I'm not going to mince any words here: This course needs to be shut down for renovation. Now.

If you dig back into my reviews, you'll see that I was pleasantly surprised by this course in 2008. But when I went back today, I was mostly horrified by what I saw. I mean, you know things are bad when the grass in the rough is in better shape than the fairways. Because there really isn't much grass to be found in the fairways. And some of the "fairway dirt" is so dry that it's white and cracking! I had to move some of my best-struck drives several yards to find a surface that wouldn't damage my clubs... and even then, the surfaces didn't allow me the opportunity for good second shots.

Things are a little better around the greens and tees, but hardly perfect. And the bunkers are atrocious. The layer of "soft sand" is maybe half an inch to an inch at the most, so you can't get under the ball and blast it out -- you have to try your luck at lifting it out, with no margin for error.

I also have to give failing marks to the personnel there. The starter didn't have a clue what he was doing. He held me back from a foursome to pair me up with a twosome... I could understand the reasoning (creating two threesomes), but then he inexplicably added an extra twosome to our group -- literally at the last second, after the three of us had already teed off! So we wound up being a fivesome trailing a threesome with an impatient threesome in back of us. Terrible course management.

Seriously, they need to start over. New management. New crew. And a complete rebuild of the fairways. Because as it stands right now, they shouldn't be charging money for this golf experience.

Played Woodley Lakes on Saturday morning for the first time in about 20 years, so (with apologies to Madonna) I felt like a Woodley Lakes virgin. Among the positives: a very forgiving course layout, with plenty of wide fairways; for the most part, well-maintained fairways; and pretty decent greens. I say "for the most part" because there was one fairway that was so oversaturated with water, it felt like walking through a marsh. (Felt like hitting out of marsh, too.) Same applies to the greens: most were in good shape, with a few notable exceptions, which were covered with goose droppings. The course really should send somebody out periodically to remove those... it definitely diminishes the quality of play when you're having to navigate your way around goose dung. The other caveat about this course is that it's far from a peaceful, relaxing walk in the park. Throughout the entire round, we were dealing with constant noise from Van Nuys Airport traffic, the model airplane range next door, and loud music from the park across the street. Oh yes, and bugs. Plenty of insects getting in your face all over the course. Overall, it wasn't a horrendous experience, by any means, but it's hardly optimal for playing your best round of golf. Things could definitely be improved if course management were to put a little more effort into some of these maintenance issues.

Woodley Lakes Golf Course Review
Los Angeles California Golf Course Reviews

The winds began to howl Friday afternoon in Thousand Oaks, which certainly made a round at Los Robles an adventure. (In fact, the wind caused a large chunk of a tree near the 6th tee to snap and fall as we were getting ready to hit!)

The course itself was a mixed bag. The fairways were in very good shape, and the one bunker I visited was good, too. The rough was patchy -- overgrown in some places, almost barren in others -- but we do need a little incentive to hit the fairways, right?

Portions of several tee boxes were cordoned off for reshaping and reseeding. (There was so much yellow ribbon, at times I felt like an extra on "CSI: Los Robles"!) While it did mess with some of the hole yardages, I appreciate the effort they're making to improve the tees.

Next on their to-do list: the greens. They're not in horrible shape -- I've definitely seen worse -- but they could use a little work. On some of the holes, I watched my playing partners' putts repeatedly leap off the surface like they were dice in a "Pop-O-Matic," and I certainly noticed that several of my putts weren't getting the roll I would have expected. But it wasn't consistent from hole to hole -- some greens were problematic, some were rolling just fine, and you couldn't really tell until you hit the ball. So I hope they'll work on bringing more consistency to the greens.

The 13th green was certainly consistent, though -- consistently treacherous! With the front-left pin placement on that steep slope, my group certainly had a few laughs (and groans) as we watched one putt literally do a U-turn around the hole, while others rolled straight back nearly to where they were originally hit. Whenever you see the red flag on that hole, you might as well wave a white flag.

My biggest gripe about yesterday's round, though, was the marshal.

When we were waiting to begin our round, the pro shop apologized, considerately and repeatedly, for the delay (about 15 minutes or so) in getting golfers out on the course. Fine. No big deal, right?

Well, after a while, we start to notice the marshal driving by, giving us all kinds of glances and glares. We weren't playing championship golf, but we weren't playing horrendously, either. And with the wind wreaking havoc around the course, it's certainly understandable that we'd be facing a few extra shots, right? But the warden -- er, marshal -- approached us and chastised us for "falling out of our window," sternly warning us to pick up our pace. (This, even though the group behind us wasn't even on the tee yet when we were putting out after the first 6 holes or so!)

We wound up finishing our round in four and a half hours -- quite normal for this course and, really, quite reasonable given the windy conditions.

As we got to our 16th hole, though, it became obvious what was going on. They had some kind of a Friday afternoon scramble scheduled, and even though the start of our round had been delayed, they were apparently intent on getting the scramble off on time. So they had the marshal pressure us, which made the round very frustrating. (It's also very counter-intuitive on their part -- how many of us make better shots when we're being pressured to speed things up? If every shot and setup takes time, give us the opportunity to make our best shots, right? Because making fewer shots is the best way to shave time off of any round...)

I've played the course a number of times and have never encountered a situation like this. It's usually a very enjoyable experience out at Los Robles, but this really spoiled it for me yesterday.

Oh, and as a sidenote, they should never start 18-hole players off at #10, like they did yesterday. #8 and #9 are two of the most nondescript holes on the entire course, and the greens are almost always littered with leaves from nearby trees, making it an anticlimactic end to the round.

Los Robles Greens Golf Course Review
Thousand Oaks California Golf Course Reviews

Very nice course with very challenging, fast greens. The course itself was in great condition, pace of play was excellent, scenery was gorgeous, and the people there were friendly. Couldn't really ask for a better experience... well, unless my game was a little better! (First time I've been able to play in about half a year, and the rust showed...) The only quibble -- and I would imagine this happens a lot at the desert courses -- is that some of the sand in the bunkers was a little on the hard side. But the course had a good layout, the fairways and greens were in good shape, and it's not as expensive as some of the other area courses. I'd give it a solid 8/10 and would gladly play here again.

Palm Valley Golf Club Review
Las Vegas Nevada Golf Course Reviews

Played Brookside #1 for the first time today (2/13/10), and I guess the beautiful weather brought all the hackers out. Starter got me into a foursome and out on the course immediately, but once we finished #1, we found ourselves third in line to play #2, and this pattern of waiting continued until #6, where things eased up a bit... only to hit the logjam again at #10. The marshals needed to be more proactive about keeping things moving, because the stop-and-start routine really made it difficult to get any kind of rhythm to our games, and the round stretched to nearly 6 hours. As far as the course goes, it was in pretty decent shape for a muni. Fairways had a few thin/dead patches here and there, but not so bad as to be a major problem. Greens were fast! In fact, combined with some of the deceptive slopes on many of the holes and tiering on some others, putting was an adventure -- and treacherous at times! Layout of the course isn't particularly spectacular, but there were some challenging pin positions -- especially #9, where the pin was behind two tall trees guarding the green -- so there were some risk/reward situations to test our course management skills. Bunkers were consistently good, neither too hard nor too soft. I would like to try the course again in a situation where I could play straight through without the delays, because those made it difficult to really get a feel for the course.

Played my first round of the year here, and at the same time, played my first round at De Bell. Starting with the good: I loved the course layout. I can't remember the last time I played a course with so many twists and turns, and I enjoyed the fact that this is a course that challenges your course management skills just as much as it tests your physical ability. (I'm sure this course drives the long hitters crazy, because it certainly isn't a course where they'll excel. I found myself teeing off on quite a few of the holes with middle irons, just to put the ball in the right position to handle the doglegs.) Greens were good and bunkers were soft. Now, the bad: There were many places on the course where the grass was just too loose (and it shouldn't be -- we're well past the rains). On at least three occasions, the ground gave way so much that solidly hit balls traveled maybe about half as far as they would have on better turf. Pace of play was also far too slow for such a short course.

Played Westridge on Saturday afternoon. Though we were two days removed from the Christmas rains, the course was still "cart path only," and for good reason. There were some areas that were still soaked and sloppy, and several of the fairway bunkers had small ponds in them. In fact, when crouching on the greens, I could see "moisture footprints" where me and the others in my group had walked, so clearly the course is still saturated. That came into play on a few shots, which was a little frustrating. It's obvious that due to the way the course easily saturates and softens, they haven't been able to do a lot of cutting in the past week, so the fairways were a little more grown-out than you'd like to see. At least the greens were rolling true, albeit a little slower than usual.

Overall, though, I still like the course and its challenging holes. The biggest problem yesterday was pace of play -- absolutely atrocious! I've played the course on holiday weekends before, and it's been fine, but yesterday was a different story. There was a marshal, but clearly he wasn't doing his job. We sat and watched the group ahead of us tee off at every single hole, but the backup was in front of them. (While waiting on the first tee, I saw a couple groups with some golfers whose tee shots were, frankly, better suited to miniature golf.) It took 3 hours just to get through 9 holes... by the time the sun went down, we'd only made it through 13, and were able to squeeze in two more with the remaining twilight.

Arrived at the course at about 6:50am this morning (Sat 11/1) as a single walk-on and, much to my surprise, was sent out at 7:12am. (Everybody sleeping late after Halloween, maybe? Or could it have been the threatening-looking skies?) Course was a mixed bag. The greens were in great shape, soft and receptive, rolling true (although a little slow), and showing no signs of the recent aeration. Around the greens, there seemed to be far too much GUR on several of the holes. There were also some instances where the areas around sprinkler heads had some standing water, far too much to be caused by the brief rain shower we got around 9am. Fairways were a bit inconsistent; some were very good, some were a little thin and patchy. As a walker, though, I noticed that the ground was very, very soft. Overall, it played decent but not great. Getting out that early, we got in a lighting-quick round (by Rancho Park standards) of just over 4 hours.

Played Sunday 6/1... honestly, from the satellite picture I saw on Greenskeeper.org , I hadn't expected much, because from that image, it looked like the course hadn't been very well maintained, with a lot more brown than green on the fairways. Playing the course, though, I was pleasantly surprised to find the course was in decent shape (though not great) and more challenging than expected, especially since so many holes played into brisk crosswinds. The greens were the highlight of the course, as many of them were difficult to read, many because of their actual breaks and a few because of their "optical illusion" non-breaks. Well-struck tee shots got a lot of roll on the fairways, but there were some patches that were too hard and caused some club bounce. Club selection was definitely influenced by the winds, since the crosswinds tended to really knock balls down. (I was tempted to play a pitching wedge from 90 yards out on one early hole, then switched it out at the last moment for a 9-iron and just made the front of the green with a well-struck ball.) Pace of play was OK (a little over 5 hours), spurred on by a marshal on the back 9 who seemed to be telling everyone to speed things up... hole 14 seemed to be a bit of a logjam, because it's a very difficult par 3 playing into the wind across a chasm (sounds better than "drainage ditch," doesn't it?)... so a lot of people seemed to be playing additional shots from the drop area. Noise can also be a problem on the back 9, as you're playing within earshot of the 405 freeway and, when the winds were right, you can sometimes hear the loud drone of the nearby go-cart track. Overall, though, a decent afternoon of golf for the price.

Played Scholl Canyon for the first time today, and what a fun little course it is!

Even though it's a short par 60, there were definitely enough challenges to keep things very interesting. In fact, there are several holes on the back 9 that will test both your club selection strategies and your precision shotmaking skills -- especially the narrow, canyon-surrounded green on 14 and the dogleg-across-a-chasm challenge on 13. And the elevation changes and canyon wind conditions can make for some difficult decisions.

The greens' placement on the hills -- and the somewhat skewed perspective they present -- make reading them a little tricky, though if you play the course enough (like Los Verdes), I'm sure you get to know their personalities.

The course was in relatively good shape; however, I was surprised to see some dried out brown patches on the fairways just a few days after a decent-sized (by California standards) rainstorm. I must agree, though, with an earlier comment about the number of ball marks on the greens. Frankly, there shouldn't be any par 3 or executive courses that let players on without a) asking if each player has a repair tool and b) asking if they know how to use it. When the very premise of your course is to crank up the short irons and send balls high and short, you need to make sure your clientele understands proper ball mark etiquette.

Played the course last Tuesday (before the most recent storms). While the course was a lot more green and lush than it is during the summer months, portions of the course were suffering from overwatering. There were several areas under repair, presumably because of cart damage to oversaturated fairways. (On some holes, they definitely should have been allowing carts on the path only, but weren't, so I foresee more GUR in the near future.) Even where the ground wasn't under repair, it wasn't unusual to find mud on my ball after bouncing on the fairway. The greens played reasonably well, though there were a couple that seemed a little bumpy. Overall, the conditions were pretty good, but definitely could have been better with improved water management and cart restrictions where appropriate.

Played course on Monday (8/29), and while the views were as beautiful as ever, the conditions weren't quite as beautiful. There were a lot of bumpy greens -- I watched my playing partners' putts become airborne on several occasions. There also seemed to be a lot more beige on the fairways than I've remembered there, possibly a testament to August's elevated temperatures and not enough watering to compensate. Pace of play wasn't as bad as some rounds I've played there, so that was one positive.