Oxnard, Vineyards, and a Second Eighteen

The place

River Ridge is an Oxnard golf factory in the best way: more than one course, vineyard in the name and in the neighborhood, and the Pacific not far enough away to ignore. Victoria Lakes is the water-minded eighteen. Ventura County golf has a different light than Sacramento—softer, marine, a little agricultural. This is Southern California without the postcard congestion of a resort town.

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.