It was slightly raining that morning and the tide was in. The view across the bay was like any other. Seagulls, water, and baskets...

We started in the parking lot. No shady characters to be seen. Just the pure beauty a open public restroom brings after a three hour drive and bad McDonald's. We moved to the kiosk at the start of the course. The signage at the board was good.

The early morning mist left the grass wet and slick. The towels came out. Despite their age, the tee pads where up to the job. Solid grip. We couldn't say the same about the grass.

We threw, the baskets caught, the bay shinned with the occasional ray of sun that managed to get through. Tall grass in the back fairways made the already wet, even more wet. We trudged on.

The last three holes. The swamp. The OB. The smell. All that came before was nothing compared to it. Skill was needed. Some men didn't make it.

Several fairways play up close to each other. Though I doubt this actually causes a lot of problems as the course did not have a lot of traffic.
Hole 3/5 baskets are sort of confusing as they are close together.

For a city park 9 hole Manila is par for the course. Solid use of what space was allowed. A couple of wide open shots, then solid use of water and vegetation. The use of the swamp on the last few holes does add an extra element to the experience. You do NOT want to go in there.

The views over Humboldt Bay can be very impressive when the tide is in but when the tide is out, you're looking at acres of nothing but mud.

Manila Bay is another simple little nine course located in a typical little city park. The park features a playground, bathrooms and the usual collection of California's homeless dudes, and tweakers.

The course has some concrete pads and then more natural pads. The baskets are old and there is a kiosk at the beginning. The holes are fairly short (200') making this a definite rec type course. The longest hole (#2) throws across an old baseball field with the basket perched just on the other side of the 3rd baseline fence. # 3 7 4 are short little ACE runs.
# 9, which some reviewers claim as the highlight of the course, was for me, a hole to be skipped. It's a low tunnel shot throw, maybe 240' with dense rough on the right side. I wanted to take no chance of throwing into the nasty green swamp like creek which runs # 9's entire length.

# 9 and it's swampy creek.

The ugly muddy bay view when the tide is out was disappointing.

Grungy folks hanging out in the parking lot made me nervous about leaving my rental car unattended.

Other than # 9, I enjoyed playing this little course. It's just another of the nameless, faceless, 9 hole courses around the country set in little city parks such as this. They all serve their purpose, providing a place for the local locals who live close by to play, people like the father-son I encountered the day I play Manila Bay.

Combine Manila Bay with Cooper Gulch and Mad River for the trifecta of nine holers in this area.