Cinnabar Hills Golf Club

Cinnabar Hills Golf Club is South San Jose's most ambitious modern public-access facility, a 27-hole John Harbottle III design that opened in August 1998 as San Jose's first new public course in 30 years. Harbottle III was one of the finest American golf architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries (Stevinson Ranch, Genoa Lakes, Trump National Hudson Valley among his credits), and Cinnabar Hills is his signature Silicon Valley work. Named for the rich, red cinnabar ore mined here during the 1800s, the course features three distinct nines: Canyon, Lake, and Mountain, each routed to maintain the natural slope of the hillsides and protect the wildlife residing on the property. The three-nine format delivers genuine variety across three 18-hole combinations, which makes Cinnabar a natural repeat-visit course for Bay Area locals and a must-sample for visitors. The Canyon/Lake rotation plays as the primary championship test, while the Mountain nine adds dramatic hillside routing and the best panoramic Silicon Valley views. The property also houses the Lee Brandenburg Historical Golf Museum (opened concurrently in August 1998), founder Lee Brandenburg's 60-year golf-memorabilia collection is one of the largest private golf museums open to the public in California, a genuinely unusual amenity for a daily-fee facility. For the San Jose / South Bay / Silicon Valley trip visitor, Cinnabar Hills is the must-play architectural-pedigree public round, paired naturally with Corica Park South (Rees Jones 2018 rebuild), Coyote Creek (Jack Nicklaus), and Pasatiempo (MacKenzie, 50 min south) for a four-round Bay Area package.