Played Saturday May 26th.

Rancho is in probably the best shape it can be in. Coming on the heels of last week's police/celeb tournament things are quite nice. Brand new mats on the driving range, well cut grass on fairways (a little brown in some spots though), good tee boxes, and short cut greens. If you are used to playing here, watch the greens - they are faster than usual.

While the shape of the course is great, I have to admit it might not be worth it. This course is painfully slow. Even though there are no 5somes out, it will be a miracle if you can get through in less than 5.5 hours here. The pace of play is one of the slowest I have seen, with more than a couple holes having a 2 group backlog. My group would wait on the tee box, take our shot, walk up to our balls and then wait another 5 minutes or so to take our second shot as the group in front was ever-present. I expected that they were the problem, but it turns out that they were right on another group, and in turn them on another.

I myself think that 4 hours is about the longest a round should take, and you are not going to be anywhere close at Rancho.

Played on Friday May 25th at 3:18pm. Play there quite often and went out there hoping for a miracle (which I define as less than a 2.5 hour round) but yet again fell short. The course itself is in good condition, with the greens a little bumpy.

The real tragedy here, is that we have a great 9 hole course that could be amazing if they would send out foursomes rather than the dreaded 5some. I don't know why they are so facinated by that, but it slows down play so much that I am almost ready to give this course up - and it's down the street from me! You simply can not get through here in less than 2.5 hours, and 2:45 or 3 hours are not uncommon.

Lack of a driving range make warmup impossible, so be prepared to hit cold. Sitting 5-10 minutes between shots doesnt help the warmup factor.

In all, this could be a gem, but the 5some kills it for me.