at Everline | slope 140 |
| 8 | Whitney Oaks Golf Club | slope 140 |
| 15 | Catta Verdera Country Club | slope 139 |
| 15 | Darkhorse Golf Club | slope 139 |
| 15 | Schaffers Mill Club | slope 139 |
| 15 | Turkey Creek Golf Club | slope 139 |
| 19 | North at Rancho Murieta Country Club | slope 138 |
| 20 | Serrano Country Club | slope 136 |
| 21 | Morgan Creek Golf and Country Club | slope 135 |
| 22 | Alta Sierra Country Club | slope 134 |
| 23 | Dry Creek Ranch Golf Course | slope 133 |
| 23 | Woodcreek Golf Club | slope 133 |
| 25 | Teal Bend Golf Club | slope 132 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— the top 25 of 54 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 61 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 60 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 54 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 64 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tahoe Paradise Golf Course | 6,339 ft |
| 2 | Tahoe City Golf Course | 6,271 ft |
| 3 | Martis Camp Club | 6,219 ft |
| 4 | The Links at Everline | 6,192 ft |
| 5 | Schaffers Mill Club | 6,052 ft |
| 6 | Lahontan Golf Club | 6,025 ft |
| 7 | Old Greenwood Golf Course | 5,951 ft |
| 8 | Northstar California Golf Course | 5,911 ft |
| 9 | The Golf Club at Gray's Crossing | 5,907 ft |
| 10 | Ponderosa Golf Course | 5,884 ft |
| 11 | Apple Mountain Golf Resort | 2,734 ft |
| 12 | Nevada County Country Club | 2,591 ft |
| 13 | Alta Sierra Country Club | 2,164 ft |
| 14 | Winchester Country Club | 1,918 ft |
| 15 | Darkhorse Golf Club | 1,666 ft |
| 16 | Lake of the Pines Country Club | 1,581 ft |
| 17 | The Ridge Golf Course Events Center | 1,499 ft |
| 18 | Black Oak Golf Course | 1,415 ft |
| 19 | Lake Wildwood Golf Course | 1,288 ft |
| 20 | Serrano Country Club | 1,238 ft |
| 21 | Cameron Park Country Club | 1,181 ft |
| 22 | Cold Springs Golf Country Club | 1,178 ft |
| 23 | Empire Ranch Golf Club | 421 ft |
| 24 | Catta Verdera Country Club | 408 ft |
| 25 | Indian Creek Country Club | 355 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.