I have played DeBell many times over many years and know the course well. On 8/22/2025, I played and did something I have never done at any golf course. I left after the 13th hole because the course had too many grass clippings and covered most of the fairways. I am not talking about a few clippings here and there. I am talking about hitting a perfect drive that lands in the center of the fairway and being unable to locate my golf ball because of all the grass clippings in the fairway. The heavy clippings added to the "thickness" of the fairway and created conditions as if I was hitting out of the rough.

Also, the rough was very thick with piles of grass clippings... EVERYWHERE! If I did hit an errant shot that ended up in the first-cut of rough, finding my golf ball was nearly impossible because it was buried within all of the grass clippings (8" to 12" deep). After losing 3 golf balls in the fairway grass clippings and rough (piles of grass clippings and heavy grass), which would have been easily found if the conditions were similar to previous years, I decided to leave after the 13th hole because the round was not enjoyable. To all that are thinking, gee hit better shots. No, that's not what occurred. It is one thing to not play well and have a tough day on the course. But, hitting good golf shots that are in the fairway, or the first-cut of rough and not being able to find a golf ball is unfairly penalizing the golfer. Positioning tee boxes or placing flag sticks in tricky positions to set up a course to be more/less difficult is one thing. But penalizing golfers because of poor maintenance and neglect is something else. This is not the U.S. Open. It is a municipal golf course in Burbank.

Like I mentioned, I have played DeBell many times over many years in a variety of conditions. Sometimes the greens are bit burned out (especially in summer). Sometimes the bunkers are packed hard with dirt instead of sand. What I experienced on Friday was disappointing and I recognized that it would be better for me to leave and call it a day vs. trudging along wondering how many good golf shots would be unfairly penalized and how many golf balls I would eventually lose because they were buried in grass clippings. DeBell has a lot of work to do, and I certainly hope they address the problem. It is a good course, with nice people, and I do enjoy playing there. However, I will not be back in 2025.

On 11/3/2020, I played Dos Lagos for the first time and really enjoyed it. Being a course located in an arid area, after a hot summer and dry spell, I was not expecting the conditions to be very good. I was pleasantly surprised and found the fairways to be in very good condition.
The greens had been punched a few weeks earlier, and there were minor bumps, but they were healing nicely. Many of the tee boxes did not have much grass on them, and perhaps management was beginning to repair them. My ball did not find a bunker, but from appearance only, the sand appeared like compressed dirt... not very soft or "fluffy." Regardless, it was a good experience and I will definitely play here again.

My Saturday foursome played Santa Anita today and it was disappointing. I agree with other reviewers that the course has been neglected (management company) during the shut-down and could have made many needed repairs. They have had problems with bare spots on the fairways, thin and sloping tee boxes, hard ground that does not allow turf to grow, and dirt in the bunkers. They had 2 months to address these issues and squandered the opportunity to fix them. I understand without any revenue coming in, it's difficult to pay employees and address these problems. However, they have existed for at least the last 2+ years.

We have played here the last 2 weeks and many of the fairways have bare spots. I can understand at the end of summer, after a lot of play, this may happen, but it's May and the course has been closed for 2 months. Comparing last week to this week, it appears the fairways have dried out even more. By July/August, it should be brown grass on many of the fairways.

The staff is ALWAYS great and friendly. They are doing the best they can with the restrictions surrounding the COVID-19. But the course needs some love and attention. Hopefully the management company will start watering more frequently so there will be some grass in the fairways this summer.