COURSE ATTRACTIVE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

MISSION VIEJO - The newest golf course in Orange County offers a links experience with playing conditions, weather and rates well worth the 90-minute drive from the San Fernando Valley.

Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, which opened last month to two consecutive weeks of fully-booked tee times, has plenty to offer its new clientele. But the list of attractions starts with exceptionally fair greens fees - especially for those who have the time to play this meandering layout late on a midweek summer day.

Arroyo Trabuco's standard rates of $55 from Monday to Thursday and $85 on weekends (including a cart) are enough of a recommendation for a course of this quality. But play this breeze-buffeted course at the weekday twilight cost of $45 after 2 p.m., or the super-twilight charge of $35 after 4 p.m. and you'll get the most in beauty as well as bargain.

Designed by Casey O'Callaghan and Tom Lehman - the former Wood Ranch of Simi Valley teaching pro who went on to win the British Open in 1996 - Arroyo Trabuco offers golfers a wilderness feel despite being located less than a mile east of almost-always congested Interstate 5.

The links-like layout, which plays to a par of 72 and from 5,045 to 7,011 yards from its five sets of tees, winds uninterrupted for 18 holes along Trabuco Creek and through the rolling foothills of the Ladera Open Space Reserve.

Those undeveloped hills, which border much of the back nine, will remain undeveloped because more than 200 acres of open space were dedicated to Orange County for extension of O'Neil Regional Park as part of the development of the course.

The picturesque look is accompanied by a challenge that will test the best golfers when the wind gusts at Arroyo Trabuco, which plays to a 73.7 rating and 134 slope from its back tees.

Mostly wide, canting fairways, large greens and large bunkers characterize the course, which plays typically downwind for its first five holes, a run that includes the No. 1-handicap second hole - a 453-yard par 4 that doglegs left around large trees.

That downwind start, which also includes a 231-yard, water-fronted par 3 that Lehman aced on opening day, finishes with an uphill, 438-yard par 4. It starts to turn back with an uphill 295-yard par 4 long hitters can drive but that also presents plenty of problems around its double-tiered green.

Then comes a nine-hole stretch that plays mostly into the wind that can make Arroyo Trabuco so challenging in the afternoon. The best hole in that run might be the toughest on the course - the 495-yard, par-4 12th, which requires an into-the-wind tee shot over an intimidating canyon and includes the likelihood of facing a long approach from a sidehill lie.

There's plenty of potential for a big score on this hole, but there's also plenty of beauty from the tee box - especially looking toward the hills that flank the left side of No. 12.

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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