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Every Hill Has a Lesson

Lake Chabot Golf Course Oakland, California

Oakland municipal golf in the East Bay hills, with lake views, elevation changes, and no interest in flattening itself for your convenience.

The place

Lake Chabot does not ease you in. It is Oakland, it is hilly, and it is one of those public courses that teaches patience before it teaches birdies. The lake appears and disappears. The city does too. A round here is a hike with a golf bag and a reminder that Bay Area golf is not only Pebble Beach posters. Sometimes it is a municipal hillside and a view you earned by walking up to it.

What it asks of you: The slope in front of you is information. It is not a personal insult.

JW’s personal notes from the round will live here — the funny moment, the people, the 19th hole — without inventing what hasn’t been written yet.

Nearby in the journal

Morgan Creek Golf & Country Club

Roseville

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