Played here for the 1st time on a Sunday afternoon and it was well worth the drive. My partner is a big hitter, so he played the blacks, which are just too long for me. Playing the blues provided a nice challenge, but it was not so punishing that it made for a bad day.

There is a lot of room to recover bad shots, but you can't just swing away blindly. Some course management is required because it is long, even from the blues.

The pace of play was good for a Sunday afternoon, and the course was in good shape, with very few areas in need of help. I will be back.

Played here a couple of weeks after some maintenance, and the greens could have used a bit more time to heal. They were not bad, but not as nice as other times I have been. The sand traps were also a bit thin, perhaps wind blown, but it was tough to really get through the sand. Beyond that, the course is in excellent shape. Playing on Master's Sunday, we had no one else in sight, clocking in for a little over 4 hours with our 3-some.

River View is fairly close to the house, but a course that I rarely play. Getting a good deal on a fee and not having any other weekend plans pushed my buddy and I to play here, not long after some rainy weather.

Surprisingly, the recent rain was not a big deal. Since the course spans, crosses, and for several holes runs inside the Santa Ana River Channel, bad weather can wreck havoc with the course. Sure, there was flowing water in the center channel, but nothing that was a major impediment to play. Down in the channel the fairways are going to be heavy and thin, it is just the nature of the beast with this construction. The layout is interesting, with several holes running from an elevated tee down to the fairway in the river channel, then back up to an elevated green.

The traps here are very heavy, with a larger grained sand, a river sand versus a nice beach sand.

Had a very nice weekend morning round here as the winter weather turned a little warmer. As usual, the folks here were very nice, and it is hassle free to play using a GroupGolfer voucher.

The course was generally in excellent shape. The greens seemed especially fast today, certainly as fast as I have seen them lately. There were a few holes where the fairways were pretty brown, which seems odd given the rain this winter, but the course played OK. San Juan Hills is one of my favorite OC courses, given the combination of playability, challenge, views, service, and price.

Played another enjoyable round here on a Sunday Morning Pace of play on a So Cal muni is never fast, but this was not too bad. I guess in part it was because 3 of us were walking, but this is a really nice course to walk.

There is no real water in play, but there are plenty of mature trees if you are off the fairway to punish your mi sh$t s. The course is not overly long, and there are some challenging holes, but accuracy is more important that length.

Being a muni, it gets a lot of traffic, but the course is in excellent shape. It makes me wonder why so many of the higher end courses restrict carts to the path only, when Rec Park has no real restrictions and the carts are not doing any major damage.

The only issues I saw were some fairly wet areas, but since it is November, it rained recently, and we played in the AM, I can forgive the soggy spots; and the tee boxes were in need of some real TLC.

Recreation Park Golf Course Review
Long Beach California Golf Course Reviews

It sometimes isn't fair to review a course so soon after aeration, but the greens were actually the least of the issues here. I am not sure where the numerical rating is going to come out, but I liked the course a lot, there were just a few issues. We played early on a Sunday, but the weather has been warm of late with no rain, so casual water should not have been an issue.

Unfortunately, it was an issue. There were a lot of very wet lies. and the sand traps were very heavy. It wasn't a mud bog, but it was a lot wetter than I was expecting. They had also closed the blue tees, and the whites were pretty heavily used. I don't know how often the rotate positions, so maybe we caught the end of a cycle, but there was plenty of good grass around the tees.

It was definitely a fun course and worth playing. From the general conditions, I expect that they take good care of the course, which made the over-watering a little extra head scratching.

Tijeras Creek Golf Club Review
Orange County California Golf Course Reviews

Dos Lagos is an interesting course. It has a challenging layout, with a fair number of tight shots and a bit of water in play. It is nestled right in the same vicinity as a couple of other course, and it is generally quite a bit cheaper. But it just does not seem to be worth the money.

We played about 2 weeks after the greens were punched and sanded, and they rolled well in spite of it, but even in that short period of time, the ball marks were starting to show on the greens. In a couple of the traps where I found myself, there were unraked footprints, with my ball resting in one of them. I don't know why, but the clientele here seems to care less about the other golfers who use the course than I see at other spots. For a nice layout, the price is generally pretty good if you can get a web special. The layout is challenging and since it is on the east side of the freeway, you get a little more afternoon light that on the west side. But there is something about the the course that keeps me from liking it.

Dos Lagos Golf Club Review
Corona California Golf Course Reviews

Played an afternoon weekend round here for the first time and had a good time. The course is not on the same level as the nicer OC courses, but it is also less expensive. Overall, the course is not too challenging, striking a good balance between the shorter executive courses out there and some of the longer tracks. None of the Par 3s required that I use my driver, so that is a good thing.

The greens are probably the toughest part here, with some pin placements adding a real degree of difficulty.

Meadowlark Golf Club Review
Huntington Beach California Golf Course Reviews

I had not played here since last year, but I grabbed a deal of the web and came down for a round. I went out behind a Jr. tournament, and that slowed us down for a while. The course is in decent shape. There are definitely areas in need of repair, and it looks like they are working on it, but I can't say for sure.

That said, it is a fun course, and worth the greens fee if you can get a discount off one of the web sites like Golf Zing. It is executive, with only a few par 4s, and none of them are all that long. It gives you an opportunity to work on your short game, but some of the par 3s are long (200 or so) and nothing is in the sub 100 yard range. Another big plus is that you hit off grass here, not mats.

Casta Del Sol Golf Club Review
Mission Viejo California Golf Course Reviews

Played here for the first time with a late Saturday start. The course is definitely one of the better ones in OC, and an excellent value with a discounted tee time from the web. The fairways are in great shape, soft underfoot with few bad areas. The rough is also well done, though it gets spottier areas. There were more ball marks on the greens than I would have expected on a course like this though.

Our only real issue was that a wedding was on the 9th hole, so we need to skip 8 and 9 and pick them up at the end of the round. It only added a little time, but it was a bit annoying. I guess the course needs to supplement the golf income somehow.

It is fairly far south, so unless you are living in South County, it may not be much less of a drive than some of the good courses in the IE, but it is definitely a well maintained and fun course.

Talega Golf Club Course Review
San Clemente California Golf Course Reviews

Played here for the 1st time in a long, long time as part of a work group scramble. I actually had a lot of fun, but that was because of who I was with, not the condition of the course. For a not-cheap muni in OC, Rancho San Joaquin, they need help. Maybe they don't get the banquet business and so they are short on funds, but the course is just not in good shape.

There were way too many brown and bare spots on the fairway, the 1st cut rough was frequently thin and burned, and there was at least one large area of standing water marked off. The yardage markers at the tee boxes could also use a map of the hole, since they seem to get a lot of their length from dog legs, so big hitters who know the course can really cut corners.

I should recommend the place so that the courses I like get less traffic, but I would rather steer you to Mile Square, Costa Mesa or San Juan Hills, all course that are in the same general price range that seem to be in better shape.

Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course Review
Irvine California Golf Course Reviews

Played here for the first time on an early twilight rate on Saturday. The course is in decent shape, not bad for a public course, but not as nice as some of the better munis. There were a few damaged areas on the green that could have affected puts, but I was away from them for the most part.

The course is very tough, with a lot of break in the greens and a lot of water in play. Shot placement on your approach is very important, because long downhill puts into a pin on the edge of the green are never a lot of fun.

For walkers, the course is pretty level. For a rider, they have a very nice GPS system in the carts, something I was not expecting at this price. The curse is one big loop, so there is no break at the turn, but there are 2 snack shops set up. Only one was open for us, and they are cash only, so be prepared.

Navy Golf Course Review
Cypress California Golf Course Reviews