I love this course. The course play is great for what it is. It is a wonderful, beautiful hidden gem. I love that there ... » More

I love this course. The course play is great for what it is. It is a wonderful, beautiful hidden gem. I love that there are no houses on the course. Usually when someone says that the main attribute of the course is its beauty, it can be a bit of a dog - but not Arroyo Trabuco. The fairways are the best that I have ever seen the course. The greenskeeper has been there for over a year and their efforts are paying off albeit at the expense of some beautiful trees, shrubs and the likes. The removal of the greenery takes away from the beauty of the course, but it has made it so that the playing course has benefited where it gets more sunlight and can breath better. There are few spots here and there that might be brownish (not bare), but not really too bad at all, I am nit picking as the course is in really great condition. I play early or later in the day, so the pace of play for me is usually always quick and I usually play under three hours. I love this course, I hope you can tell from the pictures I have taken/posted and how much I still speak so well of it. This course is beautiful.
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Played Ridge Creek Friday morning with a 7AM tee time. Staff is excellent and they let me start on the back nine so I c... » More

Played Ridge Creek Friday morning with a 7AM tee time. Staff is excellent and they let me start on the back nine so I could join JusGas88 and another friend for the front nine on their 9AM tee time. Fairways continue to steal the show with absolutely near perfect fairways. Very lush and a nice deep emerald green color for the most part.

Greens rolled a little slower (still a decent pace) early on due to the moisture but then sped up after the turn and the sun was out. Greens rolled nice and smooth. I did notice that a couple of greens and some bad areas around the edges, similar to that of the greens at Riverside. I’m curious if it has something to due with the smoke/ash filled air due to the fires in the area? Ridge Creek greens have never had any issues like this in the past.
Greens remain soft and very receptive to approach shots.

Tee boxes were fine and not sure if I mentioned this when I played here last week before heading to Vegas, but they have now marked some of the bunkers as Ground Under Repair. As mentioned before, half of the bunkers are fine and the other half are horrible. They have now deemed the bad ones as GUR.

Ridge Creek is definitely a go to course in the valley.
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Played here today with Nickesquire for our GK Cup semi-final. 1:54 tee time, sent off by ourselves. Quickly caught the g... » More

Played here today with Nickesquire for our GK Cup semi-final. 1:54 tee time, sent off by ourselves. Quickly caught the group in front of us and invited a twosome behind to join us on the third tee. One of those guys bailed after 9. Total POP a little erratic 4:40-ish where sometimes it seemed like we were fast and other times seemed like we were holding everyone up. Quite windy and warm for the first 12 holes or so, and then it seemed like the wind mostly stopped and the air temperature became almost cool late in the afternoon. Felt great but wasn't the prettiest day with mostly cloudy skies.

Conditions are very similar to my last review except it's clear that another four weeks of high temps have taken a bit of a toll on the course. Fairways and rough were a little scruffier than last time, and the blue tee boxes seemed even lumpier. I wasn't in a bunker. Greens ran mostly smooth around medium speed but did have quite a few ball marks. Still loved it, though.
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Rode the Blues (6865/73.1/132) with Itslikeimsayin, Ben and Shane in slightly more than 4.5H. Tee sheet packed, we waite... » More

Rode the Blues (6865/73.1/132) with Itslikeimsayin, Ben and Shane in slightly more than 4.5H. Tee sheet packed, we waited on most shots AD. Breezy, not too hot and overcast.

Great venue for Mark and I to play our GK Cup match. We both really like the Billy Bell traditional parkland layout set on rolling hills. Most fairways are tree lined with no houses within sight with traps on both sides. Greens were well bunkered and the par 3's were challenging.

Kikuyu tees were the weak link. Some very nice, some poor. Many were lumpy, some crowned and the par 3's in particular needed divot attention.

Fairways had good coverage and were decent to good.

Rough had good coverage and could be penal because it's mostly Kikuyu.

Sand traps were well maintained and all I was in were in good shape with a decent amount of sand.

Greens were only medium speed, they looked quicker than they were. But they were soft and accepted irons and pitches with little run out. They rolled well, but being soft, many had marks that needed to be repaired before you putted.

Customer service was excellent from everyone encountered. Saw the cart gal early in the round. Basic cart with no GPS. Adequate grass driving range with plenty of stalls. Well stocked pro shop. If I lived closer, this course would be in my regular rotation. Base pass required. Definitely recommended.
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Recent reviews by RGM2525 & Nickesquire are spot on. Only difference I can report is that the rough was cut down to a mo... » More

Recent reviews by RGM2525 & Nickesquire are spot on. Only difference I can report is that the rough was cut down to a more friendly depth of about 1". Enjoyed the course, the customer service, and my golfing compadres(Jim from the I.E., and Eric & Sam from Bakersfield). $35 for a mid-morning weekend round at Desert Falls, in less than 4.5 hours, is high value golf. Recommended.
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9/23 100 teeoff $30 deal time with 20% off--balmy and pleasant wide open with no one in sight 315 POP. 18 holes open n... » More

9/23 100 teeoff $30 deal time with 20% off--balmy and pleasant wide open with no one in sight 315 POP. 18 holes open now with still the temp holes in play as construction has what was the original #4 out of service. Fairways are in late summer mode with mostly good lies but some thinner areas that could make fairway metals more difficult to manage. Also some area fronting the greens had been cut tooo close and had some scalped or burned out areas. Rough is healthy cut to about 2 inches which certainly retards forward roll and can present a challenge when sitting down. Tees have mostly good cover with some new boxes in play. Older boxes are often levelly challenged.
Bunkers were well maintained with many having newer sand. Rakes were present and used about 1/2 the time.
Greens continue to be the highlight. Medium medium fast smooth receptive to full shots. Turf on the greens is healthy with good root structure and tightly grained with most ball marks repaired.
Staff members are very welcoming and cheerful. Drink cart making the rounds. Basic cart no GPS. Course no longer has driving range nor putting green.
On going construction detracts to some extent from the aesthetics but if you focus on the course itself it is in good playing condition.
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Played 9-21-21 early morning as a twosome with Nick, getting around the course in a little over 3 hours. Tee boxes were ... » More

Played 9-21-21 early morning as a twosome with Nick, getting around the course in a little over 3 hours. Tee boxes were in good shape, mostly level with good coverage, and minimal divot damage on par threes. Fairways were in nice shape, mostly light green with some brown dried out areas, They had good roll out and nice lies with good cushioning. Rough was about 2-3 inches and a little on the yellow side of green but still in good condition. Was in a couple of bunkers that all had a good layer of well groomed sand. Greens were in decent shape, a little slow and bumpy but not to bad. Overall course is in pretty good late summer shape and worth playing.
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Played this AM. Course is in really nice shape at the moment. Due to the fire in May they are now operating out of a con... » More

Played this AM. Course is in really nice shape at the moment. Due to the fire in May they are now operating out of a converted storage container. So no restaurant and only portable bathrooms next to damaged clubhouse. Tee boxes were all fine. Fairways had good coverage, lies and roll out all round. Very little rough and what is there was all playable (there are many OB areas adjacent to many fairways). Water in play on several holes as well (3, 11, 14, 16). Bunkers were all playable and had rakes. Greens are in nice shape and chip/putt, hold/release shots and have good speed (8/9). Fast easy and welcoming check in. POP was 3 H. Sr rate w cart $39. Walking rate of $24. Recommended.
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Late review: I love playing Rancho, just hate the drive from the OC. However once I'm out on this old style traditional... » More

Late review: I love playing Rancho, just hate the drive from the OC. However once I'm out on this old style traditional layout, almost makes the long drive worth it. Robert's review was spot on. Overall the course is in pretty good condition, Greens rolled well, receptive. Most of the fairways had good coverage. Rough was inconsistent. Same with some of the tee boxes, but you could always find a decent spot to hit from.

Always felt that Rancho was a perfect barometer of a golfers still. A fair test of golf which is fair, not overly penal, but provides enough challenge to keep ones interest. Just wish it did not take so long to drive too.
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Do not believe the green no maintenance indicator! We played 9/17 with a group of 16. We were told the greens were punch... » More

Do not believe the green no maintenance indicator! We played 9/17 with a group of 16. We were told the greens were punched 3 weeks earlier, but quickly discovered that several had been punched a day or two before we played. The aeration holes were large, and the sand that was there was not smooth at all. I was tempted to rake some of the greens before putting. This handful of greens left a very poor impression, since we were not told about this. The greens that were punched a couple weeks ago were very slow. Clearly they are having troubles maintaining the greens.
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I realized I hadn’t done a review of Riverside in a few months. I’ve probably played here about 4-5 times since my last... » More

I realized I hadn’t done a review of Riverside in a few months. I’ve probably played here about 4-5 times since my last review, as it’s not really one of my “go to” courses in the valley. I mainly don’t play here due to the slow pace of play. Last outing which was on Friday of Labor Day weekend, was 4.5+ hours for 14-15 holes and then JusGas88 and I left. I played yesterday in the mid afternoon and caught a nice window finishing in a little 2.5 hours playing the front nine as a single and then joining a gentleman on the back nine. Played through 2-3 groups on the front and we had very minimal waiting on the back. Mainly just waiting for greens to clear on the par 5’s.

Greens were in horrible condition. The guy I was paired with said they aerated them a couple weeks ago but that wasn’t the issue. It was the dead spots and diseases along the edges and some deep gouges in the middle. Greenskeeper did do a good job keeping the pins away from the bad areas. In fact I don’t think I had any putts inside of 12-15’ that were affected by the poor greens. There were a couple of times where I was just off the green and had to chip instead of putt in order to avoid some bad areas on the green.

Fairways were decent enough. This is a city run course at the end of summer in the valley that cost $30-$33 with a cart in the afternoon. Given that equation the fairways were fine. They did have some thin brown areas here and there but for the most part I found good lies in the fairways. And I’m happy to report I found a lot of level lies in the fairway yesterday!

Tee boxes were atrocious. The par 3’s especially were horrible. Looked like they hadn’t moved the tee markers in weeks. The par 4 &5 boxes weren’t too bad.

Again, no one seems to be using the rakes in the bunkers. I was in 2 yesterday and the first wasn’t too bad (though the bunker on the other side of the green was horrible) but the second one hadn’t been raked at all and had obviously seen a lot of use throughout the day.

Customer service was better than usual. Kid in the pro shop sent me out in front of the threesome who had the tee time before me. That allowed me to get in 3 holes of uninterrupted play before catching the first group who let me through.

Riverside still isn’t my favorite track in Fresno but it’s not a bad play especially given the price. I will also say that conditions were much better the previous couple of times I played here. Hopefully, this is just temporary for the greens and tee boxes and it returns to "normal" conditions soon.
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I have long been a fan of Tijeras Creek and I have always enjoyed the challenge. It is (for me, anyway) the tale of two ... » More

I have long been a fan of Tijeras Creek and I have always enjoyed the challenge. It is (for me, anyway) the tale of two courses, the front and then the back nine!

It seems they have recently raised their prices where the “senior” rate is now $99 whereas I recall as recently as a year or two ago paying in the vicinity of $65. If that’s worth it to someone, that’s an individual decision but I wanted to play it while in the area so I shelled out the pre paid $99 (non refundable) per golfer at the time of reservation. To be fair, they will give course credit if for some reason notice is given. In this case, I don’t think it was worth it.

Much of the course was swamp like and muddy. To this “duffer” it was so wet there was little to no roll on the fairways, my ball was muddy as were my shoes and it made for a difficult day! On several greens there was standing water! The traps were inconsistent where some were soaked and others playable.

For $99, I expect a little more. The standard rate for the tee time we played as $133. Pretty disappointed!
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