Out with GK Gurus on Wednesday 7/9 1:45pm to play Enagic Golf Club at Eastlake for the first time. Very enjoyable. Thank you everyone that came and my group Gary (gary00) and Steve (sparky14).
Since launching Greenskeeper.org back in 2002 I’ve followed Eastlake (former name) with curiosity in the beginning reading mix reviews and eventually with sympathy as reviews about the overall playing experience greatly deteriorated over time. A sad story to be honest with you. The place has great bones.
Then about 18 months ago I heard of a new owner, this now being Enagic USA (drinking water company) with lots of money being put back into it. Could they seriously turn this place around I thought? After over 15 years of significant neglect? Answer a resounding yes already with still much more to do to. This October the Enagic Golf Club at Eastlake will host PGA caliber players as the revival of the San Diego County Open.
We played the golf course under summer turf conditions Wednesday and enjoyed it. It’s important to know this course is going to overseed with rye grass in September which impressed me. You know an owner is serious about maintaining good conditions year around when they dropping that kind of money on rye grass seed. I’m already looking into booking a GK Plays outing there for November. Anyway for summer turf conditions and knowing they still have work to do to I was very pleased with the conditions.
Greens were in good shape, rolling 10.5 according to a sign posted, held shots and were mostly smooth. We seemed to catch the most popular pin placements that day as the surface around the holes certainly had many more ball marks, new and old, than most other areas of the greens. Also on many greens you can see the completed enlargement of the surfaces that had me scratching my on how they could have been so small to begin with. Good work there. Great improvement.
Fairways were all bermunda/kikuyu with remnants of some thin spots as result of recently transitioned rye grass. Look for the fairways to fill in more as the summer goes on. Bet next month they are going to be in excellent shape. Still I had good mostly lush lies all day.
Rough is a mix of bermunda/kikuyu that can get thick at times greenside. Overall not very penal through the green and adjacent to the fairways. Mostly lush.
Bunkers, already 9 new bunkers (as in were not there before), looked to have good quality sand. I found one fairway bunker and no greenside bunkers so don’t have a lot of firsthand experience with them. COVID-19 no rakes as expected but you can tell they make sure to rake them all before each day of play.
Tee boxes, we played the blue tees, by far the most popular with some thin areas and divot damage I only noticed on the blue tees. The black tees looked to be in much better condition and those new gold tees coming will look even better once installed. Got a sneak peak at the new scorecard for the gold tees ... 6961 yards. And get this, for the San Diego County Open, hole 9 (525 par 5) and hole 18 (510 par 5) will be playing as par 4s! – next time teeing up here I want to try the black tees. No thanks to the gold tees – LOL
As for the layout I really liked it especially as a first time player there. Never do any holes parallel each other, lots of elevation changes, doglegs in both directions, beautiful water features, risk/reward holes, well protected greens, some nice views on the back nine and great variety of short and long par 4’s. Rather than go on about the layout I snapped a bunch of photos so please check them out.
Service all day was very friendly and professional. I really like that they have someone out there in addition to the on course food/beverage service offering free Enagic water and refills on divot mix.
I live in Ventura County so this golf course is special travel treat for me but if I lived in San Diego County I’m for sure getting over to play this track it multiple times a year. How cool it is for San Diego golfers to have a comeback golf course story unfolding like this. Go check it out. Highly Recommend.
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