I am highly disappointed with Pala Mesa. I've seen numerous photos of the course and read many great reviews and really looked forward to the day I'd play there. The day finally came and I walked away more disappointed than I've ever been with a course.

They shouldn't be charging customers to play during the turf revival program they have in place as the course is in such bad shape I'd compare it to playing in a cow pasture.

First off the fairways are absolutely terrible. Because the turf is dormant its next to impossible to judge the lie and distance to the hole. For example I hit 14 of 18 fairway (7 of which left me with less than 125 to the center of the green) and I never got a good lie. Some spots the fairway was like a sponge and left you hitting it fat and others you might as well have taken out the putter because it was like hitting off a cart path. The consistency of the turn if atrocious. On six occasions I had roughly 50 yards to the pin and because of the turf I hit three of those nearly 80 yards and two went 25 yards...meaning 1 in 6 actually meant hitting the right distance. I'd have been better served to put my tee shot into the rough to get a consistent lie.

Once you got on the greens it was nearly impossible to make a putt. You could have the line and speed right every time only to have the ball hit a lump in the green and go off line by half an inch or so. The greens need to be rolled because they certainly don't roll true.

Thankfully I didn't pay for the round, but my company did and I'd recommend they refuse the credit card billing...it was that bad.

Close the course if you can't give people at least something that resembles a golf course during your turf "renovation".

I will NEVER play this course again. I played it a few years ago and it was in decent shape but the pace of play was terrible and the marshall refused to speed up the four and fivesomes that caused a four group back up on the front nine. This time around was no different.

I got behind a very slow threesome that said they were waiting on two foursomes ahead (which I never saw) and refused to let me play through. I get to the 8th hole and waited 30 minutes to tee off. While waiting a gentlemen in the group behind me comes up and says "What are you doing playing here? You look like your too good a player to be on this course." He then introduced himself as the OWNER. He and the rest of his foursome decide to invite themselves to tee off with me for the final two holes of the front nine. The entire time the owner and his group were incredibly rude, judgemental, and didn't display the basic understanding of golf etiquette. He joked about me being the only paying customer on the course and he was worried that he and his friends were going to scare me off (which they did).

IF this guy has the time to play 9 with his friends, he's surely got the time to study etiquette and customer service. He's also got the time to enforce pace of play. With 15 cars in the parking lot there is NO REASON it should take more than 5 hours to shoot an 83. You couldn't pay me to play a course run by this owner with no enforcement of pace of play.

Played on 4/10. The course is great shape right now. The greens are rolling very smooth though a little on the slow side. Fairways and tees were in good shape (one complaint...they were mowing the fairway on virtually every hole we had to play and the guy didn't move the mower out of the center of the fairway...very distracting). Pro Shop staff was friendly and the starter was very helpful. On a side note...they didn't have scorecards? How does a course run out of scorecards? They simply photocopied a bunch of scorecards on paper and handed those out.

Played the $9.00 (walking) twilight rate. It appears that the greens need rolled. Extremely bumpy, you couldn't keep a putt on line, much less keep it from hopping. The fairways were in good shape, though I wish more people would be kind enough to fill in their divots.

Good way to practice for $9.00, but wouldn't play here to post a good score...the course isn't in good enough shape to score well on.

Played on 5/14 -- Course was in good shape. My two biggest complaints are:

- The started indicated that the greens were playing to a 12 on the stimpmeter. There is no way this was accurate. Maybe a 7.5 or 8, but nowhere close to 12. The greens were nowhere close to the indicated speed.

- The bunkers contained more a lot of gravel. I understand the cause and that the Course Super has plans to correct the problem, but it doesn't make up for the fact that they are in poor condition.

Overall it is a good course. I played it a year ago and it was in phenomenal shape. For the most part the same held true again with the exception of the bunkers. I would recommend that every at least give it a try. It is a test of total golf skill and plays nearly a half stroke to a full stroke per hole more difficult that others I've played recently.