Had the good fortune today of playing the beautiful Perry Park Country Club in Larkspur, CO. This amount of breathtaking views and remarkable landscapes across every inch of this course is truly impressive. Each and every hole offers up something unique and spectacular. It's a true gem.

What stands out first and foremost are the stunning red rock outcroppings popping up all around this stunning property. Between them are mature, tall pine trees and a rising and falling cascade of picturesque golf holes that never fail to ignite the senses. I found myself being more mesmerized from one hole to the next and it just never stopped. Even the clubhouse view across the lake is one for the books.

Conditions were near impeccable as one would expect from a property like this. Greens were simply glass perfection. They were so fast and challenging that they did a number on my score all day, but you couldn't ask for better ones. Holding greens proved very difficult without a doubt but the ensuing chip and pitch shots were just as much fun. We played from the white tees and they were all in very good shape, with some of the par 3s showing a tiny bit of wear and tear.

The fairways were mostly lush and inviting with only the fewest trace spots of either thin or somewhat soggy. For the most part they were tremendous and the rough was just amazingly thick and at times very difficult to put a good ball on, but again, always fun trying. Bunkers were also mostly in great shape but a few were not quite at the highest level, but that's just nitpicking at this point. Everything about the play here was tremendous.

POP was stellar as it was a relatively quiet midweek afternoon, while cart service drove around numerous times so we always had whatever we needed. Funny thing about the carts at the club - they're all gas. Feels like Autopia as a kid at Disneyland.

The driving range at Perry Park is at either end of the large lake beside the clubhouse, so range balls are a bit odd as they are of the floating variety to make for easy capture at some point in the day. They work just fine to loosen up the swing, but not a great gauge for your ball flight or distances.

I will post some pictures as soon as I can as it was nearly impossible not to want to grab a new and amazing shot on just about every hole, but of course we needed to play some golf as well. Clubhouse was very rustic and unassuming but the staff was very friendly and helpful.

Do I recommend this place if you get a chance to play it? Take a big guess!

Finally made it out to the River Course at Alisal after years of wanting to play there, and I definitely came away feeling like it was worth the wait. It's set in a gorgeous area and there's no shortage of beautiful holes.

The only downside was playing it in a work event scramble tournament, so now I'm more motivated than ever to play a real round there in the near future. It's a very fun layout with lots of twists and turns but nothing really too gimmicky whatsoever. There's a bit of a parkland feel to many of the holes but you never get bored or feel compartmentalized by the terrain.

The facilities in the clubhouse are very nice, but the driving range is far from adequate. It's tiny and not much fun to have to wait for a long time when warming up for one of the few stalls to open up. But really, after that there's not too much to complain about.

I found the course probably in its worst possible condition after all the recent heatwaves and still found it to be really playable and engaging. No, the fairways currently are not pristine and carpet-like, but they're most very good with a few thin spots here and there. The rough is very thick but still playable, however there is a lot of tree debris at present to make finding your ball rather difficult in spots.

The tee boxes were all in good to very good shape, while absolute top marks went to the white, fluffy sand bunkers that were an absolute joy to hit from. It's been a long time since I've played bunkers this good and it was a real treat finally to be offline! The greens were also in really good shape - none too tricked out or fancy - just solid and true, rolling medium-fast and holding shots well. Really great.

Cart service came around plenty of times, but then again that might have only been for this event. I won't talk about POP because again - it was a scramble. I am though very content to have finally seen the grounds here firsthand and will make it a point to get back out here very soon when conditions are even better after some autumn rains.

Played our GK Cup semifinal match at Harding yesterday and came away feeling a tad bit disappointed in overall conditions. The course is most certainly playable but there are a lot of nagging little issues that could and should be improved with some autumn rain and a little more TLC.

Right now the main complaint is the tee boxes. They're shaggy and unkempt and far from good. If you're a player who doesn't use a tee, it's very aggravating to see them in this shape. The bunkers are also on the thin side and look quite difficult to navigate. The fairways had plenty of good sections but also a lot of thin and dirt areas up near the greens depending on the hole, while the rough was mostly playable but also very easy to lose balls since there's so much tree debris in many areas.

Greens were actually quite good overall so not much to complain about there. They ran medium-fast and held shots well while staying predominantly true to their lines on putts. I still had a devilish time figuring out the subtle breaks though as evidenced by a poor overall putting day.

POP was actually pretty good and we didn't do too much waiting all day, so that was nice. No cart service but a great snack shop again after the 8th hole. Carts are quite nice and have a solid GPS system to offer. The overall price for the round was quite fair, as it usually is when playing LA City courses. Only this time out the course just isn't showing its very best, but I'm sure that will come back in time.

Spent this past Sunday afternoon playing in a Rancho Park men's club tournament on a very hot day enjoying one of SoCal's best public courses. My group played from the white tees and had an 11:40am tee time, so we were right in the thick of the heat, but the course has held up well.

Fairways are in good shape with the occasional thin spots around the greens and many remnants of old GUR areas that are apparently back in good graces - but the faint outlines are there to see! Rough was thick in areas but thin in others, while the bunkers in good shape from what I saw. The worst part of the course were some of the uneven tee boxes and one that had barely any grass at all (I'm looking at you #10) - definitely improvement needed there.

Greens were in good shape - consistent speeds, holding shots well and lines being true to the putts taken. No complaints on the greens at all. I was very appreciative of those greens as I had a career afternoon which I'll write about in the 'What'd you shoot - September' section!

POP was not great at the start but really picked up after the 4th hole and we pretty much kept moving nicely for the rest of the afternoon. The old rumors of Rancho Park's six-hour rounds are nothing more than nostalgia now and that's a great thing.

If you can get a time there, I would recommend it right now.

Played last Friday at Skylinks with one friend, then somehow managed to add Mattias and one of his friends late for a fun foursome at one of the LBC's best courses. We had an afternoon tee time and were able to take off a bit early and had a very nice POP for most of the day until we hit some snags on the back nine.

Course conditions at Skylinks are improved from my last visit but still not at its optimal best. The fairways are playable but don't look very nice and are still saddled with some thin areas, while the rough is not too penal at all. The bunkers are a little on the thin side while the tee boxes (we played the blues) were all just fine.

Greens were running pretty nicely to the best of my recollection - nothing really stood out too much in terms of issues. Sure, there are a few with some limited damage around the edges, but for the most part they ran consistently medium-fast, held shots well and stayed true to their lines. Nothing too bad to complain about.

Overall it's all just above average, but of course you're paying optimum Long Beach course prices, so it should simply be a bit better than that, but I will give them some concessions based on the very hot temperatures over the past week or two. I think some rainfall and some fall aeration will probably do this course wonders.

Played in a Rancho Park Men's Club tournament at Los Robles on Sunday morning and was very excited to check out this cool track again after six years since my first and only visit. We had an 8am shotgun start and began play on the 12th hole. It was a perfect morning for golf giving way to an extremely hot early afternoon which certainly affected play later in the round.

First off, the driving range is a decent walk/haul from the clubhouse so keep that in mind if you're wanting to get some practice in before your round. First tee is conveniently located and a very warm and inviting straight-ahead par five to kick off your round. After that things can get a little crazy but it's a super fun layout that really indulges all the golf senses.

You've got a lot of elevations and tricky angles at Los Robles, along with a few decent carries and lots of 'native' areas that will tease and torment you. It's not a particularly long course but it certainly makes up for it in other ways.

The course conditions were really, really nice. The greens were devilish and confounded me all afternoon, but they were in great shape, rolled really nicely and held shots well. Apart from the first and tenth fairways, the rest were really in pristine shape and very well-received by myself and my playing partners. Yes, country club quality on so many holes. Rough was never too penal but of course the mulch and native areas play much more difficult. Bunkers were not so great - very thin and actually watered down pretty heavy. A lot of my playing partners had great struggles getting out of them and it did not look like a lot of fun. Tee boxes were very good.

I really enjoyed the round immensely despite not shooting a great score and would really love to come back again and work out some of the holes that I now remember a lot more clearly. It's just a fun round of golf and I would highly recommend it right now to anyone.

Finally made it back out to Black Gold this week for the first time in many years and it was a real treat (albeit a challenging one) to play it again. I had two out-of-towners from work out and another local who's a member at Shady Canyon, and they were all not only impressed with the challenging layout and interesting routing, but also the very nice course conditions.

It was a midweek round so the price was great (around $125) for the experience. We had cart service at least 3-4x during the round on a very hot day, so that was very necessary, and the POP was very good as we didn't really have any waits all day. This course is most certainly a non-walking one with all of its steep elevations and distances between holes.

It's a tough 18 no matter how you slice it. Many of the holes are uphill or downhill, there are some decent and intimidating carries and the green complexes are very difficult with some incredibly subtle but impactful breaks. We played the blue/white combo tees and it gave us all everything we could handle.

The fairways are in really nice shape despite the hot temperatures all summer, while the rough is very grabby, especially around the greens, so no chip is ever a simple afterthought. Tee boxes were all in nice shape and the bunkers were mostly good but we found one or two that were slightly thin in parts. The grounds crew were doing a lot of watering as we played, so it was disappointing on one hole where my chip ran long and into a newly formed puddle on the green ... but luckily I still got away with a two-putt. As for the greens, very fast, very tricky and very difficult to hold the greens without perfect approaches. I had trouble with the speeds all day which led to a pretty poor putting round overall.

At the end of the day though, a truly fun and challenging golf experience to be had at Black Gold right now.

Got back out to Woodley Lakes with a friend recently and was expecting to find the course really dried out and thin after a long, hot summer, but was pleasantly surprised that the course is holding up quite well and there's still a very decent amount of green everywhere.

Price is always right for this confidence course and our outing was no exception ($32 walking rate). No cart service and the snack shop isn't exactly convenient at the turn, but hey, you get what you pay for. It does have a great driving range with actual grass.

In terms of course conditions, everything is just good to good enough. Nothing bad, nothing exceptional or awe-inspiring. You're playing golf under the hot SFV sun and life is good. Greens were rolling at medium speed but held good lines and shots just fine. Fairways are mostly in good shape with the occasional thin area, while the rough is barely distinguishable from the fairways, but all good. Bunkers have sand and the tee boxes (we played the blues) were always flat and level with good to decent coverage.

This course is never going to go down into your top 10 in the state but it's almost always going to provide you a great opportunity to try out any club you're particularly working on and give you lots of room for error to post a decent score.

Played a GK Cup match at El Dorado and got a very good midweek (and probably twilight) walking rate of $57. Feels like stealing nowadays in Long Beach! Kramnetto2 and I had a 2pm tee time with Mark playing from the blue tees and I played from the whites. A very hot day!

Course conditions are not as good as I've seen them here before, but by no means poor in any way. The fairways had plenty of nice, lush patches all around, but of course there were also some thinned out and drier areas in case you got unlucky. The rough is completely playable right now though, while the bunkers were not really too great as they had varying degrees of sand - some very thin and frustrating, others pretty decent, but none superb.

Tee boxes that I played were flat and level with mostly good coverage. They're holding up well with all the traffic and hot temperatures of late. And the greens? Well, they held shots well and rolled relatively true, but there were definitely a lot of pitch marks to navigate and the speeds felt a little inconsistent over the round, but nothing too crazy to bring a lot of negative attention.

The layout is always super fun at El Dorado with lots of tree-lined fairways, some dangerous water features on select holes, and strategic bunkers that are a lot more daunting when the sand isn't in great shape. But overall it's a very solid eighteen holes of golf with plenty of variety, but nothing in terms of elevations.

We had cart service come around a few times which was nice for a midweek round. So yes, all in all another good showing from the pick of the Long Beach litter.

Played in the Saturday Rancho Park Golf Club tournament at Brookside #2 and found the course to be lacking in a lot of areas, but it was still a fun day out despite the scorching temperatures that greeted us with a 10:20am tee time.

First off, the driving range is entirely too limited for a two-18 course with this much business. I wish they could find a way to improve that - maybe a second level? It's far from ideal having to wait in a significant line for a stall to open up with limited time before your call.

In terms of course conditions, again, it's not that great but it's playable. There is a massive dirt patch from the concert stages just before the green on the first hole and right after the tee box on the 18th. This section makes the Links at Victoria look like Bandon. After that it's better, but you're never going to confuse this 18 with the more pristine and challenging #1 course.

Greens were in good shape despite all the other issues - no real complaints there. Not too fast or anything, but solid enough. The fairways are dry, thin and a bit haphazard to be honest, but some of the holes are just fine. The bunkers were very thin and not great to hit from, while the rough was not penal in the least and just an extension of the thin conditions from the fairways. Tee boxes were pretty beat up but nothing too awful (we were assigned the white tees for my flight).

As previously mentioned, it was an incredibly hot day so thankful to have the cart service running around but I don't recall seeing a water station to refill the Hydroflask until around the sixth hole or so. Did I mention it was really hot? POP was not really high-intensity but then again it was tournament play so it's what one expects at those events.

So overall it's just not quite as satisfying as the other 18 at Brookside, but could be a heck of a lot closer if the conditions were more favorable. That's obviously tough to maintain though as the summer heat really starts to pound down on Pasadena.

Played a Friday round at Los Verdes this week with an old high school buddy just getting back into golf and then found out he's been on GK for years longer than I have! Good fun playing with toddieo and getting to see all sides this Palos Verdes gem has to offer.

Our weather fluctuated all afternoon from warm, blue skies, to rolling fog and putting the pullover back on depending on the hole. Slightly more consistent were the course conditions that were not too bad depending on where you found your ball. There were a lot of good sections in the fairways, but also a few too many thin spots for my liking, but this course gets an unbelievable amount of play, so that must always be kept in consideration.

The greens were running quite nicely. They weren't necessarily as fast as I remember them in the past, but they rolled true and consistent - evidenced by a no 3-putt 29-putt round. They held shots well but are also quite tricky and many a slope if you're unfamiliar with them. The tee boxes were in good shape (we played from the white tees) overall, while the rough and the bunkers were also very playable but not quite pristine. Everything is in good working order right now - let's just put it that way.

Price is always right for Los Verdes and we got a great tee time online the day before. There was no cart service that I can recall but stopped at the cafe/grill during the long(ish) walk from the 9th green to the 10th tee. This course will still give you plenty of challenge from the white tees if you're a mid-handicapper like myself, and I've realized that I have a lot more fun playing it from there than maxing out on the blues.

A true LA experience that rarely disappoints, except of course if the POP is out of whack, which it often can be, but we did pretty decently in that regard this past week, despite a rather slow group ahead of us who got better at keeping pace as the round went on.

Rounded out the busy golf week with an RPGC tournament round at the home course on Sunday. My flight put me in the white tee box and we had a 12:30pm tee time on a very hot but gorgeous summer day in the Cheviot Hills.

First and foremost, the greens right now are running great at RP. They roll true, they're much faster than they look and are holding good shots well. Absolutely getting it right currently when it comes to the flat stick surface. And to be fair, the rest of the course is pretty darn good right now as well.

Fairways have plenty of green and lush areas but you'll also get some thin especially up around the greens and in some runoff areas. Rough is generally mixed but nothing too crazy that I found. Bunkers were in good shape with ample sand but you're not mistaking it for Augusta. Tee boxes were good - flat and level. Everything is working properly at Rancho right now.

No cart service but that's standard at Rancho Park, but the snack shop on 12 remains one of the best in the business. The driving range is really interesting because it's absolutely packed with all walks of life - range rats, Instagram influencers, coaches, college kids and everything in-between. The people watching at the range is LA pure.

So yes, overall, good value for your money right now at Rancho Park and definitely a very good challenge for your game at all times.