Played here yesterday with my father in-law on a discounted (Troon Card) 10:12am tee time. Course was very good in communicating earlier in the morning of a pending frost delay that went from 1 hour down to about 35 minutes when all was said and done. Unfortunately, the main points of rsmylie's last review still hold true and conditions today were a real mixed bag with only the greens having a stellar rating. Not sure why this course is essentially a muddy mess, but it took away from the enjoyment. For the price they charge out of towners, no excuses for such shoddy conditions.

Tee boxes: Decent although hole 10 tee box was still frozen at noon! I nearly snapped my wrist trying to put a tee down. Others were in better shape but like everything else before the green, they were chewed up and muddy.

Fairways: A disappointment in that they were muddy, burnt out, aerated, or just downright barren for about 75% of the round. Here and there you would find nice turf, but too many muddy or soggy parts to forgive that.

Rough: Thick in many place and with it being wet and muddy, get your wedge out and just punch out.

Sand: Good shape since rakes are in bunkers here, but I wish the bunkers were a bit more consistent with more sand in them.

Greens: The absolute standout of the round. They were a vibrant forest green color, quick, and smooth for the most part. It probably helps I was putting well, but when that isn't your strength you get the feeling conditions must be great if you are dropping putts that normally skip along the way.

ETC: Carts with no GPS but ice in chests and feed mix. Driving range and small putting green all open. Cart attendant is friendly and will load up your bag. Starter at 1st tee very helpful. Layout is fun but I do believe no walking is allowed (not sure why you would want to when the routing isn't really made for it here). A few number of fun holes here that make you think. Overpriced sadly but that's what you get out here. They do offer a discount card if you are a local, otherwise a Troon Card will get you a nice discount.

Played here yesterday 12/13 on a literally freezing 9:30am tee time. When we showed up there were only 4 cars (all workers) in the lot and the pro shop told us there was a small frost delay and that we would be second out. By the time 9:25am came around, the "group" (2 people) in front of us had teed off and we went right after, finishing in just a shade over 3 hours. The biggest surprise was seeing the lot when we finished (in a warm 52 degrees); packed to the gills with cars and golfers. Point being, if golf can survive on this less than stellar track in freezing weather, it better make it everywhere else. Sadly conditions here were not that great.

Tee boxes: Not sure why when there is such a big area to chose from, the grounds crew decides to shove tee markers in a corner that is already divot-damaged. The white tees today were just okay; nothing noteworthy in a positive or negative sense.

Fairways: The best part of today. In spite of the subfreezing temps before the sun came out, the fairways thawed (yes, thawed) well and the ground wasn't concrete. Excellent roll as you can imagine and minimal divot damage. Visually pleasing as well, since there was good color and contrast from the otherwise yellow parts of the course.

Rough: No real rough to speak of, more of the gullies and riverbeds and canyons. The rough that does exist is normal length, and no more penal than half a club.

Sand: Not in any bunkers today, but this course doesn't feature too many of them. They aren't the best conditioned ones either, as they have more compact and coarse dirt-like sand which is not ideal for shot shaping.

Greens: The last two or three times I have played here, the greens here were excellent. However, today they were fairly poor (especially early on) as they were frozen to begin with and lightning quick with shots bouncing off the green....transitioning to fairly slow with massive swatches of turf damaged either by the frost or some sort of fungus, but they weren't good.

ETC: Gas powered carts here that could use a tune-up. Routing here is on dirt, not a paved cart path so get your chiropractor on standby after the round. Layout is fun and if conditions improved, this place would be a great step-brother to the courses in Sedona.

Played here on Black Friday 2020 on an cool but sunny day of about 60 degrees, minimal wind, on a 10:40am tee time using the Golf Moose deal with my father in-law. I enjoy this course the more I play it and today only added to the enjoyment factor. Course was in excellent shape and the greens here were some of the best I have seen (condition-wise) since Pasatiempo and Spyglass in August. Overall the course is in great shape and with the GM deal until the end of the year, it's the time to play.

Tee boxes: Decent shape but the blue tee boxes here are generally chewed up some as they receive the most play at ~6200 yards. They weren't awful, but more than a few tees, especially the par 3's, were beat up.

Fairways: Excellent shape. Rarely a bad lie, good true roll, visually pleasing to the eye, divots fixed by most golfers, a pleasure to hit from.

Rough: Fairly long and penal, at times what hurt more than the length/thickness of the rough is the fact it is riddled with leaves from a long fall in tree lined fairways. Overall though, if you know when to take your medicine, it's not going to kill your game.

Sand: Desert sand just isn't for me. Bunkers here rarely have tons of sand in them and when they do it's red rock dirt; compact, often wet, and not fun to hit out of.

Greens: The absolute highlight of the round. They were stunning to look at and far more jaw-dropping to putt on. I'm no judge of stimp, but they rolled quickly and breaks were at times beyond tricky! I can't count how many three-putts there were this day.

ETC: Facilities operating at Sedona-level COVID regulations, not AZ level...which is to say, they are actually using facemasks in the pro shop, at the cart collection area, etc. Staff was all friendly. Carts have no GPS but DO have club wash, good power. No on-course water, so make sure to stock up beforehand. Beverage cart came around 3 times; no food beyond basic granola bars and such. Grill does appear to be open and the front 9 does end in a place where you can easily go and pick up before the 10th tee. Fun and interesting layout, especially in the back 9. Highly recommend!

Played here on a last minute (mere days before my move to AZ) whim to try and take my mind off packing alongside my partner's cousin JP. First time playing here for both of us and I must say I enjoyed the course, getting to play the Valley/Desert combo (seemed almost everyone played this combo). It reminds me a lot of CrossCreek if someone placed it in the desert; mature trees, lots of blind shots and forced carries, but more than anything very good conditions for an area that must see triple digits and nasty winds.

Tee boxes: Okay to good shape. Nothing noteworthy either way, a few had some unlevel ground, but most were easy enough to find good turn to drive your tee into (blue tees played).

Fairways: Good to great shape. They were a visually stunning sight to behold in contrast to the surrounding desert-like natural terrain. Roll was fair, lies were good, and very few divots remained unfixed.

Rough: The rough that does exist on the course was thick and sticky. The more prevalent areas beyond the fairways are the natural terrain including chaparral, sand/dirt, rocks, etc. that will eat up bad shots.

Sand: Was in two bunkers and although they look awful, they played better than they look. That isn't to say they were wonderful as the the sand in them is more towards the dirt side of the scale and varied in consistency and amount. No rakes.

Greens: The absolute highlight of the day. They were wonderfully conditioned (a few divots but no fault of the course), rolled very true and quick (not lightning fast but sneaky quick), and were visually pleasing to the eye. Shots held well and breaks weren't insane.

ETC: Carts had no GPS and they could use it as there are plenty of tricky holes with blind shots. Carts DID have plastic divider so they could be shared via COVID-19 restriction protocols. Staff encountered was friendly, but no cart attendant with food today. Option to call in an order at the turn available, though not used today. Ample parking lot with solar panel-ed shade for a few rows. Restrooms on course could use some upkeep but glad to see them open. No water on course. Pace today was an amazing 4 hours considering everyone was playing the same combo 9's. Highly recommend.

Played here as part of the Guru outing alongside Rob, Ron and Mike as the second GK group to go off around 1:15. Gary got all the main points of the conditioning spot-on except since he's such a good player, he avoided the bunkers while I didn't, so I will speak on this.

I was one of the last GK reviews regarding Tierra Rejada and the terrible bunkers earlier this year, so when I got an email from the course and shared news on GK of the course redoing their bunkers, I got excited. The greens are usually (not yesterday though) very good here, and the only major thing less than a 6 on the scale was the sand/bunkers. Getting to play yesterday and experience the bunkers was something else. The amount of bunkers has been reduced somewhat (certain holes lost one or two bunkers, others were reshaped a bit), the sand is now a whiter color and more consistent texture, and they have rakes!! It was tremendous to see the course put so much work into getting this done. Well done Tierra Rejada.

Played here 10/4 with GK members Perry, Jon, and Nat on a warm Sunday mid-morning (9:44 am) tee-time. Only the second time playing here, but I remembered a few holes fondly and others not so much. Greens are being punched as this is being written, so it was nice we got out when we did with greens being in excellent shape. Rest of the course was good to okay conditions, except for the tee marker locations. Alas, Mark's review still stood true a week later with only the tee issue (the placement of the blue and white markers was unacceptable, with the grounds crew choosing to place the tees in the most chewed up parts of the turf). Outside of that; staff was friendly, carts had ice in the chests and good GPS (even if mine froze), beverage cart came around 3 times and café trailer was open before the round. Pace of play today was an excellent 4.5 hours (I have had and heard nightmare tales of 6 hour rounds on Babe). Highly recommend after the greens heal from aeration in a few weeks.

Played here with everyone else you read at the GK event on 9/13 on what was supposed to be the first tee time (8:05), in reality teeing off just after 8:50am getting to play again with Tim G. and meeting Wendy (abbacat) for the first time; a genuine pleasure. As alluded to by all the review before mine, course was in good summer shape, having dealt with two recent major heat waves and fires/ash/smoke in nearby Yucaipa. Won't go into much detail having a plethora of reviews to choose from if you decide to come out post aeration this next week.

Notes:
-Staff was very friendly and they have no need to try and accommodate a group of GK's size on a prime Sunday morning, but they did it and with class. The accident delays on the 60 could have been a real problem for their scheduling, but instead of limiting the outing, they offered up two more spaces later if need be; that's some kind of management!

-Was nice to see the conditions were so good given how bad the last two weeks have been with those extreme heatwaves and all the resulting secondary effects of the nearby fires. Greens could have been better, but no one came in expecting December conditions in mid September.

-I loved Firecliff, but Mountain View is the "Torrey North" of Desert Willow with comparable hole selection, equal par 3's as it's big brother, and sharp teeth where it counts. Routing is a bit odd at times having to cross housing/parking, but otherwise a fine complement to Firecliff.

If you come out to play Firecliff, do yourself a favor and do what you can to try and play Mountain View as well!

Played here today (9/12) as a last-minute way to extend the trip out for the GK event at Desert Willow on Sunday. Played with a fun group of guys from north O.C. who had me laughing all morning on a 7:50AM tee under somewhat greyish skies because of fires in the surrounding areas; air quality wasn't great but very playable especially early. Course conditions as Matt alluded to with the punching of greens (starter actually said today would have been three weeks) were a bit disappointing. Thankfully only the greens suffered today and the good company made up for it.

Tees: This may be the first time I saw the blue tees played today placed on hole 1 (15 feet from the starter's booth) on a downslope; odd choice. All other tee boxes were okay to good shape, and in far better positions.

Fairways: The best part of the course conditioning. They were a nice color green, had ample run and the turf was very nice to hit from. The contouring of the fairways was also fair, meaning there weren't insane mounds for trickery's sake.

Rough: Not too much to speak of as the native area is the real "rough" here. The traditional rough wasn't overly penal; it was wet and thick at times, but it didn't bury the ball nor was it unmanageable.

Sand: Was in a number of greenside bunkers and the sand in them was throwing more towards the fine brown beach sand than the pearl white stuff you may see at say Classic Club. Enough sand to hit out of and the consistency was pure enough, some bunkers were a bit wet but thankfully nothing deemed unplayable.

Greens: As mentioned, 3+ weeks out from punching (starter also mentioned they punched in June but it "didn't take as we hoped") and the greens are still nowhere near ready to be called ready. Some were better than others, but I can't remember a single one that was a standout either way. They ranged from a bit bumpy and a tad touchy on roll to slow and a bit puzzling. Either way it would be best to wait these out unless you are getting a Hot Deal or something.

ETC: First time here but even I could tell that they have changed things a bit around in the layout as at times the cart routing is rather insane, especially from the cart tent/pro shop in modular buildings to the range (watch yourself on the road). Staff was very friendly from the cart attendants to the starter, so a big plus there. Carts had nice color GPS with Bluetooth connectivity, coolers with lots of ice and two waters, and a working port to charge the old phone. Layout is nice with a few blind tee shots but the 18th hole left me a bit underwhelmed considering some of the holes I had played on the back 9 were far better; minor gripe. Overall, liked the course (curious what the pros thought when they played here as part of the Bob Hope rotation), but probably would play ShadowRidge or Classic Club instead.

Visited Olivas links last minute yesterday on a 2:50 PM tee time ($30 walking rate). Two weeks out since last review and if possible course may even be better now after the insane heat from that time died down and cooler temps prevailed early this week. Course is always in such good shape and you can’t beat the prices here.

Tees: Nothing noteworthy one way or the other; no flaws that were glaring, no tee box was perfect. Played the whites with my partners and they were more than adequate in every regard.

Fairways: Most of them were nice and semi-lush, often sparkling visually against the blue skies. The roll was more than fair and the lies were always good.

Rough: The traditional rough was penal at times, not so much green side. The ESA or native areas are just gross, best to just take your medicine in there.

Sand: Was only in one bubbler (fairway bunker on 4) and it was rather meh. It didn’t have a ton of sand and somehow had some wet sand in it. Other bunkers I saw were better conditioned.

Greens: The best part of the round; green, smooth, few divot marks, a pure joy to putt on. There were two greens on the back 9 that had sand on the collars and outer edges but they did not affect play. One green on the back 9 had also been punched recently as it had pockmarks everywhere, these did affect roll.

ETC: Staff was friendly but that’s to be expected here. Pace of play was an amazing 4 hours with little to no waiting! Carts available; basic with no GPS. Very walkable course. Large range and practice area was in use by a fair amount of people. Always a pleasure to come out here!

Played here today (8/7) as the last of a 3 course visit to Monterey, playing alongside GK member Alex R. and his two friends. Had very high hopes coming in and as usual with courses on the Peninsula, I was not disappointed. Spyglass was as promised in every way, with even the weather working out (some sun, high 60’s, no wind). Some ocean holes, many forest in and outs, conditions were 10’s all around.

Tees: Played the whites and no issues here. Turf was soft enough to drive in the tees, par 3 holes were a tad chewed up but no more than expected. No issues here!

Fairways: Lush beautiful grass, similar to AstroTurf in its uniformity. Roll was fair, getting better as the day went on. Grass is cut in two directions (fairway views are phenomenal) so you know the line that divides them is dead center of fairway.

Rough: Grown out for an upcoming tournament, the stuff was gross. Grabbed your club hard and didn’t let go. Rough owns major property on this course!

Bunkers: 90% of the ones I was in were perfect; great soft sand. Some bunkers here are enormous, others slopes so badly you had to just take your medicine and lay up from the fairway.

Greens: Amazing. They rolled like glass; smooth and fast. Couldn’t tell you the stimp, but it was up there. Some breaks are dictated by the ocean outright, others are just wicked and pin placements today were deceptive and unfair.

ETC: Had a wonderful forecaddie (John) that helped tremendously! Course is C.P.O. so best to just walk it; hilly but doable. Staff was very friendly at all times. Saw cart attendant three times. Phone on 8 to call in your orders to the halfway house. Good grass range and chipping area. Course has everything you could want. Conditions are amazing right now.

Played here today as “day 2” of a three day visit to the Monterey area, getting to play alongside GK member Kassper7 and two Pasatiempo members. Heard a lot of amazing things about this course and it exceeded them in just about every way. Pasatiempo recently held a statewide amateur championship and conditions were essentially perfect. The greens here are wicked; be warned they will humble even the best player.

Tee boxes: Only three real tee options (did see a “juniors” tee option mostly about 100 yards forward of the whites in most fairways) and we played the middle tees. They were in good shape considering most members seem to play here and most normal golfers should too. Don’t let the yardage fool you, it still plays long so don’t just head to the tips to feel like a stud. Conditions on 90% of tee boxes were near perfect.

Fairways: Another case of lush, forest green carpet on every single hole. Members do a great job of replacing/filling divots. Roll was more than fair. Lies were everything you could ask for. Another 9.5 rating.

Rough: Apt name because it was rough! Torrey-like and it was everywhere, under trees, next to the greens, miss a fairway and ye shall be punished.

Bunkers: Other courses take note, this is how bunkers are done. There’s enough sand on this course to make a man made island, but every bunker allowed you to try for a sand save. Amazingly saw a member bring his own rake!

Greens: The single greatest, most frustrating, deceptive, insane, mesmerizing, baffling, and pure greens I have ever seen. At times downhill putts were slow, other times you’d tap the ball and it would run forever. Held shots well, that is until you chipped from just off the green and it would end up under the hole 15 feet past. Big shout out to the greens on the back 9, specifically 16 and 18.

ETC: Course offered everything you could need; ample pro shop open for your needs, small but good range, great chipping area, food to go at the turn, good power carts with color GPS. Staff was friendly and helpful. At least one if not two marshals out and about. Course layout is fantastic, though holes often flank each other so accuracy is at a premium. This course really should get more love than it does, it’s comparable to every Monterey-area course and is only 45 minutes north. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a challenge.

Got to play here for the first time yesterday (8/5) with GK member Kassper7 on an 11:40am tee time. Weather was a bit overcast but otherwise perfect with almost no wind! What can you say about Pebble that hasn’t been gushed about already; the history, the prestige, the conditions, the views...all of it lives up to expectations. Even playing the worst round I have all year couldn’t hamper my excitement at getting g a crack at the famed Pebble Beach.

Tee boxes: The weakest (still a 9) part of the course exacerbated almost exclusively by the amount of golfers today and our later-ish tee time. Played the whites and I’m sure they saw plenty of play today. Just a handful of holes had some heavy divots and there was a few lies that were uneven; nitpicking at this point.

Fairways: Green carpet. Not one bad lie for me. Good roll and visually stunning, even under grey skies. A pleasure to hit from.

Rough: Just saw the previews of TPC Harding Park for the PGA Championship and Pebbled looked a lot like it; thick, nasty, and humbling. It would grab your club as if to say “keep in the fairway you fool”. The fescue grass was insanely long and hard to hit from as well.

Bunkers: I hadn’t touched this much sand since my last visit to Santa Barbara, but the bunkers here are well manicured with beautiful pearl colored sand. Enough sand present to be able to shape your shot appropriately. No raked due to COVID.

Greens: The smallest greens I have ever played on. Miss your approach and you are in trouble. Conditions were immaculate. The color pops on these greens, the roll was true (and amazingly not as quick as you’d think). The ocean pull is real, but these weren’t unfair greens.

ETC: It’s Pebble, so even during COVID, there’s plenty of the traditional stuff to keep you entertained. Pro shop open with precautions enacted. Starter was helpful. I believe the shops between the first tee and the 18th green were all open. Saw the cart attendant a few times. The halfway house was also open, as was the pop up tent after hole 3. We walked the course but almost everyone else took power carts (C.P.O) that looked nice. Views were as promised, so if you get the chance take it all in. Pace was amazing at 4.25 hours, I’d say be prepared for 5+ but who could ever complain about spending TOO MUCH time here. A bucket list course if ever there was one.