architect William F. BellThe facility was ranked the 48th best municipal golf course in the country by Golf Week magazine in 2014 and named "The Best Course You've Never Heard Of" by GOLF Magazine in 2021. Soule Park was originally designed by renowned architect William F. Bell in 1962.
Dr. BagwellDr. Bagwell, the owner of River Ridge Golf Club hosts an annual tournament for his friends and colleagues!! I spy my kiddo! He was so excited to play.
The Victoria Lakes Course at River Ridge G.C., opened in 2008. The 12th through the 14th holes are a formidable set, particularly the par-4 13th. This hole is a double dogleg that not only plays into the wind, it is also flanked by water on both sides.
River Ridge is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 13,591 in 2020.
Soule Park Golf Course is one of the Country’s most highly regarded municipal golf courses. Situated in the spectacular Ojai Valley, Soule Park was ranked the 48th best municipal golf course in the country by Golf Week magazine in 2014. The golf course at Soule Park was originally designed by renowned architect William F. Bell in 1962. Bell was responsible for many other iconic Southern California golf courses including Torrey Pines (North and South) in San Diego and Sandpiper in Santa Barbara. In 2005 Soule Park underwent a golf course renovation led by Gil Hanse who is one of the industry’s most highly regarded modern-day golf course architects. Hanse was the architect responsible for designing the Olympic Golf Course for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and has recently redesigned both the North and South golf courses at Los Angeles Country Club.
Hanse was the architect responsible for designing the Olympic Golf Course for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and has recently redesigned both the North and South golf courses at Los Angeles Country Club. See The Course.
Excellent variety from hole to hole, heavily contoured greens with lots of twists and turns, beautiful setting, well-maintained, surprisingly affordable.
Much of Soule Park's character comes from its enviable environs. Situated at an elevation of about 750 feet in the Ojai Valley and surrounded by mountains that rise to more than 5,000 feet, the course would be a slice of golf heaven even with a relatively pedestrian design.
Step up to the elevated tee at the par-4 first (382 yards) and it's immediately clear that Soule Park doesn't give you a warmup hole. The irrigation pond down below will swallow just about any miss left, so picking a target on the right side is advised.
Every maintenance crew has an off week now and then, but for our money, Soule Park is one of the best-maintained courses in the region. The fairways are lush and tightly mown, the greens roll fast and true, and the tee boxes are generally well-grassed and supple.
We don't mean to damn Soule Park with faint praise by repeatedly bringing up value; it's just that courses of this quality are generally not found in this price range. Even at $100 a pop—which another of Hanse's courses, Rustic Canyon in Moorpark, will run you at peak times—Soule Park would be highly rated for its layout, locale, and conditioning.
Ventura County owns Soule Park but leases it to private operators. After the flood, the leaseholder walked away. For several months, as the county focused its efforts on La Conchita, the golf course hung, like the bridges, in mid-air. The staff opened a few makeshift holes, but the property deteriorated. The underground infrastructure had been wrecked, and weeds had begun to take over.
The first task at Soule Park was to make the golf course functional again. They had to replace the irrigation system, repair (and in one case, wholly rebuild) the bridges across San Antonio Creek, and recover the lost tees and greens. But since Price trusted Hanse and Wagner, he allowed them to pursue a more ambitious scheme. “Jim and I went around and looked at what we could do,” Hanse says, “what we could tweak, what we could push, where we could put bunkers that were more meaningful, change them stylistically, and build what we hoped would be a better set of greens.”
Although Hanse and Wagner kept most of William F. Bell’s routing, their renovation of Soule Park was transformative. With a modest amount of tree removal, they opened up new angles on several holes. Their jagged-edged, Bell Sr.-style bunkers introduced risk-reward questions from the tee, and their subtly contoured greens added variety to approach and short-game shots. Their work brought Soule Park’s true character into relief: with its barrancas, oaks, sloping terrain, and strategic design, it was a vintage California golf course in the Thomas and Bell tradition.
Meanwhile, Hanse Golf Course Design was on the rise. Their 2005 design at Boston Golf Club had earned positive notices, and they had begun high-profile restoration and renovation work at Los Angeles CC, Sleepy Hollow CC, and TPC Boston. At Soule Park, the debate raged on largely without their involvement. “It depresses us,” Wagner says, “because people don’t ask our opinion.”
The 4th green at Soule Park. The punchbowl 5th green is the inverse of the 4th—convex instead of concave. Until you reach the top of the ridge 20 yards out, you can’t see this green at all. So going for it in two is a nervy proposition: a long iron or a wood to a blind target surrounded by dense foliage.
When the Soule Park RFP came out, he was searching anxiously for his next opportunity. “I was looking at everything at that point,” he says. “I really was looking at everything.”
The brouhaha grew loud enough to reach the ears of the Wall Street Journal ’s John Paul Newport, who reported that the senior men’s club at Soule Park had lost 45 of its 175 regular members .
Soule Park Golf Course, in the Ojai Valley, just inland from Ventura, Calif., is a true hidden gem. The basic bones of the golf course were always good, starting with a William Bell design of 1962, stitched around a wandering barranca that works its way through the wide valley floor.
Soule is the kind of place where everyone is welcome. At $30-40 a round , it is a bargain and a great throwback to minimalist strategic design. T-shirts, flip-flops and plus-fours all pass muster with the dress code. The beer you sip after golf won’t drain your wallet either.
All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy a linked product, GOLF.COM may earn a fee. Pricing may vary.
Why Soule Park Golf Course is the best course you’ve never heard of. Soule Park Golf Course, in the Ojai Valley of California, is fun and affordable. Our knowledgeable crew of course raters have played golf just about everywhere. Many of those courses you’ve probably heard of, but some are less renowned — at least for most golfers.