Well, played here during a golf tournament this past weekend (June 28). As usual the staff is outstanding every time I come out and play here. The fairways were absolutely gorgeous, everything was pretty much immaculate with the exception of the greens.

The greens were super slow, had light brown patches everywhere that looked like a whole bunch of jellyfish were just rolled onto the green. Apparently, all greens have some type of fungal infection which is why the course WILL BE CLOSED FOR RENOVATION of all the greens for the next six months. According to the local pro, the Lakes course will not open until next year. This review may be a little biased due to the aforementioned greens, but the course is taking care of the issue. We just happened to be the last tourney to come around before the big renovation.

Played the Desert course for a weekend golf tournament. The course was in great shape, the weather was beautiful (probably broke 90 with a slight breeze). This was a shotgun tournament scheduled at 7:45 a.m., but we ended up teeing off until almost 8:30 due to another concurrent shotgun tournament being held by another group on the Lakes course.

The fairways were immaculate and were rolling beautifully! Most holes I teed off with a 3 iron or 3W because they balls was rolling so long after its carrry. I reached almost all par 5s in two and had several opportunities for eagle but the course's defense were the fast greens.

The greens had several shelves, undulations, and you had to be very imaginative to try to lag putt close to the hole and avoid the dreaded 3-putts which I found many times during my round. I would rate the course a 9.5 right now, but I'm not sure how the Bermuda greens will hold with this upcoming summer heat. Highly recommended course!

Played on Sunday 6/8/08....starter was very nice in accomodating our tee time and push it back since I didn't arrive at the correct course. I was at Wilson instead of Woodley....started with a "w" LOL.

Well, this was my first time playing here and we teed off around 9:00 a.m. and finished the round in just a little over a four hour period. The fairways had very little bare spots, I would say 95% of the fairways gave you beautiful lies, fluffy, and almost felt that the ball was teed up for on the fairway. The disadvantage was that the ball didn't roll much off the tee and some par 4s from the blue tees are pretty long. The course is WIDE OPEN, you can pretty much "bomb and gouge" throughout the course.

The greens are large, "soft", and very receptive so you must play your CARRY distances on all your approach shots or pay the consequence of putting over a long distance with a high probability of 3-putting. This course should be very easy to score on if your a single digit handicapper. I still managed to find trouble otherwise I would have shot in the mid 70s today...darn driver! Well, as noeldaof says, "Keep it in the short grass".

Well, I don't want to plagiarize, so I'll quote from my fellow GKer Nick about the greens, " Their greens had been aereated recently but were still VERY spungy and VERY SLOW! Bumpy would be an understatement."

I'm not quite sure if I saw any evidence of the greens being aerated, but the greens just felt so "spongy", felt like I was walking and putting on SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. I'm not kidding....it seemed like I was just whacking the ball to get close to the hole. I couldn't find my easy tempo that I usually have when I'm putting because the lines would not hold. I had 4 to 6 footers where they would hold the line and others that would completely deviate from my intended target line. Overall, the course is in still undergoing some construction which is expected. The fairways seemed to be rolling fine with very minimal bare spots. Most of my lies I had were nice and lush, almost seemed like the ball was teed up for me. Bunkers which I happened to be in twice, seemed pretty consistent. I would rate the course at a 6.00, maybe once the construction is overwith they'll start rolling the greens to make them run smoother and faster.

Played at 8:00 a.m. with Fear, Danoemi, and Bob. The course has just been aerated including the greens, however the course is recovering quite nicely. The tee boxes were free of any broken tees, a little unlevel at some points, but nothing that should alter your tee shot. This course is definitely "target golf" as it's not very long, but will PENALIZE you if your not straight! The green speed according to the "locals" is definitely not up to par, but again that it's expected from greens that were just aerated. Two very interesting holes got me and screwed my score, but it was all due to poor course management on those two holes. Hole #10 is really an easy hole and I somehow managed to "double bogey" the hole....and I just hate plain bogeys, so you can imagine getting a double! Well, it was nice playing with fellow GKers, Fear beat me by one yard! If your still reading my review, wait for two weeks until the greens recover, I can only imagine how much tougher this course will put up its defense against par with fast greens!

I played at the BIGDOG's fun outing (2nd time playing) there. I was very impressed the first time around that I wanted to come back again. I was less than impressed this time, but the value of my opinion may be a little biased since the greens were just aerated about two weeks ago. I'm sure they'll be fast and healed in another 3 to 4 weeks. The fairways were nicely cut, I didn't really notice to many bare spot areas. I didn't find any fairway or greenside bunkers, so I can't comment on their consistency. Again, the greens were a little bumpy but are still running pretty fast if your "above the hole"....only advice is to stay below the hole. As far as the pace of play, I don't know if the pace of play is always like this at Knollwood but everytime this being my second time there it took us another 5 1/2 hours to finish on a weekday! I'm sure we were kind of slow because of the tournament, especially people in our group reading the putts from all different angles and still they 3-puttted....it was really funny to watch!

Well, the course is in immaculate shape right now. The Pasadena City Championship is just around the corner, I decided to compete in this event and went for a practice round. The fairways are nice and lush, giving you gorgeous lies. The greens have completely healed and running about a 9 on the stimp, which should get a little faster by the time the championship rolls around. If you want to play a beautiful course and not pay $100, go to Brookside #1 and definitely get your moneys' worth while it lasts. It's a shame that they don't keep city courses in this condition all the time, but with all the traffic I'm sure it's hard to keep up. The pace of play was actually great, but we were all pretty much single digit handicappers, so the pace may be a little bias. The only COMPLAINT was that we didn't see the cart girl at all during our 4:15 minute round....I'm not sure what happened, but I was so dehydrated by the end of the round that I had to buy two gatorades while analyzing my post-round score at the clubhouse. The clubhouse staff is very slow in taking orders, so don't expect fast service after your round!

As soon as you we arrived, we were treated in such a courteous manner, bags were carried to our cart, and they informed us of our tee time as well as directed us to the practice facility.

Practice facility: As described by Steve663, this is one of the best practice areas I have ever practiced on...the range had great target areas to work on your short game, great chipping greens, and "super fast" greens to work on your putting stroke.

Tee Box & Fwy: The tee boxes were spectacular, other golf courses should take notes and place small "collection" tee containers for those who always seem to throw their tees on the tee box area. The fairways were lush, gave you lots of roll (I was averaging 260 yds with my 3i off the tee on the short par 4s), and I didn't see any bare spots at all. Long hitters, "LEAVE YOUR DRIVER IN THE BAG", this course is very penal due to ESA areas so you must have good course management and play "target" golf. Otherwise, expect your scores to climb up quickly.

Greens & Traps: The greens were very fast, probably a 10-12 on the stimp...the pin placements were very tough and it was difficult to hold the ball on these greens as they weren't very receptive unless you hit a nice high fade (a la Jack Nicklaus). Three putts were very easy to add to your reportoire of shots on this course, so my advice is adjust to the speed of the greens on the practice green area if your short on time prior to your tee time. Found only (1) bunker and the sand was plentiful, as a matter of fact it had too much soft sand....my ball buried in the trap allowing me to only see about 20% of the ball.

Staff: The staff went above and beyond my expectations, they were very friendly, really treated us as VIPs (something that lacked at Trump National), and the hostess Sheryll is very beautiful and someone I'd like to go play a few rounds of golf with instead of being stuck with OSCA1961 for 5 hours..LOL...I was very impressed with the staff. I'm not sure when the clubhouse will be finished, but the design looks spectacular.

As other GKers have mentioned, course knowledge (this was my first time here) is definitely a must if you want to play well. I'll be back now that I'm somewhat familiar with the lay out.

Wow, what a spectacular course. As most of the previous reviewers, from the bag drop off area to the end of the round...the customer service here is outstanding! The course is also beautiful, with lush fairways, very firm greens which is hard to convince yourself that they are really not that fast!

The fairways are in the best condition I have seen at any course as of late. You do catch alot of roll, I teed off with a 3 iron on the 1st hole due to unfamiliarity of the course and course recommendations from other reviewers as well as the starter....I hit my 3 iron 290 yds....I only hit my iron about 230, so beware of the firm and fast rolling fairways which will roll onto the burns surrounding this whole course.

The greens were very deceptive, as I repaired my pitch marks along with other unrepaired ballmarks from other golfers who are too lazy to repair their own, I found them to be very firm. This firmness eluding me to think that the greens were going to be fast, but they stayed consistently slow (probably an 8 on the stimp). I left so many birdie putts short due to my lack of adjustment.

As others have also described, the course does not really seem to be as difficult as its slope rating suggests. I found the burn once (hole#10)...I was very aggressive on all par 5s (reached 3 of them in two for eagle putts). There is one short par 4 about 300 yds that can be reached by long hitters, really a risk/reward shot....I paid the penalty and went into the waste bunker on the right!

This course is a 10/10, as the greens firm up more during the upcoming season, this course may live up to its slope rating. Play it smart, good course management will make this course a very pleasant and worth while drive! Kudos to the staff and management, I will be back.......

Friday, April 4th 2008

Tee Box & Fwys: Tee boxes need a little work, some are still unlevel. There are too many broken tees all over the place, and even on the tee box, members are too lazy to repair their divots. Most tee boxes are okay, but could improve with some "etiquette" that is lacking by members here. The fairways are pretty lush and the ball seems to sit up nicely on most fairways. Again, divots are not being filled in with sand to help cure the fairways faster.

Greens & Sand: Greens recently were aerated and it definitely will affect your putting stroke. They should heal quickly, I would give it another 3-4 weeks before getting a nice stroke on their greens. The new greens, (#12, #14, and #15) do not appear to be aerated and are runninq quite fast. The sand is hard-packed on most greens with the exception of the new bunkers that were placed on the new greens. The white sand placed on the new greens is "very heavy" and you must have an "explosion" if you want the ball to come out!

Overall: Not a bad layout, as mentioned on my previous reviews...it's a wide open course and you should not lose any balls on this course. It's a long track, but it's not a penal course. The pace of play was great, we finished in about 4:15....this course usually plays at 5+ hours. I guess we got lucky or most golfers stayed away since the greens were recently aerated. Staff as usual is great, the previous reviewer's comments and issues may have been an unusual anomaly. I have never had an issues or complaints here...except the sloooow play at times.

Customer Service: Not the friendliest of places, the starter "Darryl" checked us in and when asked if they were running late, he said you have time to hit range balls in a non-polite fashion. We finally teed off about 20 mins after our scheduled tee time. We didn't see the cart girl until the 13th hole, and that was the last time we saw her.

Tees & Fwy: The tee boxes were pretty level, hardly any broken tees on the ground. They are placing bunkers "strategically" for the long hitters...I guess they think the course is too easy, I'm not sure. Fairways were in pristine condition, didn't see one bare spot, as mentioned before there are bunkers under construction throught-out the course and they look immaculate.

Bunkers & Greens: I was in the bunkers a few times, sand is very soft, consistent most of the time, although a noticed there are multiple pebbles within the sand (be careful with your wedges). The greens are recovering pretty nicely after being aerated about three weeks ago. Most greens are undulating, have some slopes from back-to-front, and give you an optical illusion which I learned that most putts are pretty much straight!

Overall I'd give the course a 7.0, it should improve alot more once the greens recover from aeration. The non-resident rate of $50 (walking)seemed a little too steep for an American golf municipal course. The price/value ratio is definitely "disproportionaly elevated" for this course. Play during the week...even then it's still not worth the price!

This course has definitely improved over the course of a two-year span. The fairways would be alot better if players would replace their fairway divots, it's more of a beginner's course so alot of "golf etiquette" is lacking here! Alot of five-somes are put out there making the course very slow to play. This course has small greens, accurate approach shots are a must if you want to score, and the greens are soft and receptive! Greens are not really holding their true roll, but are relatively fast (probably an 8-9 on the stimpmeter).