Played 07-02-2025

I’ve been playing Tilden my entire life and wanted to share current conditions of the course but also further thoughts on the design and operations as well.

Tilden is a truly unique layout unique to itself in the serenity that is Tilden Park. The course is beautifully placed in the redwoods with nothing except the Berkeley Hills as its backdrop. The course has an Parkland feel but with a NorCal flair. One of the most difficult courses you can walk on par with Presidio and maybe only bested by Lake Chabot.

The course is in dire need of a renovation as well as new management who can oversee a renovation of this magnitude and continue to maintain the course sufficiently post renovation. If the course were to be renovated properly with a new drainage system and money invested to modernize the layout and design, Tilden could be one of the best courses in the region if not the state due to its amazing setting. The sad thing is even though management has changed multiple times the investment from the East Bay regional park department most likely won’t come.

On to the course conditions. The Bay Area has been blessed with amazing weather again this year, with foggy mornings and evenings being commonplace across the East Bay. This wouldn’t be a problem if Tilden had proper drainage and a grass type that handled moisture better but due to this much of the fairways and rough was overgrown to the point where they were water logged and muddy. Balls hit in the fairway would hardly roll on some holes due to mud and the greens were very soggy considering the time of year.

Tee Boxes: mostly flat but some were over seeded and others are not large enough to move the blocks around to cycle the growth properly. This ends up in the blocks being moved to the front or back of many tee boxes

Fairways: some holes were dried out and had very little coverage, others had long grass and seemed like they hadn’t been mowed in 1-2 weeks. Strange confusing conditions as many good drives were not rolling out as they should. A few were in good shape as well but overall lacked consistency

Greens: most were soggy and slow but the occasional greens that received more sunlight were significantly quicker. They rolled mostly true and were very receptive to irons and wedges

Rough: lots of patchy spots on some holes, some didn’t have a clear cut between the rough and fairway. Overgrown in some areas and damaged by a mowing staff that doesn’t understand how to properly maintain rough.

Bunkers: had decent wet sand that you could play out of but they clearly hadn’t been raked by the maintenance staff in more than a day or longer.

Pace of play wasn’t terrible as I played 9 holes in 1:45 but due to the layout long waits are common on 3-9, 10-12 and 15-16. This round was in the middle of the week at 6PM so expected it to be faster but course was very busy.

Considering the conditions Tilden would be a great course to work on your game but it is seemingly always crowded so makes it difficult to really sell much about this course except for the scenery and the setting. Until the course gets renovated it will continue to struggle with these issues.

The practice facilities are excellent and probably what keeps this place afloat along with the new restaurant.