Played SF for first time this weekend. An early tee time before 9AM, so POP was 4 hours. Course was in great shape. Tee on 10 was moved up due to some landslide issues above the reservoir.

Greens were smooth, speeds were quick, but greenskeeper must have had argument with Head Pro the night before, so golfers would complain about the Monster Day like pin positions. Practically all were on crowns.

Rough was inconsistent, especially around greens and perimeters of bunkers. Tee boxes level, traps had plenty of sand.

Beautiful area to put a golf course. Lots of wildlife. Loved the "waterfall" by 18 green, although disappointed to see the PVC pipe at the top creating the illusion.

Nice range, although when finishing play it was mobbed with players waiting to find a spot. Food was good, great setting to enjoy lunch outside clubhouse.

Worth the money IMO.

First time playing the North this year due to rain and a busy schedule.

Course is in fantastic condition and it really drains well after the storms. Maintenance crew has learned how to keep the course in great shape. Greens have good speed, hold very well, are not too hard or too soft. Tee boxes are perfect, so are the fairways. COP for a few holes which is ok because we have really bad cart drivers out here who are oblivious to the damage they cause.

The five year program for Superintendent was a big success as the treelines were cut back to stimulate air circulation. It made the course a bit easier as some shotlines improved because there were no trees in the way. Sand traps had plenty of sand. Drainage improved so much because they unplugged all the blocked culverts that had been overgrown in the previous decades.

Now if they could only improve the food experience without charging fine dining prices....

Got out on a Tuesday when rain threatened all day but never happened. Course is in beautiful condition and greens were running about 11 speed, not bad since they hadn't been mowed since Sunday morning. Firm conditions around the greens makes chipping less of an issue when you can putt from ten feet off. Not sure what the club is planning to do with a 70 ft tall dead oak tree in the middle of the 17th fairway. Sand traps were easy to play out of, tee boxes and fairways had very good coverage. Rough is dormant bermuda and is very challenging with opportunity for flyers. Greens held well and putted smoothly. POP was four hours. Overall a very fun time.

Snagged a tee time before noon today paired with another single and we played as a twosome since the other twosome no showed. Fortunately we got in front of a corporate outing and pace of play was a tad under four hours. The foursome in front of was nice enough to let us through on the 11th hole and it was clear sailing until the 17th hole.

Course is in fabulous shape right now. Usual tight lies in fairway but could easily take divots. Fairways showed evidence of recent thatching and the lines have almost healed up. Greens were very receptive to holding approach shots. Green speeds were 9.5, not too fast but not shag carpets. Green complexes are huge an allow for plenty of options that can change the difficulty of the hole. While the design makes it appear you can bounce the ball up onto the greens the ground right now is still a bit too soft to do so. I suspect as the temperatures warm up this strategy will have to be used. Tee boxes were level with plenty of grass. About the only negative were the sand traps which are firm and have small rocks in them. If you hit it off the fairway, don't even bother looking for your ball. You are more likely to find a rattlesnake as the brush and weedy flowers are above your head.

For less than $100 which includes cart it was a great deal and will definitely be back. Love the overall design thru the canyons.

I've always loved the design of Dove Canyon however conditions are pretty bad at the moment. You would think that after the amount of rain received in this upslope area of South OC that the course would be softer than it was. Tee, fairways, greens were rock hard and all dormant Bermuda. Today the pin positions were unnecessarily hard with most locations on pinnacles with false fronts and sides dropping off ten feet into hard pan rough filled with divots. Balls only stopped in fairways by either by rolling into a divot or some aeration hole. Didn't make a single ball mark on greens even as ball bounced five feet in air. Green surrounds were filled with broccoli type tufts of grass that would ping pong your ball either left or right.

Don't know how members deal with these conditions. Granted winter is probably the worst time of year but this was abnormally bad.

Received an invitation to play Palmer Private at PGA West. The course from tee to green is in perfect condition. Not one blade of grass is anything other than deep green. Greens were in Ok condition because Poa Annua grass has invaded the bent grass greens. You also definitely need to know where the Salton Sea is as most everything breaks that way.

The wide fairways allow you to spray the ball somewhat until you get to holes 14-17 which play in the shadow of the Santa Rosa mountains. The bighorn sheep galleried as we played the two short par-3's along the canal. Mounding is not overly severe so no crazy lies.

Surprisingly the carts have no GPS. POP was about 4 1/2 hours. Was pretty crowded but it's prime time in the desert so that was to be expected.

Overall a beautiful layout and fun day. Well worth coming out to experience.

Beautiful 70 degree weather greeted us on the North today. Green have returned to firm and fast. Likely 13 stimp, combined with the severe slopes and diabolical pin positions made for slightly long POP at 4:20 . Fairways are very thin. Pretty much have to play winter rules are or ball finds the lowest spot which is usually a divot or drain. Rough is dormant but you will get fluffy lies. Tees are in very good condition. The fast greens will be commonplace for the next five months unless we get some rain. However, a good player can spin his ball off the slopes towards the pin.

Played in an SCGA tournament. Course was wet after a couple days of intermittent rain. Course was redesigned over past year, tons of tree removed , and new green and bunker complexes constructed.

Tee boxes were dormant bermuda, very muddy with little grass in the areas we played. Fairways were also dormant bermuda where worms had pushed up dirt so you accumulated thick layer of mud on your shoes. Felt like you were ice skating. Cart path only made for 5 hour POP.

Green were in good shape, around 11 speed, held moderately well but has lots of false edges and balls tended to roll towards bunkers and water hazards and greens were built up.

The bunkers were very maddening. Every bunker , green side and fairway, had a two foot grass lip all the way around the trap. Sometimes this prevented you from taking a full backswing. The sand was a heavy beach sand was way too penal. If your ball flew into bunker , most likely a very bad fried egg with no chance of getting within 20 feet of pin.

Visually the course design is beautiful. Get a Riveria type feel to the course. I bet the spring/summer conditions would be fantastic. Blue tees at 6500 was more than enough of a test. Playing the tips at over 7100 yds would not be fun and don't think you could break 100 in a tournament. I'd wait until it warms up and dries out before I'd play there again.

Big clubhouse, lots of parking, nice range and short game area.

I will echo Weber's review last week.

Tee's were overseeded and are in great shape.
Fairways were NOT overseeded with rye and the Bermuda is dormant, therefore no growth due to colder temps, lots of bare patches and generally unpleasant to play from. Winter rules almost a necessity.
Rough is good condition.
Traps have equal coverage of sand.
Greens are bumpy and slow. Still recovering from aeration almost 4 weeks ago. Probably need another 3 weeks to completely heal.
POP was 4 hours. Cart girls making the rounds. Rangers keeping play moving.
Range is still mats only due to reseeding. Four holes were CPO. Course drained pretty well after 4" of rain early in the week.

Optimal course conditions have returned to the South course 2-3 weeks after reopening due fairway overseeding and greens aeration.

Tees are in good shape.
Fairways are generally in good shape however the rye didn't completely take in some areas or the Bermuda grass was just too strong to let the rye thru. Probably could have used more rye seed. Still soft in fairways, very little roll, a lot of mud balls.
Greens: Getting their speed back. Around 11 on stimp. Receptive to approach shots but you can also hit bump and run chip shots.
Fringes are 10-15 ft' wide in most spots which is puzzling.
Rough is dormant, thick bermuda and ball will either sink to bottom or perch up on top. It's the only defense on the course right now so 2-3" is a challenge, especially around the greens as it prevents poor chippers from putting the ball.
Bunkers are inconsistent. Too much sand in spots next to feeling the gravel under you feet just yards away. Poor rake jobs.
Carts on path except for two holes. Due to soft conditions and generally poor driving abilities of members this is a good idea. Half the membership doesn't fill in their divots despite sand bottles being provided and messages flashing every hole on cart GPS system. Sames goes for pitch mark repair on greens.
Very enjoyable time. POP was 4 hours on Saturday morning.

I will echo Weber's review. Fairways are really bad. They were punched with small diameter holes but no sand was used for some reason as they are trying to let the old bermuda re-establish itself. I'd estimate 60% of the grass in the hitting area (180-280 off the tee) has failed to grow back. Meanwhile the rough is starting to get thick which I'm sure most members won't like but it's needed for course to defend itself. Greens are healthy although a few are starting to see brown spots. Tees are just ok, sand is very good. Will likely experience these conditions for another month unless 50 truckloads of sod are brought in. (note: it took the North course 5 weeks longer than expected to return to very good conditions after aeration).

I will echo Weber's review of the current conditions however I think he is unaware of why the club has chosen this route. The course was overseeded with Rye grass last October and conditions were great until the summer heat essentially killed off the rye. The current fairway aeration allows the course to transition back to Bermuda grass and get it as healthy as possible until the next overseed this October. It's just the nature of the beast in this particular climate with clay soil. It probably would have been better to open just a nine hole loop as some holes were aerated and sanded many days after others were. Greens are great, could use some additional speed but they need to keep them moist due to the heat. Eight great months, two good months, and two below average months is the new norm for this club. We are fortunate to have two courses so we don't have our only course shut down completely. If everybody did a better job at repairing ball marks, fixing divots, and driving carts where they should go and not right next to the greens then conditions would be even better. Monday tournaments seem to be a free for all out here. Guests treat it like Rec Park!