Played the morning of 7/27 with my club. Side note, an operating/management change at the restaurant means there is no alcohol (THE HORROR!!) at the present time. Their notice is posted however so it ... Continue »

Played the morning of 7/27 with my club. Side note, an operating/management change at the restaurant means there is no alcohol (THE HORROR!!) at the present time. Their notice is posted however so it should be hashed out pretty soon. They are also renovating the restaurant near the pro shop so a food truck has taken up residence on the premises. Okay, now on to golf.

Pleasantly surprised by the conditions. Most county run courses play pretty much the same at all times of the year in my experience but Harding seemed to be a notch above in most aspects on Saturday. Tee boxes were firm, but level with plenty of good area to tee. Fairways were solid pretty much all day with lots of good lies in the kikuyu. Rough was patchy with quite a few gnarly thick areas that needed to be avoided at all costs. Was in one bunker (greenside #18) and had no issue with that one. Greens were very receptive and running medium to medium fast but you had to be very wary of downhill putts. POP ended up right around 5 hours which seems to be about normal for a weekend at Griffith Park, especially when it's 90 degrees and everyone is moving a bit slower.

Not having been out there for a good while and inspired by more positive trending reviews, I ran over to Harding Sunday afternoon, 6/16, somewhat spur of the moment. Arrived as single sometime after 2... Continue »

Not having been out there for a good while and inspired by more positive trending reviews, I ran over to Harding Sunday afternoon, 6/16, somewhat spur of the moment. Arrived as single sometime after 2:00 and was teeing off with another single and a twosome around 2:30 at $25 to walk. I only get over the Griffith Park occasionally, but enjoy the classic, muni vibe, and I was quite pleased with the conditions I found there. Tee boxes were in good shape, with grass and level. As has been noted, a few on the back nine have a bit harder ground for inserting your tee, but I really didn't find it a serious issue. Fairways were nice — good coverage/lies/and rollout. With some areas of exception, the rough was mostly not punitive and being a little bit off the fairway wasn't going to cost you much. This was something of a relief after getting beat up by the rough at Brookside a couple days earlier. Bunkers seemed on the firm side with the ball sitting on top, but upon striking, I found them softer than they appeared. One in our group complained about a bunker he was in as being like concrete, but I think that was an outlier. They were generally pretty playable. Greens were in nice shape — generally clean with a minimum of pitch marks and running a good medium quick speed. Burying the lead here, it turns out they were wrapping up an LA City tournament that day (13th thru 16th), so we were following on tournament-ready conditions. Safe to say, it was about as nice as one could expect at Harding. As a bonus, the guys I was paired up were all enjoyable company. If you ever have had Harding in your rotation, now would be a good time to revisit it.

Played Sunday morning at 8 am, 6-9-19. Our 4-some got off right on time, and it was smooth sailing. We finished in about 4:30, with basically no waiting at any holes. Fairways were in really good c... Continue »

Played Sunday morning at 8 am, 6-9-19. Our 4-some got off right on time, and it was smooth sailing. We finished in about 4:30, with basically no waiting at any holes. Fairways were in really good condition, giving many plush lies. Some of the bunkers had some heavy sand and a couple of tee boxes were quite hard (but better than before). The rough was not very penal with making decent contact relatively easy. The greens were overall smooth; slow-ish but no complaints. The 4th player, a single who joined us, turned out to be a former college player who shot a very easy 69 (could easily have been a 66). It was very entertaining watching someone that good up close.

Played 4/12. Tee boxes were really, really hard. Like breaking tees hard. Fairways and tee boxes thin, greens were nice. Comparatively, Balboa was in much, much better condition a few weeks ago when w... Continue »

Played 4/12. Tee boxes were really, really hard. Like breaking tees hard. Fairways and tee boxes thin, greens were nice. Comparatively, Balboa was in much, much better condition a few weeks ago when we played there. No marshals on the course whatsoever, so lots of waiting with groups way out of position, but I guess that's to be expected here. One of our group parked by the driving range and had their car broken into. Good times.

Out early as usual, trying to get ahead of the crowds. One of the nice things about the two Griffith Park courses is that neither come in after nine, so I do no have to deal with back nine play. Plu... Continue »

Out early as usual, trying to get ahead of the crowds. One of the nice things about the two Griffith Park courses is that neither come in after nine, so I do no have to deal with back nine play. Plus I love the park like setting of these two courses. Great old style traditional golf courses, a pleasure to walk.

Prior review was spot on, although I did not have too much trouble with the firm tee boxes. (Maybe because I play from the tips?) Fairways were a mix of nice grass or thin lies. Greens were not smooth, but puttable. Maybe after they punch next month they'll improve.
Rough was spotty, a mixed bag.

Wilson seems to get all the play, but there is nothing wrong with Harding, and because of the lower demand, much easier to get out on.

Played on 3-30-19 (Saturday) morning. 8:08 tee time and hardly anyone gathered at the first tee box. My twosome wasn't joined by anyone and we had to wait on the 4-some in front of us for most of th... Continue »

Played on 3-30-19 (Saturday) morning. 8:08 tee time and hardly anyone gathered at the first tee box. My twosome wasn't joined by anyone and we had to wait on the 4-some in front of us for most of the round (can't be helped). POP was about 4:25. Fairways were overall fair to good although some parts were quite bumpy. Dirt patches here and there but not too intrusive. Greens were OK, again pretty fair. A few had some fungus-like circles but again not too intrusive. Bunkers had some heavy-ish sand but again, ok. Fairway rough was not too penal at least when I was in there. Biggest negative was that a few tee boxes were close to rock-hard, making pushing a tee in quite a chore. Weather was perfect and overall the course looked green which is a plus.

Played Harding again on Sunday with Kassper7 and was quite excited after the recent rains to see the course in a much more verdant state since the last reviews and my own experience there a few weeks ... Continue »

Played Harding again on Sunday with Kassper7 and was quite excited after the recent rains to see the course in a much more verdant state since the last reviews and my own experience there a few weeks (months?) back. Unfortunately it was quite disappointing as the fairways still had plenty of thin and dried out areas and none too green either overall.

But that's not to say it's all doom and gloom at this Griffith Park staple on the local golfing scene. You can find some nice areas of fairway as well, just not as thorough as one expects after so much rainfall. You'll also find some thin areas around the greens which makes chipping quite tough. Rough is a mixed bag of lush, thin, dirt and whatever else in between.

Tee boxes were in some pretty bad shape on some holes but always flat and level. And the bunkers had a working amount of sand in them. How about those greens? Not too bad, actually. They were in nice shape and rolling medium-fast with some very tough pin positions for Harding. There are a few that are quite sloped and when the pins are there, it's very tough to get the right speed … and that 'keep the pin in' rule is starting to look good on holes like these.

No cart service that I noticed all day but the snack shop between 8 and 9 has everything that you'll need to get through the day. Oh yes, we walked the blue tees and got out early as there was some marathon around there causing some delays getting to the course.

Overall it was a beautiful day though and I always enjoy playing this track.

Arrived well before 6am and was surprised how crowded it was ! Even so I was able to get out without too much difficulty.

I was very disappointed with the overall condition of the course. The fa... Continue »

Arrived well before 6am and was surprised how crowded it was ! Even so I was able to get out without too much difficulty.

I was very disappointed with the overall condition of the course. The fairways were awful, lots of bare areas, uncut areas, and just a mix of poorly maintained grass. Same with the rough. The greens were the best part of the course, but they were bumpy in many spots. In all fairness, they were much quicker than they appeared.

I've always enjoyed the two Griffith Park courses, but I don't know how many more times I'll make the trek from Coto. Just too many "uncertainties"

Played today, 1/7/19 with a tee time around mid-morning. POP was just under 4 hours to play 18. Not bad for a public course. It had rained overnight and early morning. Course was very wet and it w... Continue »

Played today, 1/7/19 with a tee time around mid-morning. POP was just under 4 hours to play 18. Not bad for a public course. It had rained overnight and early morning. Course was very wet and it was drizzling when we played.

Course was in decent shape today. With early morning rain, the fairways had a lot of puddles here and there. It was not fun seeing a big splash when your ball landed in a puddle on the fairway. Tee boxes had fairly good coverage. The fairways had average coverage today. Thought it would have more grass coverage with the recent rains. But we encountered a number of bare muddy spots, pools of water, and thin lies on the fairways. Didn't land in any bunkers but the bunkers looked wet and some had puddles of water in it. Greens were in great shape and were rolling pretty good. Some of the greens were pretty large and it was nice playing under the new rules where you didn't have to remove the flag stick.

Our golf cart was not handling too well in wet conditions. It would skid a lot while braking and the golf cart was looking a little old and would rattle a lot. There's a driving range here and the restaurant here is pretty good.