Cherry Island Golf Course

The best looking pin sheet you can find could be your best friend.

Until a yardage book is finished, officials at Cherry Island Golf Course in Elverta are offering a computerized sheet that should give players a fighting chance on a course that brings new meaning to the phrase "target golf."

If you don't know how to read a sheet, you need to learn quickly. If you do, you could be in for a great day at one of the better golf bargains in the Sacramento area.

The 1990 track was designed by Robert Muir Graves, who has dozens of solid Northern California courses on his resume (including Paradise Valley in Fairfield). Cherry Island is one of his better efforts, and will provide you with a good chance to hit your target score ... if you can club down on several holes and stay near the fairway.

The choices off the tee begin right away. No. 1 is one of the shortest and strangest starting holes you'll find anywhere, an elbow dogleg-right that measures just 331 yards from the back tees. Big hitters will be tempted to aim right at a long but narrow green, but everything over the dogleg is either rough or a bunker. And anything beyond the fairway is in a hazard.

No. 1 has more bunkers - four - than any other hole, but hazards are the big test here. Water is in play on 12 of the holes.

Three more bunkers guard the left side of the green at No. 2, a medium-length par-4 that forces a carry over a hazard off the tee and is the No. 1 handicap hole.

No. 3 also is a test, and may be the best hole on the course. The long par-5 has water left off the tee, a narrow landing area for the second shot and an elbow dogleg left approach. Again, club down and hit your target.

The rest of the front nine is easier, although there is more water at No. 6, and more trees at Nos. 5 and 9.

The second nine starts with three long par-4s that can either make or break your day. No. 10 is a beauty, a dogleg-right that forces a layup off the tee and a long second shot across a hazard to another narrow green.

Other highlights on the back side include No. 14, a short par-4 where the decision off the tee involves a huge fairway bunker, and No. 16, another dogleg with a layup off the tee and a second shot across a hazard.

End your day with another ego check, a short par-5 that requires a pair of layups and a short but tough approach to another narrow green protected on the right by a huge bunker.

Cherry Island has a big upside. This is a unique, fun course with a number of challenges but plenty of birdie chances as well. There is a great mix of long and short holes.

Conditions are solid and the greens are consistent, although they are slow most of the time.

The price also is hard to beat, just $39 with a cart during the week and $45 on the weekends. And it's just 45 miles from Vacaville.

The shoulder shrugs come when you don't have the pin sheet or don't use it. There are barber poles on most holes - note the colors - but you simply can't tell how far past the poles the fairways end and the hazards begin. And with as many as eight holes that require layups off the tee, such knowledge is crucial.

Cherry Island is no secret, either, so don't expect to cruise around the course by yourself.

But you shouldn't mind sharing the real estate with others. This course is a lot of fun, and the small price tag may have you planning a return trip soon.

Directions Ð Take Interstate 80 east to Sacramento. Take the Watt Avenue exit north. Turn left on Elverta Road. The course is on the left (Antelope Greens, a totally different course, is on the right side of Elverta east of Cherry Island, so don't be confused).