It took eleven long years but finally made the trek back out to Santa Clarita to try my luck at Sand Canyon (formerly Robinson Ranch) again, and boy did I need as much as I could get out there.

This is not a course for the faint of heart. It's relentless and never lets you take a breath. There are elevations, crazy design angles and lines, desert chaparral mayhem arou... » More

It took eleven long years but finally made the trek back out to Santa Clarita to try my luck at Sand Canyon (formerly Robinson Ranch) again, and boy did I need as much as I could get out there.

This is not a course for the faint of heart. It's relentless and never lets you take a breath. There are elevations, crazy design angles and lines, desert chaparral mayhem around every corner, uncomfortable sightlines, and to top it off there are three nines offering all of this. My buddy and I played from the blue tees and did the Valley/Desert routing with a cart. It's a big challenge if you're not sharp off the tee or on approach.

Course conditions are far better than expected at this time of year and in that dusted out area of northern Los Angeles county. There is a lot of green in the fairways and rough, with the occasional dry spot but lots of danger areas between tee box and fairway to find trouble. A lot of the tee boxes were a bit slanted with the landscape, but they were in good shape. I only hit out of one bunker (greenside on hole 8 Valley) and it was very nice.

But the best part? The greens and the green complexes. Really fun, really nice rolls and a good mixture of massive and not-so-massive to really make you plan your approaches. Speeds weren't super fast at all but they were very consistent from hole to hole and simply a joy to play. Worth coming back just for the greens.

Driving range looks like a synthetic football field from the Pacific Northwest, but it gets the job done. Customer service folks were nice, as was the one cart girl we met up with on the front nine. Pace of play? Epic - we were done on a fairly quiet day out there in just under four hours. That was great.

Now that I've moved away from the South Bay and more up into the Los Angeles area, I finally realized that an afternoon tee time here with no traffic only takes about 40-45 minutes to get there, so I think that I will be not waiting another decade before I take on the super fun challenge of Sand Canyon again.
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Mid week early morning 4.5 hour round. The staff is friendly and helpful. The carts are good and equipped with gps and windshields. The tee boxes were all level but slightly thin and dry. The rough is hit and miss with sections but not present on every hole. Where it exists most rough was thin and short enough to put a good strike on the ball. The fairways vary from good ... » More

Mid week early morning 4.5 hour round. The staff is friendly and helpful. The carts are good and equipped with gps and windshields. The tee boxes were all level but slightly thin and dry. The rough is hit and miss with sections but not present on every hole. Where it exists most rough was thin and short enough to put a good strike on the ball. The fairways vary from good to poor depending on the hole. The good fairways had nice coverage with decent lies. The thin fairways were thinner and dry requiring you to move the ball to grass. The traps were mostly thin, dry, compact and in need of more sand. The greens were in decent shape and held approach shots okay. The greens were quite slow overall and still bumpy depending on the hole. There was total coverage on all holes with some having a weed or two popping up here and there. The layout and location of the course are good and rates reasonable.
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Played 6/25 for the first time in over 10 years. I wanted to see first hand if the improvements advertised are taking hold. First off, it was worth the $55 green fee. Layout is nice with some shots requiring thought and proper club selection. Greens in pretty good shape, albeit a little slow on the role. Fairways a solid 7 of 10 with some being in better shape than others.... » More

Played 6/25 for the first time in over 10 years. I wanted to see first hand if the improvements advertised are taking hold. First off, it was worth the $55 green fee. Layout is nice with some shots requiring thought and proper club selection. Greens in pretty good shape, albeit a little slow on the role. Fairways a solid 7 of 10 with some being in better shape than others. Sand traps are in bad shape and should be called dirt traps as opposed to Sand Traps. 3.5 hour round, courteous staff and clean carts with GPS. All and all not bad for $55 and I can tell they are making efforts to improve which are paying off. Put a little sand in the traps and I will come back.
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First off course was in much better condition than most reviews we read before going. That said this maybe NOT the course for short hitting men or women, it is not so much the length but the kikuyu grass fairways and all around the greens making landing short, just that short. Long hitters, for sure off tee may find this really great course, but short hitters are not getting ... » More

First off course was in much better condition than most reviews we read before going. That said this maybe NOT the course for short hitting men or women, it is not so much the length but the kikuyu grass fairways and all around the greens making landing short, just that short. Long hitters, for sure off tee may find this really great course, but short hitters are not getting any roll if they have much height on tee shots. You may find it hard to chip off the kikuyu also if your not used to it and the kikuyu around most greens is packed TIGHT. I would call it a good course for long hitters off the tee just to get closer to greens and be able to hit greens with short irons. The course is very popular and was full on the Monday we played, just know if you never have played on an almost full kikuyu course the first time is different for sure (and hard).
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Monday, 6/22, was our first private course event at Alta Vista CC. It was a big turnout of over 100 players on a beautiful day. I was impressed with the fun challenging layout providing a large variety elevation changes and doglegs. The course was in excellent condition tee to green. Greens rolled smooth, held shots and were moderately fast. Fairways were lush and groomed provi... » More

Monday, 6/22, was our first private course event at Alta Vista CC. It was a big turnout of over 100 players on a beautiful day. I was impressed with the fun challenging layout providing a large variety elevation changes and doglegs. The course was in excellent condition tee to green. Greens rolled smooth, held shots and were moderately fast. Fairways were lush and groomed providing great lies all day. Rough was a challenging blend of Kikuyu/Bermuda, about 2 inches adjacent to the fairways and about 3 to 4 inches greenside. Tee boxes were level, lush and well groomed. The bunkers lagged in comparison to the rest of the course from a condition’s standpoint due to sand quality which I found to be mostly firm and a little crusty. Interesting characteristic about the bunkers is they are all filled to capacity with about 1-to-2-inch lips. It seems like you could putt out of them but the edges of the bunkers are all surrounded by 4 inch Kikuyu/Bermunda rough making it highly unadvisable.

For an event organizer standpoint, Alta Vista CC has a fantastic staging area. Driving range, practice putting, proshop, golf carts, bag-drop, clubhouse, snack bar, parking and first tee box are all conveniently located for your group. With their excellent outside services and well-organized staging area, our group thoroughly enjoyed their pre-round experience. Plus, it made it easy for us organizers to check-in and keep track of our players.
I just posted some photos. The course looks even better in person.

It was a great day teeing up with GKers rgm2525, sparky14 and Itslikeimsayin who helped with the event!

I highly recommend Alta Vista CC for golf events and those interested in memberships.

We will be back!
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