Played on 10/29/16, and was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the course. I probably play this course once or twice a year, and previously, my review would be typical of just about every municipal course - Okay conditions, long waits, okay experience. This time, I came away fairly impressed. Fairways and greens were fuller and better maintained than I've ever seen them. Sand was relatively even in quality and much improved from what they've been - at least in my 15 years of sporadic play there. But here's the shocker: Our foursome rarely waited, and we finished in just over 4 hours! I can't recall any round under 5 hours on a Saturday, with waits on every hole, if not every shot. While I think this was some once in a century convergence of forces, or we somehow slipped into an alternate universe and back again, I truly hope that this is now the norm, and the product of great management. Will definitely be back to see! Oh, and the biggest positive impression maker: I left my Skycaddie on the cart after the round, and didn't realize until my next round, two weeks later. I called the Starter, not expecting them to know anything about it, and was told that they had it, and after making sure that I really was the owner, they took my info and held it for me until I could pick it up. It had to pass through the hands of at least 3 different employees. Awesome honesty and service!

Played Rancho Vista for the first time on 11/24/2015, as the first round of a Thanksgiving Vegas golf trip. I'd wanted to play this course for a couple years, after reading reviews on GK, and seeing pictures online. I have to say, it didn't disappoint. If you've played courses in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, this will give you the best kind of Deja Vu. Even the 20 - 30 mph winds that blew for the first 12 holes couldn't detract much from the experience. It just added a different kind of challenge, and the course design ensured that the wind never made it unplayable. Great service, great layout, well-maintained, and good value. My golf buds and I live in Los Angeles, and we're already adding it to our rotation. Hey, it's the same drive-time to River Ridge in Oxnard, or Oak Quarry in Fontana!

Appreciate the comments from jbishop637 and sngernz. You're right - a good portion of my earlier review of El Dorado was venting. Sorry if that wore on folks. But I also had basically the same good things to say about the course itself as the two of you. My problems were with the service of the staff, and how they handled the problems that built up throughout that day. I get that the remedy for golfers to avoid long rounds may be to play early, but my group plays in the afternoon, so an early morning teetime isn't an option for us. All other things aside, El Dorado is an enjoyable track and the greenskeeper does a great job. Afternoon golfers like my group will just have to take our chances if we want to play there.

Second time playing El Dorado. The good things remained good from the first time (2013), but some of the things that were average or even slightly above average were now below what they had been, and the things that were weaknesses were bad to horrible.

All of the good is course-related: Fairways were well-groomed and almost uniformly grown in and mowed. There were a few bare spots, but that's to be expected on a municipal course with the long-term drought conditions. I've played private courses with fairways that weren't as good. Greens were well-maintained and groomed to medium-fast speed. Every green had unrepaired ballmarks, but far fewer than you would expect with the traffic. The combination of the conditions of the fairways and greens with the fair and sometimes challenging layout was what impressed me the first time I played El Dorado, and my feelings on them remain basically very positive.

Now, to the rest of the experience. Customer service was not a weakness the last time around. Not necessarily a strength, but nothing that would have kept me from coming back. This time, it ranged from below average - the pro shop/starters - to poor. I actually gave a complete description of what was basically everyone's experience on Saturday, but it was so long that I deleted nearly all of it out of consideration for other GK members who might want to read info on the course. Let me start this way: The pro shop staff was having to play a bad hand - long delays, machinery breaking down, shortage of carts (more on all of that later) - and that buys them a bit of leeway, but how they chose to handle it was where they fumbled the ball. Poor response to golfers who were understandably upset by one hour delays, no carts, and no range balls. Lots of excuses and a few platitudes, but no taking responsibility or attempts to make up for the inconveniences. At the very least, they should have taken off cart fees for everyone, given that they claimed a major cause of the delays was a lack of carts. The lack of range balls was because the riding ball gatherer was broken, and no one knew how to fix it, or even what was wrong with it. Sorry, but every range has a manual ball gatherer. Would it mean more work than usual for the staff? Yes. Should they have used it. Absolutely. In the two hours before our group finally teed off, not one employee went out to try and gather the range balls for the customers, while eventually golfers started taking turns going out on the range to grab a couple of handfuls of balls to warm up with.

But the poor service didn't stop there. The wait staff in the snack bar/bar part of the restaurant was almost surly - at least to those customers who weren't familiar to them. I won't go quite so far as to say that their level of service was determined by race, but others did. Whatever their reasons, the service was as terrible as their attitude, which is really too bad, because other workers in the restaurant and at the grill were trying their best. Maybe those bad attitudes were just a case of a bad day, but again, that poor service was selective, so it's hard to excuse them. I am sure that others may read this and disagree. I can understand that. Like I said, some people received great service, so I expect them to have a completely opposite take on the quality of service.

Here's the bottom line: We teed off an hour late, waited on virtually every shot, and finished with barely enough light after a 5 hour and 45 minute round. I won't play El Dorado again until more than a few other GK members have confirmed that these problems - which are all easy fixes - have been taken care of. And I really hope that happens. If it never does, I am absolutely fine with sticking with the dozens of other courses where I am guaranteed a great experience.

Played El Do for the first time on 10/5, and was very pleasantly surprised. I'd read here that Skylinks' loss was El Dorado's gain, as the greenskeeper moved over. I haven't played Skylinks after the change, and as I said, this was my first time at El Do, so I can't speak to the before/after on either course. But however El Dorado played before, its condition now is terrific - better than Skylinks at any of the many times I'd played there. First, the layout is superior. Terrific use of water to protect the greens and make sure that seemingly easy approaches don't quite suit your eye. Greens are fair - meaning that they aren't tricked out and roll true - but often challenging. Terrific use of trees - again, fair but penal to hit from - gives you the feeling that you are not just playing a classic-style design, but almost like you're playing a private club (something quickly, and pleasantly disrupted by the sounds of happy children and music from the adjacent park). Pace of play was very good for a municipal course, and while our foursome waited on most shots, we never felt it unreasonable, and we finished in well under 5 hours. Try doing that at Rancho or Griffith Parks! Service was fine, from the pro shop, through the cafe, and the cart person. Only slight throat clearer was the price - $65 through GolfNow - which I would absolutely not pay to play the other mentioned courses, but for El Do - yeah, I'm looking forward to the next time.
I will keep a sharp eye out for better discounts, though!

Played Saturday, 7/13, after not playing here for about 8 months. The good things were still good - the greens (for the most part, although they were much slower than before), the practice facilities (with one glaring exception), the layout, and the price and value.

We had a 2:45 teetime, and wound up going off at just before 3pm. The round took about 5 hours, and even though we waited on just about every shot, we finished with plenty of daylight, so I have really no serious complaints with the POP.

I do, however, have some major complaints about the cart situation. Clearly, Olivas Links needs to invest in more carts, or a quick-charge system. There were literally no carts available when we checked in, and the pro-shop attendant either had no idea of the situation, or didn't want to deal with telling us, since he handed me the cart key and said to take any of the carts outside. Or maybe he meant for us to grab any unattended cart, as I saw one group try to do. I saw one group walk in from #9, looking for a cart to replace the one that had apparently died on them a couple of holes before, and then saw another dead cart in the middle of the fairway on #2. There were a couple of other situations with players in front of us, but you get the idea. My friend had played there two weeks before, and he said that it was exactly the same that day, too. Great prices and value not withstanding, this is just not acceptable for any course at any time.

There was also a problem with the range, as they had to close it literally 10 minutes after we arrived, so that there staff could go and shag balls by hand. Their collection cart was apparently also dead. Hope this is not another sign of management or financial woes, as happened before. I really do like this course, even with the problems.