Played Angeles National this past Sunday with Johnny, Mattias and Kassper7 and we rode the white tees for a nice $60 fee that Mr. GK himself got us set up with. I was also playing my initial round on the Flex Tour thingy that I'm trying out this year for the first time, and we had our own little match play going on after Perry and I took down the Swede and the Grand Poobah at B... » More

Played Angeles National this past Sunday with Johnny, Mattias and Kassper7 and we rode the white tees for a nice $60 fee that Mr. GK himself got us set up with. I was also playing my initial round on the Flex Tour thingy that I'm trying out this year for the first time, and we had our own little match play going on after Perry and I took down the Swede and the Grand Poobah at Black Gold a few months back. All of this led to a rather slow POP based entirely on us playing competitively, and of course all of those lost balls out into the wilderness areas.

As the last few reviews have stated, it's incredibly thin at Angeles right now and if you're not picking the ball extremely cleanly, you're either getting a big chunk of earth or thinning it into the Santa Monica mountains. Visually very interesting seeing the dormant fairways with their yellow hues surrounded by the greener rough, but it's all thin and very frustrating around the greens especially with chipping being a nightmare. Bunkers were very heavy after the rains and had plenty of standing water. Tee boxes were great.

Greens were definitely in great shape and running super fast. There are no gimmees here whatsoever and we had a fun time going back and forth with the pin based on the new 2019 rules. If you were far out and downhill, that pin was staying in. If you were close, it was coming out. But the greens again are in super shape and rolling true. It was difficult to get balls to stop on them though at those speeds and the less than ideal approach conditions.

Cart service was around a few times despite not being particularly crowded due to the cold temps, and the carts have a solid GPS system in place to help out if you're not too familiar with the layout.

This is an already very tough design with many forced carries over waste areas, hidden hazards like the lake on hole 8, and strategically placed bunkers and trees that will test your accuracy all day long. Add to that the thin fairway and rough conditions and it's a recipe for a pretty rough round. But as we all know, this is just temporary at a great facility like Angeles National and they will very likely have conditions back up to snuff very soon when we get out of the winter malaise.

I'm not sure what the rack rate is right now but I would certainly be reluctant to play here unless I got the kind of deal that Johnny managed to get for us, but I also don't think that will be impossible to find. They seem to do a very good job here at knowing what their customer expectations are and act accordingly.
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I was itching to get out and play, as I hadn't been out since Jan.1 and probably won't get to play again before heading down south to Aviara in about a week. Decided to chance the weather and head to Del Monte which is an easily walkable course. Track has slight elevation changes on a few holes but nothing major. Just enough to keep it fun. We had light rain for the fir... » More

I was itching to get out and play, as I hadn't been out since Jan.1 and probably won't get to play again before heading down south to Aviara in about a week. Decided to chance the weather and head to Del Monte which is an easily walkable course. Track has slight elevation changes on a few holes but nothing major. Just enough to keep it fun. We had light rain for the first half dozen holes or so and mist off an on the rest of the round. Given that it has rained off an on for the last 3 days, the course was naturally wet. But still in decent shape. Greens which are very small, were smooth and divot free but rolling slower than usual. Most pins were in the back, up on the high side to avoid the few puddled areas a few of the greens had on the low sides. Other than the cold water in the cups, no real issues with the greens.

Tee boxes were excellent as always. Fairways are narrow at Del Monte, but the "first cut" is like 20' wide on each side so no real penalty unless you're really wild off the tee. Some of the fairways were swamp zone's but most were in good conditions. Give it a couple days to dry out and the fairways will be excellent. An easy 9+. First cut rough was very playable and sometimes even preferred depending on how wet the fairway was. I was in 3 bunkers and all were fine. Given the rain, I was actually impressed at how good the sand was in the bunkers.

POP, was non existent as there was only one other group out on the course other than us.
For the member rate of $39 w/ a cart during the winter, this course is a steal. For the $110 walking rack rate, there are better options in the peninsula.
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Super course. Played in December but all in great condition. There is no overseeding at DF so there are no damp areas and they let it go brown over winter. It is a pristine course on a very compact layout with narrow fairways but no fairway bunkers, only one big one - the desert. The greens ran quite smoothly and reasonably fast - maybe around 10 . I would play it again in a tr... » More

Super course. Played in December but all in great condition. There is no overseeding at DF so there are no damp areas and they let it go brown over winter. It is a pristine course on a very compact layout with narrow fairways but no fairway bunkers, only one big one - the desert. The greens ran quite smoothly and reasonably fast - maybe around 10 . I would play it again in a trice, one of the best if you get a chance.
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