The Best Golf Courses in Long Beach
Ask around Los Angeles about the best golf courses in Long Beach and you'll mostly get a shrug. The city sits in a strange blind spot — too far south for LA's marquee munis, not quite Orange County's resort coast — and that blind spot is exactly why it's one of the most underrated golf towns in Southern California. Long Beach has been in the public-golf business for over a century: the city bought Recreation Park through a voter-approved bond in 1923 and has run serious municipal golf ever since.
The pedigree here is real. William P. Bell and his son William F. Bell — the family behind many of Southern California's classic layouts — shaped three of the courses on this list, and Ted Robinson Sr., a Long Beach native who became one of the region's most prolific architects, built the other two. The Long Beach Open, widely regarded as one of the best non-PGA Tour events in the country, has been contested on these city courses for decades, with future Tour winners like Paul Goydos, Scott McCarron and Kevin Na on its honor roll.
This list runs the full spectrum: a century-old muni, an airport-side track rebuilt for the modern game, a tournament-hardened parkland, a 7,000-yard public course hiding behind a country-club name, and — for those with a member to call — the area's one true private club, just across the county line in Seal Beach.
1. Recreation Park Golf Course 18
The case for Rec 18 starts with age: golf has been played on this ground since 1919, when the private Virginia Country Club built its original course here, and the Bell-attributed parkland that survives is a genuine piece of Southern California golf history. There's no water anywhere on the property — the defense is constant elevation change, honest bunkering, and grabby Kikuyu fairways that punish lazy contact. At 6,405 yards with a 70.2 rating and 119 slope, it's the friendliest scorecard on this list, which is exactly why its tee sheet is one of the busiest in the city. Book ahead, and take an extra club out of the rough.
2. Skylinks at Long Beach Golf Course
Skylinks is the muni for golfers who want a modern test without leaving the city limits. William F. Bell built it beside Long Beach Airport in 1959, and Cal Olson's 2004 redesign fully modernized the layout, working three lakes and subtle contour into a 6,909-yard par 72 that rates 72.7/127. The 2019 NCGOA "Golf Course of the Year" nod is the kind of pedigree few municipal courses anywhere can claim.
3. El Dorado Park Golf Course
El Dorado Park is where Long Beach golf gets competitive. The 1962 layout is early Ted Robinson Sr. — the Long Beach native credited with more than 160 courses — and it has been home to the Long Beach Open for more than three decades, after earlier hosting the Queen Mary Open. Don't let 6,461 yards fool you: mature park trees pinch nearly every driving line, and the small, firm greens explain the 127 slope. Accuracy beats distance here, all day.
4. Lakewood Country Club
Yes, it says country club — no, you don't need a membership. Lakewood is a public course, and at 7,010 yards it's the longest layout on this list: a 1933 William P. Bell design threaded through mature trees and lakes that rates a stout 73.2/129. It has hosted the California State Open and U.S. Senior Women's Amateur qualifying and has repeatedly been named LA County Golf Course of the Year. Championship substance, one town over on Carson Street.
5. Old Ranch Country Club
The area's private option sits just across the Orange County line in Seal Beach. Ted Robinson Sr. laid out this championship course in 1967 on the Bixby family's historic "Old Ranch" property, threading tree-lined fairways among the ornamental lakes and waterfalls that became his trademark. At 6,932 yards with a 73.4 rating and 133 slope, it's the stiffest test in the area, and the club — operated by Invited — backs the golf with full country-club amenities. You'll need a member to get on, but it's the ceiling of Long Beach-area golf.
Which One Should You Play?
If you only have one round, play Rec 18 for the history — it's the course that made Long Beach a muni town. Chasing a score? El Dorado's tree-lined corridors will test your driver more honestly than anywhere in the city, while Skylinks offers the most modern layout of the munis. Want the big course? Lakewood's 7,010 yards are open to everyone, name notwithstanding. And if an Old Ranch member offers an invitation, cancel whatever else you had planned.