Callippe Preserve Golf Course in Pleasanton is on Golfweek Magazine’s list of the Best Municipal Golf Courses in the nation for 2008-2009. The list is compiled by a nationwide team of more than 475 evaluators who rate the courses on the basis of 10 strict standards including routing, conditioning, variety and memorability of holes. The result is an average of scores, which then dictates a course’s overall ranking.
    “This is a very prestigious honor for Callippe Preserve Golf Course, to be considered one of the top 50 municipal courses in the nation out of more than 8,000 courses. This well-kept secret of local golfers is now out of the bag to the larger golf world,” according to course General Manager Mike Ash.
    This marks the first time that the course has been included on the elite list, which also boasts Torrey Pines course in La Jolla, host of Tiger Woods’ dramatic U.S. Open victory last summer, and San Francisco’s Harding Park, which will host the President’s Cup this fall. Callippe Preserve Golf Course, which opened in November 2005, is also one of the newer courses on the distinguished list, where some of the courses have long and established histories dating back as far as the 1920s.
    Designed by Brian Costello of JMP Golf Design Group, Inc., Callippe Golf Course was developed as part of a cooperative effort to create an 18-hole golf course, hiking and equestrian trails, endangered species habitat, wetland establishment, and dedicated grazing land. The course site is a protected habitat for the federally endangered Callippe Silverspot Butterfly and the California Tiger Salamander, and the federally threatened California Red Legged Frog.
    There are five sets of tees on this par 72, with the black tees playing at 6,748. The blue tees measure at 6,409, then the white tees at 6,024 yards, the gold tees at 5,560, and the red at 4,788 yards. Players on this course will get a preview of the demanding approach to the 10th hole when making their way to the number one green.  Varieties of terrain are spread throughout the course as the front nine is routed through the valley and the back nine sits on a higher elevation with the Happy Valley Creek winding throughout.