Played Aspen Lakes twice last week, while on vacation. Great Course. Back tees exceed 7200+ yards and I played the blues which were 6900+ with lots of challenge. Aspen lakes elevation is higher so your ball carries much farther. Bunkers, actually use crush volcanic rock which plays just like real sand but looks very different. Great views of the snow capped three sisters mountains. And the course is lined with some awesome looking houses. The courses in Central Oregon are a great contrast to the jam packed Southern California golf courses I play usually. Both times I played Aspen I played by myself and encountered very few other golfers. Great experience and I'll be playing this course every year I'm on vacation.

Played the Nicklaus Tournament Course on 4/2/10. Great golf course and will be a great place to have an outing. Many of the fairways have large hills surrounding them that tend to kick slightly offline shots back towards the fairway (i like these). The course has some very large bunkers and if your sand game is not on, you'll definitely take a few extra as they are not easy bunkers. Hole 9 and 18 were very difficult dogleg par 4's, you'll need a long drive to even attempt to hit the green (especially 9). The Par 3's were very challenging and will put your irons to the test. Overall a fun, challenging, but fair golf course.

Played on 4/1/10 with my wife. It's interesting when researching Palm Springs courses that the same courses are always mentioned. Eagle Falls is not in any magazine or publication. Really the only time I hear about Eagle Falls is on Greenskeeper. The course clubhouse is a trailer (ala Olivas Links) and it's behind a casino and you begin to worry if it's where you want to spend one of your afternoons during your vacation, especially the one I brought my wife on. But, it's a great course with generous fairways and excellent conditions. On the fun scale it rates very high. For me the challenge was the greens. I couldn't read the breaks very well and was wondering if I was missing something about it breaking towards something in the area. Anyways excellent course and well deserving of all the high ratings of GK members. BTW my wife shot 94, her best score ever and loved it!! I have a feeling she'll want to play it anytime we return, which we will.

What a cool course. I played it on 3/30. One of the favorites I played while in Palm Springs. They play one of the rounds of the Bob Hope here and I'm looking forward to watching it next year and see the tour guys play the Par 5's. Which I think are the strength of the course. They require precision that I didn't have on this day, but I think were great holes. Good mix of holes and challenge. The course is right on at the base of a large mountain which adds some style to the course. The conditions were immaculate and the design was very fun. I highly recommend this course to anyone heading out to the area of La Quinta. I will play this course as many times as possible in golfing career.

Played Indian Wells Players on 3/29. Very nice course and not particularly what I expected. Being the first course I've ever played in Palm Springs I was expecting a desert layout. It's not that at all. Very green course with lots of tree, with great views of the mountains. Extremely tight fairways, which gave me fits all day. Conditions were excellent which seemed to be the norm in Palm Springs. Some blind tee shots which added difficulty to the tight fairways and would be much easier the second time, as I landed in water twice when I actually thought I hit a good shot. Nice course and would love to come back and get some revenge.

Played TPC Stadium course for the first time yesterday afternoon. Beautiful day of golf. With the reputation of the Stadium course I was a little intimidated, but I was excited about seeing the toughest California has to offer. Played the blue tees that rate 73.3 rating and 142 slope measuring 6,739 yards. The course is not impossible, but demands a lot of course management (you got to be realistic about your game and not go for 205 yard shot over water like this dummy did on hole 5). There is usually a bail out option on most shots, but there is always the threat of bunker or water on nearly every shot. Which can lead to many double and triple bogeys if you take the riskier line, which happened to me 5 times. But if you make good shots there were birdies and pars to be made . I had 2 birdies on holes 2 and 12 and par'd the last 3 holes of the day, which defintely felt good. I had 5 birdie putts of 8 feet or less, so if you make good shots, it's still possible to score. Hole 17 was a simple pitching wedge to the back of the green with a tail wind. I hit it to about 6 feet, but missed the putt...fun hole!

Greens were very fast and undulating, fairways and tee boxes were excellent, but what caught me off guard was the rough around the greens. By far the thickest rough I've ever played in. It was only an inch or 2 long, but it was so thick and grabbed my club like nothing else. It was like chipping in velcro. I lost several shots due to the rough...don't underestimate it's thickness and take several practice swings to get a feel. Overall a great golf experience and I highly recommend it to anyone, I'll definitely be back to play sometime soon.

Played Ojai this Monday with Longball and JohnnyGK. It's very cool playing a course knowing many legends of the game have played the same course and faced some of the same challenges that you did. Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and many other greats have played Ojai. The layout is varied. Lots of elevated tees and shots that are designed to split tree lines, you'll use every shot in your bag at some point in your round. The course and resort are a very special place that I can't wait to return to. The course plays much longer than it's 6300 yards and watch out for the kikuya grass as it is a club and ball grabber.

Played twilight at Monarch Beach earlier this week. Very nice course with very good customer service. Greens rolled extremely well. Fairways and tee boxes were very lush and the sand at times was perfect and other times it seemed to lack sand and was hard panned. The course is a tale of two nines. The front nine is very challenging where you got to work the ball and be pretty precise. The back nine is shorter, with larger fairways and allows you to make a comeback. Number 3 is a short dogleg left that plays right along the beach. I got a bit of a deal on click4teetimes for twilight and I'll post pictures soon.

Played the lakes yesterday afternoon and felt the need to update my last review of the course. Teed off at 4pm and it was blowing like crazy. Maybe the windiest few holes I've ever played were holes 1-3.

Once the achillies heel of the course, the greens are now something to be very proud of as they are very nice. Only 1 and 17 are showing any signs of the previous problems that were being encountered. Overall the greens have improved immensely here and are extemely challenging. Fast, undulating, sloped, and large greens are not good combinations for my subpar putting skills. I find both River Ridge courses to have very difficult greens. But today I had my worst putting round ever (45 putts).

The tee boxes were great, fairways were lush, rough was minimal and traps were a little inconsistant, but come into play more than most courses.

Overall the lakes course is a great layout and now has the conditions to match it. Play it in the afternoon with the wind and you will be challenged.

Got on the lakes today. Greens are still in miserable condition. Fairways, tee boxes and course design are all very good. I hope the course gets controll of the greens sometime this summer. It's a good course as soon as the greens get playable. One interesting thing that happened is I've never seen a marshall fishing for balls for two straight hours. He would go from lake to lake fishing out balls...I'm not sure if it's a big deal but it just looks bad.

I play this course 5-10 times a month and the course conditions are very good especially comparing it to the same time last year. Fairways are much better than this time last year. Not many bare spots, but their are quite a few divots as the grass is dormant and so the divots are starting to accumalate as we get towards the end of winter. Greens are smooth and average speed. Customer service is great here. Much better than Buena or River Ridge in terms of friendly staff. My major complaint is the pin placements are ridiculous. 15 of the 18 pins, the last time I played were within 10 feet of the edge. Every time you play at least half, and usually more of the pins are within 3 paces of the edge. I'm up for a challenge but a pin in the middle from time to time would be nice.

Played River Ridge Vineyard this afternoon with the golf team and man the greens are the BEST I've ever seen them. The rest of the course has definitely suffered from the excessive water we've seen recently. Standing water in some fairways and some bunkers, but the greens are OUTSTANDING. Definitely worth the green fees. If Saticoy Country Club has rates a 10 for Poa greens than River Ridge is at a 9 now. Smooth and fast!