I haven't played this course in a while, so I thought I would try. I know the good tee times are hard to come by, so I was surprised to find a 10:20 am tee time on Saturday morning. It was crowded as I remember, and we didn't tee off until 10:45 am. After 9 holes, I knew why I haven't played this course. It took 3 hours and 30 minutes to play front 9 - yes, a 7 hour round pace. It picked up a little in the back, so we were able to finish in 6 hours and 15 minutes. It wasn't the fact that they had inserted a single to our group to make it a five-some that made it so slow, there was just NO marshall to get people to play at a pace they should. I don't care how scenic this place is, there is no course that's worth spending 6+ hours to play a round of golf. I will NOT return to this course any time soon.

We had a Saturday noon tee time for Ike. The course was surprisingly empty for Saturday afternoon, and to our benefit, we were able to tee off on time with a group ahead and no group behind. The course was immaculate as usual - level teeing ground, carpet like fairway and nice fluffy sands in the bunkers. I also noticed that they are making constant effort to make this a friendlier course. I always seem to favor left when teeing off on 4th hole which often leaves me on the left hillside, and I noticed that they have cut away much of the shrubs and trees, so the ball can roll back down more often than before, but there is still enough trees to swallow errant balls if you hit left and high enough. I can't say too many bad things about this course for I personally think it is one of the best golf resort in Southern California. Service and facility is top class, including regular shuttle from the driving range to the club house, great restaurants to unwind after the round, nice snack shop on the way to the 10th hole and real nice practice facility next to St Andrews which is not always visible to non-golfing visitors. I always said the Torrey Pines which I have played plenty of times is over-rated and over-priced compared to these two courses at Industry Hills. They are just as long, just as challenging and best of all, they are price-worthy.

Industry Hills Golf Club Review
Los Angeles California Golf Course Reviews

I got a 12:40 tee time on Sunday afternoon through Golfnow.com for $27 which I thought was a great deal, now that we have daylight until 5 to 5:30 pm. The course ran on time which helped also. In general, I would rate the over all course condition to be fair to good. Teeing grounds were in good shape, fairways were dormant but certainly not bare, greens were in good rolling shape with exception of few holes where there were some spotty places - maybe the coots have dined on them. One thing I have to comment is their customer service. Our cart start to act up around 12 th hole, so I decided to call the club house to let them know that our cart is running out of juice as we teed off on 14th hole - this was at around 4:30. Before I could hit my second shot from the 14th fairway, there was an attendant with a new cart - I call that a GREAT service and other courses should learn from that. There were a lot of people playing that afternoon, and the pace was not the most ideal, but we still got 16 holes in - it was getting too cold anyways, and I enjoyed the golf. It's scenic and well layed out with plenty of places to get in trouble, but if I wanted flat and boring golf, I wouldn't have been there in the first place.

Eagle Glen Golf Club Review
Corona California Golf Course Reviews

I got a rare Saturday mid-morning tee time at this busy course through American Golf website - so the lesson is that it is possible to get a desirable tee time at this highly demanded course if you are persistent. Proshop personnel was friendly and so was the marshall who was doubling as a starter at the 1st tee. He was helpful in keeping groups in order and giving advice on the yardage. Given it is a busy course with a lot of playing, the tees were generally in good order, fairways were in decent shape with no overly dry area. I appreciated courses effort to keep the ball from rolling down the gutter located in the middle of the first fairways and few others by having ball stoppers strategically placed along the gutter - nothing like searching for a ball that has rolled down the gutter all the way across the fairway. Greens were on the med fast side even with some bumps, which is pretty good with all the playing this course gets. Griffith Park should learn from this - it's OK to roll and mow the green to give some challenge sometimes. Everyone knows that for the money this LA County course charges which was $35 to walk, and this is a very nice walking course, the course is a well laid out and well kept course, and the view of the ocean and the Catalina Island is not bad either. Only problem is the pace of play, but with most groups comprised of 5 some as American Golf is famous for, you get what you get. So if you have the time, I would definitely recommend this course.

Los Verdes Golf Club Review
Rancho Palos Verdes Golf Course Reviews

I played this course on 3/4 with SCGA Outing. I've heard many nice things about the course, but to see and play it in person, it was an experience that did not disappoint. As soon as we drove into the parking lot, we were met with the staff who took our tagged and took our bags. Club house and the restaurant was equal to many high-end resorts, and the practice area was in one of the best shape I have seen anywhere - only thing was the driving range is a bit far needing a shuttle ride and with shotgun start, shuttle was somewhat infrequent but understandable given 90 people needing a ride. The course was in an imaculate shape with very challeging holes spread along the hillside. Most fairways are relatively tight needing accurate drives to avoid the water and barrancas. I really enjoyed several Native American cultural displays throughout the course with historical narratives given on the cart as you get to each holes. My only issue was that there were more than enough coots and ducks on some of the fairways, and I had tough time finding a spot to lay down my clubs without touching the droppings - they need some natural predators + few greens with what I thought was needless troughs in the middle of the green that didn't serve whole lot of purpose. Otherwise, it is a great course with beauful backdrops and hilltop views, especially if you can play it at less than their normal green fees which can be prohibitive for some.

In preparation for an upcoming scramble tournament, I decided to get a practice round at this course in Costa Mesa. The course being near the ocean, the weather was very tolerable when the temperature elsewhere was in the 100's. I usually don't like to play any course under 6000 yds because distance has never been my problem, only the direction, so I was somewhat apprehensive this course being 5538 yds from the tip. For Wednesday, the course was pretty busy, probably because the green fee is very inexpensive, $24 to walk and probably a lot cheaper for more elderly golfers, and there were many elderly golfers. For a short course, I played the round in just under 5 hours with a lot of time to think between shots. The course itself was in decent shape with some expected dry spots in the fairways, the bunkers were nice with reasonable amount of sands, and the greens were actually in pretty good shape, although a bit on mushy side - not all bad because most of the greens were pretty undulated and slopy. Over all, a fair par 70 track, certainly on the very short side with no real penal holes, so it's a good practice course with few drivable par 4s and reachable par 5s.

I played this course on Sunday, 9/6. This being a semi-private course with members who own shares in the company, general public was allowed on the course after 10:30 am. It seems that the recession has also hit the Silicon valley, because there was no problem getting on the course after the member tee times, even with the reduction in green fee (NCGA and SCGA members get to play for $175 with cart instead of usual $220+30 cart fee). As for the course, this couse is nothing less than spectacular. There is no single hole alike, every single hole makes you think, the scenery around the course is nothing less than beauty, and course architecture shows the genius of Dr. Alister Mckenzie, yes, the same architect who designed the Augusta National. This is a course that tests your skills with slope above 141 from the tip, but the course has plenty of holes that rewards you for playing smart and taking calculated risk - the hallmark of good doctor. Pasatiempo has been at the top of my favorite course list as it has been on the Golf magazine's top course list year after year, and everyone will agree once they play the course - the weather's not bad either as it was a clear Santa Cruz day with light breeze and 75 degrees - I think it was 95 degrees when I left Los Angeles yesterday.

I played RR Valley as a part of GK outing. I've always heard nice thing about the course, but never played it - probably because it's a LONG trek from OC - especially longer on the way back fighting the traffic on I5 freeway. As for the course, it's a very well kept with nice greens and well manicured fairways, especially considering the heat and dryness in that part of town. Staff were nice and helpful, although there our group was shadowed by a guy on a noisy fairway blower for the first 3 holes, blowing grass clippings onto us when putting on the green. We finally discouraged him to follow up when few tee balls went over his head on the third fairway. One issue I had with course - what's with poison oaks along the cart path? I can understand having these in deep in the woods since they are part of nature, but right up against and along many of cart paths? Shouldn't the golf course managers recognize these shrubs with potential for misery and cut them off, at least keep them away from the reach of botanically unsavvy golfers innocently driving along the path? If you are planning to playing this course, be sure to look it up in the internet and familiarize yourself with poison oaks because you may leave the course with more than what you bargained for.

I played this course on 4/22/09 as a part of a shotgun tournament. Obviously, I can't comment on the pace of play, but I have to say the course itself was in the BEST shape I have ever seen. It was in an absolute immaculate shape, tees, fairways, roughs, bunkers, trees and surroundings and the greens. I have played Ike and Babe probably 100+ times, and I don't recall the courses being in such a well put together shape. It has a locker room where you can change, great restraurants and snack shack, shuttle to take you from car to the pro shop, newly renovated driving range - all the quality of a high end golf resort. I highly recommend trying out this track.

I played this course as a part of GK outing on 2/24. The course was a bit of a drive from where I live, but the asthetics of the course, surrounded by the nature, not the rows of tracked houses as I am custom to seeing in OC, certainly made up for the time it took to get there. The course is layed out through acres of beautiful wildness, be fitting its name, Rustic Canyon, with diverse fairways, incorporating barrancas, environmental areas and dry river beds - some courses go out of their way to make it too penal with these EAs, but I thought this course was very fair. The layout is semi link style with rolling fairways which allow the balls to roll and roll and roll. I was actually surprised that I only lost one ball all throughout the round. The same with the greens, which were very well maintained but the ball kept rolling, rolling and rolling. The square footage of the apron which were as tightly mowed as the greens themselves were as large as the green, which meant that you are able to use your putter a lot more than other courses - often times, I couldn't tell whether I was allowed to mark the ball or not because the demarkation of green and apron was somewhat vague, only able to tell by the difference in color of the green vs apron. I think the trick to playing this course is to land it well before your target and letting the ball roll to where you want it to end up. All in all, a very well maintained course with beautiful surrounding - on one of the hillsides, we even saw few donkeys amongst many grazing happy cows. I highly recommend this course if you are looking to get away from today's typical golf courses built in the city limit with fairways separated by rows of houses.

Harding Park has been one of my favorite course in SF area lately, more so than Presidio, since the improvement that came with pre/post American Express PGA tournament and upcoming 2009 President's Cup notoriety. I played this course during my recent trip to SF (12/21/08), and I honestly have to say that I was a bit disappointed this time around. I don't mind paying a non-resident fee of $155 since I personally think this course has more character than Torrey Pines South (which I think is no better than Griffith Park Wilson exept you pay $165 for the view of the Pacific Ocean), but may be it's the coldness of the SF Bay winter, the course condition definitely could have been better. From tee to green on most of the holes, there were patches of thin spots, clumps of crab grass and many diseased spots on the greens. I'm not sure when the President's Cup is, there were many tees that seemed moved out of normal places as if they were saving the tees for the upcoming main event. There were usual blasts of gun fires from the near by range, but that never bothered me - it just reminded me that I was at the famous Harding Park. I never have any complaints about the staff - you get great help from people at the club house, including weather doppler image to know which way the weather front is moving, and the marshalls are nice and make sure golfers are moving about. As for the layout of the course, you have to play the course to appreciate the ambience, especially the boomerang fairway of 18th. It's a great course - I'm just hoping the course condition would be better next time around.

After reading several conflicting reviews for this relatively new course in Corona, I decided to give this course a try with few buddies of mine - especially since this was one of the only course in the vicinity of LA and OC area that I was able to make a Sunday morning tee time for 3 on Thursday afternoon. Making a tee time was fairly painless through their website, and the green fee was very reasonable ($59 - a recent reduction from low $70's). We got there at around 6:40 am for 7 am tee time, since we already knew that there wasn't a driving range, and we were going to play "parking lot golf" We also knew there wasn't a club house or a restaurant on site, although there was a catering truck in the parking lot which I found helpful. The course looked just as depicted in the pictures in their website - newly built course with rolling hills and very little trees - almost link style with some hazards, especially in the tighter front 9. Fairways were in good shape with mixture of dormant grass - I'm no turf expert, so grass is grass. But, what's with their greens and what were they thinking when they designed the contour and the slope of the greens? Grass on the greens were mowed nice and tight, so the balls rolled better than any other courses I have played recently, but the undulation of the greens were to the point of obnoxious. Did they really need to put quadruple humps on a 238 yd par 3? Every green made me think of those bowling ball game in the arcade where you have to roll the ball over the hump and land it in the trough to win a stuffed animal. No one should suffer so much putting after hard work of getting the ball to the green. As many of us can attest, there is no fun in 3 putting, and these greens will definitely cause some anguish. Otherwise, I thought it was a pretty decent track with nice and helpful staff.