Played: 5/27/2020
Ah, American Golf works their magic! This course used to be used by SCGA and CGA for majors qualifiers, but I can't see that happening with present maintenance. There are weeds on teeboxes, thin areas on green aprons, grass in bunkers, and unmaintained rough throughout the course. This is a great track from a design standpoint, but it's clear that it is no longer going to be maintained to adequate standards. There are terrific alternatives to this course that I'll now have to play, I've crossed River Ridge off my list.

Played Saturday 7/30/16 with a tee time around 8:30. POP was pretty grim, but about what you would expect for #1 Saturday (5.5 hours). It's been a few months since I played #1, and I was not prepared for the poor course conditioning. There are numerous bare spots in fairways, perhaps caused by the compaction from parking at the RB. I didn't see any effort to remedy the situation (see, for example, the wide area of dirt on 18 fairway where tee shots would stop), even though it's the norm for many fairways. The green surrounds also have bare ground, usually in front of the green. Finally, kikuyu appears to have invaded the majority of the greens. Some greens, like 10, are now predominantly kikuyu and putts are greatly affected by these patches. Given the invasive nature of this weed, I don't know how they will salvage the greens. Some tee boxes have little grass, at all (17 is the best example). The greens crew seems totally overwhelmed, which leads me to believe that Pasadena just doesn't consider their "golf jewel" worth preserving. I guess they'll just keep putting all the fivesomes out that the course can tolerate, and just not worry about it. It's a great track, but there are any number of worthy alternatives that are cheaper and better conditioned (Wilson/Harding come to mind).

Just played Hansen for the first time after they flipped the course. What a bonehead idea. Previously you started the front side on a relatively open par 4 and then a little more challenging par 5 which allowed you to warm up your game. Now you start on one of the worst designed holes in public golf in SoCal, following with a marginal short par 4 that creates backups as the group in front waves you up. And to add insult to injury, the only reason they made the change was to require all golfers to go by the restaurant/bar after 18. Of course anyone with a cart takes it to the shed as always. Duh.

They've also eliminated a very nice par 3 (formerly #15) in favor of adding a finishing par 3 that creates danger for golfers on the second green (see one of the previous posts).

All said, this was an incredibly stupid change for all the wrong reasons. Truly unfortunate because this course does have some nice holes and the greens are always among the best in muni golf in the Southland.

Hansen Dam Golf Course Review
Pacoima California Golf Course Reviews

Played the course on 3/23 with a twilight rate, and it was worth every penny. There was only a wisp of wind, and the views were spectacular. Course was in terrific shape, with few areas of thin fairways. Greens were a bit slower than I remembered but they had none of the usual ball marks affecting the roll. Great service, great afternoon, now if only I could have found my swing.....

I had been interested in playing this course for years, but was always put off by the greens fee. Stayed in SB a couple of weeks ago and played twilight, and it was an outstanding experience. While some of the holes have strange layouts, the great majority are beautiful and very challenging. The ocean holes are gorgeous. The one disappointment was the course upkeep. The greens had numerous ball marks and there were some dead areas on the fairways. The course layout more than made up for it, and this is going to be on my 'favorites' rotation for some time to come.