Played the Lakes/Valley combo with a 7:30 am tee time. Customer service was excellent. My playing partner skipped out at the last minute due to having a lesson later in the day. Pro shop didn’t ba... Continue »

Played the Lakes/Valley combo with a 7:30 am tee time. Customer service was excellent. My playing partner skipped out at the last minute due to having a lesson later in the day. Pro shop didn’t bat an eye and since I was now a single gave me the option of going out early so I joined a twosome of locals who were walking the course for the first time and realized how easy the course is to walk.

Usually the Lakes 9 is the premier track but I’d have to say it was well below the Valley. The greens on the Lakes were still only about 50% healed from aeration and were very bumpy. Greens on the Valley were 85-90% healed and rolled smooth at a medium plus pace. The surprise was the condition of the fairway and tee boxes of the Lakes nine. Fairways were thin and spotty. Definitely still in winter condition and well below others in the valley. On the other hand the fairways were on the Valley side were much better. They were still below others in the area but acceptable for sure. I know the Lakes side gets the majority of the play which is why the tee boxes have more divots.

I was in a bunch of sand traps (mainly on the valley side) and all were acceptable with a decent amount of sand. A couple had wet dirt in them from the morning watering but they were still predictable and acceptable. In general, I’d say that the bunkers everywhere in the valley right now are the best I’ve seen them as a collection.

POP wasn’t an issue as we were the second group out. Being that we were walking the group ahead had carts made it just enough that we didn’t have to wait on them.

Valley Oaks is a 27 hole parkland setting course just off Hwy 99 in Visalia. As an alternative option to others in the valley it passed the test but if I was only going to play one in the area, I would skip this track and choose one of the others.