Golf Course Reviews
Golf Course Reviews: California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Florida, Hawaii!Great course. Greens for the most part pretty fast (though some seemed to have a lot of foot prints or something - bumpy jumpy putts on a few holes confounded our best efforts to get good pace on our putts - most frustrating aspect of the course). Tee boxes were fine/level. Fairways were nice, pretty well seeded. Overall, no one to blame but yourself for a less than satisfactory score. Sand was adequate, not damp/impacted and amenable to proper sand play. If you can play sand, you won't be disappointed with Hiddenbrooke's sand.
We played blues and had a great time. If your drive is on, woods are going pretty straight, and your short game is adequate, you'll really enjoy this course (though probably any course would be fun if all that's going well for you). $50 during the week, e-mail special that includes cart, added to our enjoyment of the round - pretty fair price for a course of this quality.
We played blues and had a great time. If your drive is on, woods are going pretty straight, and your short game is adequate, you'll really enjoy this course (though probably any course would be fun if all that's going well for you). $50 during the week, e-mail special that includes cart, added to our enjoyment of the round - pretty fair price for a course of this quality.
Played the course for the first time since it's reopening last weekend. Overall, I won't be going back. In sum, the greens are mostly really nice, the makeover is beautiful to look at, but the overwhelming presence of this two to seven foot tall dense grass that's now on the edges of everything ruined most of the enjoyment of this course for me.
As I said, the remake looks beautiful, and the greens, for the most part, are really nice (excelpt for that trough of a green on one of the par 5's on the back nine - what's with the 3-foot "canyon" that runs through the middle?? Definitely over the top and a little bit reminiscent of a miniture golf green in it's very exaggerated contours.)
But by far, the overwhelming negative aspect of this remake is the two to seven-foot tall "natural" grass that is now just about everywhere (and I admit looks so pretty and "natural/estuary" looking). If you even barely go into this tall grass (which is up to seven feet - yes seven feet - high on the left side of the fairway on 11) eats your golf balls. Even a drive that just appears to barely dribble into the tall stuf disappears forever. My partner and I lost a collective nine balls to this tall grass - which functions essentially as if it were water (all is lost when you go into it, even a little), though the slope of 122 from the tips doesn't reflect this virtual water hazard all over the course. In fact, I'd say that the two back tee positions should be at 125/127 or so, just to reflect the punitive nature of this tall grass that's everywhere)
We did play from the "tips" - which still brought the course only to about 6,250 yards but also had the effect of making many tee shots a very narrow "thread the needle" affair, and yes, I'm not a scratch golfer (so not all of my shots were straight, heightening the pain and frustration that the grass wrought upon every shot that went just even 10 or 15 degrees left or right), but I'm pretty sure many golfers don't hit all shots straight and would also start to tire of watching their even slightly wayward shots trickle into these vast thickets, never to be seen again. Every time.
Golf is difficult enough as it is, and therefore hard enough to enjoy to begin with - the dense, tall "natural" grass eating your every ball that it touches really just doesn't enhance the golf experience at all. It's everywhere and really frustrating to look and look and look and look and not find even one ball that went into this stuff. At least with water, you know it's gone and you move on - there isn't any false hope leading every time to frustration, like there is with this grass everywhere.
If I do play this course again, one thing is for sure - I won't play from the far-back tees like I did. First, I admit I'm probably not good enough, given how narrow the tee shots became fromt he back tees (index of about 21 or so - not great, but not totally incompetent). And second, the "regular" tees, though shortening the course to about 5,700 yards, seemed to eliminate most of the "thread the needle" requirements of drives from the back tees. However, the course then becomes so short you'd probably use your driver vey little, which is too bad and gives the course a smallish feel to it. But the frustration of the hope/disappointment cycle that you go through over and over and over again with that tall grass means I'm willing to sacrafice the driver in favor of a more pleasant experience that the more forward tees appear to offer.
So, if you're going to play this course, and don't have absolute confidence in the straightness of your drives, do yourself a favor and play the 5,700-or-so yard tees and you'll probably lose fewer balls and enjoy yourself more.
PS - they now have this big granite bowl of polished black rocks at the first tee, with a pleasant saying about how if you take one of the rocks you'll have good luck. I think the rocks need to be bigger, because mine dispensed very little good luck . . .
As I said, the remake looks beautiful, and the greens, for the most part, are really nice (excelpt for that trough of a green on one of the par 5's on the back nine - what's with the 3-foot "canyon" that runs through the middle?? Definitely over the top and a little bit reminiscent of a miniture golf green in it's very exaggerated contours.)
But by far, the overwhelming negative aspect of this remake is the two to seven-foot tall "natural" grass that is now just about everywhere (and I admit looks so pretty and "natural/estuary" looking). If you even barely go into this tall grass (which is up to seven feet - yes seven feet - high on the left side of the fairway on 11) eats your golf balls. Even a drive that just appears to barely dribble into the tall stuf disappears forever. My partner and I lost a collective nine balls to this tall grass - which functions essentially as if it were water (all is lost when you go into it, even a little), though the slope of 122 from the tips doesn't reflect this virtual water hazard all over the course. In fact, I'd say that the two back tee positions should be at 125/127 or so, just to reflect the punitive nature of this tall grass that's everywhere)
We did play from the "tips" - which still brought the course only to about 6,250 yards but also had the effect of making many tee shots a very narrow "thread the needle" affair, and yes, I'm not a scratch golfer (so not all of my shots were straight, heightening the pain and frustration that the grass wrought upon every shot that went just even 10 or 15 degrees left or right), but I'm pretty sure many golfers don't hit all shots straight and would also start to tire of watching their even slightly wayward shots trickle into these vast thickets, never to be seen again. Every time.
Golf is difficult enough as it is, and therefore hard enough to enjoy to begin with - the dense, tall "natural" grass eating your every ball that it touches really just doesn't enhance the golf experience at all. It's everywhere and really frustrating to look and look and look and look and not find even one ball that went into this stuff. At least with water, you know it's gone and you move on - there isn't any false hope leading every time to frustration, like there is with this grass everywhere.
If I do play this course again, one thing is for sure - I won't play from the far-back tees like I did. First, I admit I'm probably not good enough, given how narrow the tee shots became fromt he back tees (index of about 21 or so - not great, but not totally incompetent). And second, the "regular" tees, though shortening the course to about 5,700 yards, seemed to eliminate most of the "thread the needle" requirements of drives from the back tees. However, the course then becomes so short you'd probably use your driver vey little, which is too bad and gives the course a smallish feel to it. But the frustration of the hope/disappointment cycle that you go through over and over and over again with that tall grass means I'm willing to sacrafice the driver in favor of a more pleasant experience that the more forward tees appear to offer.
So, if you're going to play this course, and don't have absolute confidence in the straightness of your drives, do yourself a favor and play the 5,700-or-so yard tees and you'll probably lose fewer balls and enjoy yourself more.
PS - they now have this big granite bowl of polished black rocks at the first tee, with a pleasant saying about how if you take one of the rocks you'll have good luck. I think the rocks need to be bigger, because mine dispensed very little good luck . . .
Course is improved - consistent reasonably fast greens. Fairways are pretty well maintained. Still, most holes are pretty close to the freeway, and you do hear the freeway most of the time. It takes a bit away from the experience. We just played in the afternoon, and the winds were pretty bad, so stay away from afternoon play, especially in the summer (typical bay area phenomenon, but especially pronounced at this course, it seems). Generally, for the price one pays, it seems a bit overpriced. I play this place about once/twice a year, when I can find a good bargain online. I would never pay full price for it, though.
This is an inexpensive muni course, and essentially you get what you pay for (except for the view, which is exceptional and may make up for a few less-than-perfect holes). With the current dry season, the greens for the most part are acceptable. The fairways are dry and kept about as short as you'd expect a course that doesn't have intensive upkeep to have - acceptable, but not Pebble-Beach-like. Do not, however, play this course after a few days of rain. It will be intolerable. For $24 as a resident of SF, this course is my back-up course when I can't find a good tee-time elsewhere. As long as it's reasonably dry, I'm never disappointed and never feel like I've been ripped off. The greens are a lot better than they were a couple of years ago, by the way (that was horrible).
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