Ask where Los Angeles golfers go when they want more golf for their money and the answer is over the hill: northwest up the 101, past the San Fernando Valley, into the Conejo Valley and the Simi corridor. The Conejo Valley golf courses of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Moorpark and Simi Valley punch absurdly far above their ZIP codes — this is where a nationally ranked public course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature trophy club and a pair of honest municipal layouts all sit within a few exits of each other.
The range here is the point. Rustic Canyon is the golf-architecture crowd's favorite public course in Southern California; Sherwood spent more than a decade hosting Tiger Woods' World Challenge; and Ted Robinson — the corridor's house architect, with three of the six courses on this list — supplies everything in between, from a 27-hole country club to a muni that opened with $10 green fees. Here are the six courses that define golf in the Conejo Valley, and how to choose among them.
Rustic Canyon Golf Course
If the corridor has a headliner, this is it. The 2002 minimalist build from Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford across the floor of Moorpark's Happy Camp Canyon sits at No. 45 on Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play and No. 5 among California public courses per Golfweek — and it's still a daily-fee tee sheet anyone can book. Firm, links-style turf, huge contoured greens and wide angles reward the ground game, and the bunkerless 479-yard 16th is minimalism at its purest. Par 72 and 7,044 yards from the tips, it remains arguably the best public-golf value in Southern California.
Sherwood Country Club
The valley's trophy. Jack Nicklaus's Signature design opened in 1989 at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains above Lake Sherwood, and few private clubs anywhere have hosted more televised golf: the prime-time "Showdown at Sherwood" in 1999, Tiger Woods' World Challenge from 2000 through 2013, and the PGA Tour's Zozo Championship in 2020. It's strictly private — par 72, 7,088 yards, bentgrass greens and fairways — and Dustin Johnson's course-record 61 tells you the Tour has taken its measure. If the invitation comes, you cancel whatever else you had planned.
North Ranch Country Club
Westlake Village's home club is a Ted Robinson original from 1975 that grew to 27 holes — Valley, Oaks and Lakes nines — stretching to 7,344 yards in the Oaks/Lakes pairing. Robinson's trademark water is all over the oak-studded property, and a 2024 renovation by Jackson Kahn Design rebuilt the nines for modern distances while preserving the original routing. The pedigree is real, too: it has hosted the Southwestern Invitational college tournament since 1978.
Wood Ranch Golf Club
Simi Valley's only private club is Ted Robinson at his most demanding: 14 lakes, ponds and streams, deep bunkers, and a 74.6 rating with a 142 slope from the 6,972-yard tips that make it one of Ventura County's sternest examinations. The club announced itself early by hosting the Senior PGA Tour's GTE West Classic in 1987 and 1988. The all-water par-3 13th is the hole everyone is still talking about on the drive home.
Los Robles Greens Golf Course
Thousand Oaks' city-owned course is the everyday heartbeat of Conejo Valley golf — a 1964 William F. Bell/Bob E. Baldock design where old oaks (the "robles" of the name) frame nearly every fairway on a walkable par 70. A 2015–16 Fry/Straka renovation removed more than 30 acres of irrigated turf, naturalized the edges and earned national design recognition, so it looks better and plays smarter than most munis. At 6,304 yards it defends itself with trees, angles and kikuyu rather than length.
Simi Hills Golf Course
The honest value play on the Simi Valley floor: a 1981 Ted Robinson municipal design run by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, with water in play on eight holes and more than 50 bunkers keeping the 6,636-yard, par-71 card interesting. The long par-4 7th — into the prevailing wind, off a canted fairway, to a green sloping hard back-to-front — is as tough as public golf gets around here. It's Simi Valley's only 18-hole public course, and it wears its 2.5 million rounds proudly.
Which One Should You Play?
If you only get one round out here, drive to Moorpark — Rustic Canyon is the pilgrimage, and the daily-fee price is the punchline. For a regular game, Los Robles Greens is the better everyday walk and Simi Hills the sneaky-hard value round. The private trio sorts itself by your contact list: Sherwood is the bucket-lister, North Ranch the 27-hole members' haven, and Wood Ranch the toughest scorecard in the county. Pick your fight accordingly.