Golf has gotten expensive in the LBC. Paying $85-100 to play here is painful. Im quite familiar with this course, been playing here for 12 years, yet the place hasn't improved ever. Always just ok -- fairways are alright, rough doesn't really exist much, or is very patchy. I think basic maintenance is all that they do here. That would be fine if the cost was lower, the idea of playing here on a Saturday, taking 5.5-6 hours and paying nearly $100, frankly sucks. I'd rather pay an extra 20-50 to play a higher tier course. Mid-week, walking?, yea, I'll still do that out of nostalgia and if I need to stay close in the area (my daughter lives down there), otherwise, meh, treat yourself to someplace better.

I've played here a few times this summer -- while this place is a bit most pricey than others, I think its worth the cost. Real great layout, nice views, interesting holes that provide the right amount of challenge. The folks here are real nice as well, they aren't anti-flipflop (ok, Ive been catching up on writing all my reviews tonight, so a common theme is how no one except Rustic Canyon has cared if I played in flip-flops). I really like this course, but the $150 is right at that point where I have to treat-myself to play here -- or just work the variable pricing model and pick different days/times to play. I don't like to plan too far ahead but would do so in order to play here more often.

Played for the first time on July 19th -- just getting around to writing a review. I was very impressed by the course. The architecture of the place feels like the 80s -- if y'all recall Rancho Park before they started to renovate the clubhouse, its a lot like that. So that kinda felt "old", yet was very clean and immaculate with how they care for the place. The cost is a bit more than I'd like (~100 weekday, ~125 weekend), and the drive is far for me, so this can't be too regular of a place for me. Yet I like that I found a wonderful course that's not quite the price of Oak Quarry, doesn't require me to drive all the way to the desert, and was real chill, a lot of fun, and a great challenge. And unlike Rustic Canyon, they thought I was cool cause I can shoot under 80 wearing flip flops (see my RC review for why I'm annoyed at those folks having to control everyone). Will def be playing her more often.

After posting my negative review of Rustic, I felt I needed to come here and drop another review for SP -- also it seems its been since July someone last did. I play here often, several times a month, so I have built that bias of loving my "home course" (even though I live in West LA). Its worth the drive to come here -- it takes about an hour for me to get anywhere else any way (any LBC course, or Pacific Palms or Oak Quarry or Goose Creek), so an extra 20-30 min to get to Ojai is worth it. The course is cheap -- almost a steal -- and they put a lot of work into maintaining the course. The improvements that have been made in the last 5-6 years makes this course one of the best public courses in the Ventura/LA area. Add on to that the great food they have at the course, as well as all the nice place to enjoy in the town, this is a destination that y'all should consider to be a habit and not just an occasional treat.

Played Rustic for the first time on 10/21/25. I gotta say, I wasn't that impressed. This course is suggested to me a lot, and appeared in Golf.com's Top 100 best public courses, yet I found it very meh. For the price, its alright I suppose, better than any of the Long Beach or LA public courses (which I refuse to play now they've gotten so poor and expensive). But I do have some issues: (1) the layout is rather boring. Essentially its two holes, side by side, stretched out above and below the clubhouse. More than once I aimed my shot at the wrong green. (2) the fairways were alright, yet it was brown everywhere else, and mostly flat. (3) they've got some pretty aggressive set of "rules" as to how you should behave and such (see the website, lots of threats about being kicked off the course, or having to pay extra fess etc..) (4) the layout is boring. Parallel fairways, no real flow through the course, each tee box the question is "ok, which one's the green for this hole? I see 3". (4) they wouldn't let me play in my flip flops. I put on actual shoes and walked, which was fine, yet I thought we were past holding on to these old-school rules about attire. No one (Oak Quarry, Goose Creek, Pacific Palms) has ever cared about what I wore when I played. Honestly, I'm kinda irritated by the whole experience as I expected so much more. There's no way you can tell me this course is better than Soule Park in Ojai -- a course that gets compared to Rustic Canyon often, and frankly, shouldn't belong. Compare Rustic to one of those Oxnard or Ventura courses instead. And the Golf.com folks must've skipped playing Soule Park cause there's no way this place belongs on their top 100 list without SP being ranked higher. I wanted to find a comparable place to SP, and thought this was supposed to be it.

Played 5/24/25 -- first time, long time this course is for me. I've been looking for a new, premium course to enjoy since Black Gold, Oak Creek have gotten so expensive, and I wanted something closer than driving out to the desert -- where honestly I think is the only place to get premium golf in the LA area, except for Rustic Canyon and Soule Park. I paid $150 for my Saturday tee time. For some reason it was wide open, and I played as a single, so I breezed through an awesome +2 front nine. About 3 4-somes let me play through, they all suggested it as I pulled up, very gentlemanly of them all. I eventually joined a couple tourists from Arizona at hole 11, and had a nice time and come company for the rest of the round. I found the layout very fair, considering you're mostly winding through some elevations, and right up against several hills, etc.. I couple holes have great views of the valley, and a couple are down within the rocky hills with one up that's above a real cool lake that's surrounded by sheer walls of rock. I'm very happy to have discovered this place!

This course is seeing plenty of good reviews lately - I'll add another. While I do love that most of the time, when I play there, its wide open (weekdays or Sunday afternoons are best), I'll give away that this has to be the best value course in LA (ok, this is Ventura, but I'll explain).

Since moving back to the Westside from Long Beach, courses here are limited - Rancho's pace of play is awful, I haven't been to Woodley or another Valley course in a while, and I was never a fan anyway. I've heard decent things about Griffith (Wilson/Harding), but frankly, its worth the drive (less than 90 minutes now with covid-traffic) to goto Ojai.

Tee fees are low ($44 to walk, add $12 or so to ride), the course keeps getting in better and better shape. It was taken over a couple years ago, and they've been working steadily to improve every aspect. They care about their golfers - an example, they don't charge people to just ride along with the players. I've seen guys out there with their kids (they often won't charge for the little ones, or wifes to caddy them around while they walk (single rider policy in place cause of covid). Soule park wants you to enjoy your day.

This is a course that doesn't ride up against any buildings, condos, homes. There's a dog pound that you can hear on hole 8, and a donkey that loves to honk on hole 12, otherwise its a super peaceful and gorgeous place. (I don't get why some people have to play with music here, the place is so tranquil).

Where else you gonna play? Drive down to Skylinks and hear the helicopters all day? Spend 6 hours playing at Rancho? Go east is d%mn far to play Pacific Palms - only to find that the Babe is all tore up and the Ike is slow as sh*t.

Only thing better is going out to the desert, which is way hot, and 30 more minutes further for me now. So Soule Park it is!

Played last Saturday. My first time playing here, and wow! the place is great! I loved everything about it! Now I was lucky enough to have an inside hookup that got me out for $125, I'm not sure how I'd feel if I paid the regular rate, but when I was thinking about it later, I felt that this may be in the top 3 courses I've played in the LA/Desert area. Pelican was better than the Riveria, primarily in layout, they compared with course conditions. LACC was better in both layout and conditions. Yeah, I'd say Pelican may be the 2nd best place to play in LA/Desert area. The south course is lower and cuts closer to the beach. One hold has you right up over the shoreline in fact. The layout was quite varied I thought, with a meandering path throughout the resort, with few holes lined up together. The service was outstanding, I even had my car washed. I ate lunch too, that was also great, and a bunch of my friends loved the pool. I'd love to play golf here again, if I can get a deal, or feel like splurging.

Meh.. Grad school has kept me off the links for about 18 months. My game isn't up to par, but was better than I thought it would be. A few more hours at the range and some more playing time, and I'll be back in the single digits again. But anyway, this place still has my heart - its close to my house and the twilight rates are cheap. Its just meh.. though. I like the layout, but there's lots of patches of hard dirt, mostly off the fairway. I wouldn't even call it rough, because its the opposite - its as if they maintain the fairways and ignore the rough, so there's little grass and when there is, its not lengthy. The fairways here have always been dry and hard, so the ball rolls quite a bit. But its not bad to hit off of. Bunkers are usually pretty good here. If I'm jonesing to play, need to get out quick, and want a twilight discount, this place works fine. If I'm able to plan ahead, I'd look elsewhere for something a bit "more". Just don't play here on the weekends unless your phone is fully charged so you can watch tv while you wait, and wait, and wait.

Played Sat. April 6. If they punched the greens, its recovered now, as the greens we near perfect. Very nice and quick. As for the rest of the course, this was my first time playing, and I hadn't even heard of it before. I grew up in So Cal, but I had never been to Rancho Santa Margarita before and wow -- its a very nice place. Great scenery and very quiet. The golf was very nice as well. I checked out their membership rates, and they're a bit cheaper than places I know of in Seal Beach, San Gabriel, etc.. I thought the clubhouse was outstanding. The views from it, as well as from many of the holes were amazing. Lots of variety in the course as well. The course was challenging like a Private club should be. The rough wasn't too thick, and there were lots of trees. I had some outstanding tee shots that ended up in bad positions because of them. The bunkers were nice and soft. Greens had elevation changes and were real quick. All the tee boxes were nice as well. If I loved closer I'd definitely think of joining the place. I highly recommend!

1:40 to play the first 4 holes. I quit.. I've had enough, Long Beach golf has gone way downhill. The course gets worse and worse each time I come. They seem to always be doing some sort of maintenance they don't tell you about. The guys in the pro shop, while adequate in that they can do the job, have zero personality and don't do anything to better the experience. They lie too about pace of play or when you'll get out. I showed up .. we can put you out at 11:15, I'm actually teeing off at 11:50. First hole, not bad, second tee? Group just tee'd off, another group waiting, and then us. No marshal in sight .. It rained days ago yet most bunkers are flooded. All this for $50+. For just a few bucks more you can play Black Gold, or Industry Hills. You can even make it to Riverside, have a leisurely round, and make it back in the time it takes to play here now. This used to be my go to place in Long Beach, but no longer. This place sucks now.

I haven't played here in over a year. They went through some rehab, and some reviews on GK at the time made it seem like it wasn't in good shape. Also, its been a while since I've seen a rate less than $150. I got out for $105 during the holiday's, and had a great round. The place is as I remembered it, well maintained and I really like the layout. It had rained recently so some of the sand traps were GUR, which did help my score a little. Though hitting out of a hard packed, wet sandtrap isn't much different than hitting off of many muni fairways (or off of a range mat), so that too helped. I'm mostly stoked for this place because it does offer opportunities, to score well if you're game is a bit off, as there's opportunities to either make it up on another hole, or ways to salvage a hole you're on. I think this place offers the right amount of tight fairways to ones that are open that give you some forgiveness. This is my favorite course right now in LA (ok, Irvine, but whatever).