Brooktrails at Brooktrails Golf Course

Brooktrails Golf Course sits in the forested hills above Willits in Mendocino County, roughly two hours north of San Francisco in California's redwood country. Designed by Robert Muir Graves and opened in the early 1970s, the course was developed as part of the Brooktrails residential community, a planned development that brought recreational amenities to this rural region along Highway 101. Graves, a prolific Northern California architect who designed more than 150 courses throughout his career, worked extensively in mountain and foothill settings where he incorporated natural terrain into playable layouts for everyday golfers.

The course occupies rolling, wooded terrain characteristic of the inland Coast Range, with Douglas fir and oak trees framing fairways and elevation changes that reflect the area's hillside topography. The routing takes advantage of the natural contours while maintaining accessibility for the local membership and visitors traveling through the region. As a nine-hole facility, Brooktrails serves primarily as a community course for residents of the development and the broader Willits area, offering a straightforward mountain golf experience without the pretense of destination layouts found closer to the coast.

The setting provides a contrast to the fog-shrouded courses of the Mendocino coastline forty miles to the west. Here, the climate tends toward warmer summers and the landscape reflects the transition zone between coastal influence and interior valleys, with the surrounding forest creating a secluded atmosphere typical of Northern California's smaller mountain courses.