After all the recent rains, the course is in beautiful condition... with one exception... the greens. The greens are in serious need to aerification! Super firm, thin, and lightening fast! As the locals know, everything breaks towards the ocean, but current conditions are running even more difficult. It's like putting on a pool table! Very hard to hold shots and reading these greens is an artform. A beautiful course in a beautiful location... but expect a putting challenge!

1st time out at Aviara. I'm semi local and have always to play there, but finally got around to it. Let me just say what a wonderful experience golfing! The course was everything I had hoped it would be and more! Tea boxes and fairways we're just about perfect and the greens were large, undulating and perfect speed. The customer service and on course staff are second to none in exactly what you would expect for such a high Green fee. You are here for luxury and it doesn't disappoint. All of the construction of the past 6 months appears to have been completed and all holes were open. A large locker room and bathroom area provide lots of extra amenities for your pre and post round care. The golf shop seemed a little small and cramped considering it's such a luxurious course, but they had everything you could need. The putting and chipping area were perfect, and the included all you can eat grass range balls was a great warm up area before you're around. Each hole has its own unique identity with some spectacular looking par threes! There really isn't much in the way of views like Torrey pines would give you, but you do get a few nice views of the San Diego valley, the lagoon, and plenty of waterfalls, lakes, and creeks. Truly a wonderful experience from the moment that you leave your car in the parking lot till when you load up and go home! Dare I say almost worth the exorbitant green fees! ... Almost...

Been a few months since I've played here, and at the moment it's probably in the best shape I've ever seen it. Tee boxes just ok... a little beat up, but nothing that was detrimental. Fairways were in great shape. Rough was medium/long and was wet and penal. Sand looked good, and greens were in phenomenal shape! The only issue I had on the course was morning round the course was pretty wet... especially in the rough. Rough around the greens really grabs your club and was a little muddy. Ball first contact is key. The maintenance on the 16th hole has been completed and is back to playing it's regular par 4. The course has a lot of challenging driving holes with many slopes and blind shots. Course knowledge is key here. While not a long course, it's extremely challenging if you're not hitting the ball straight and knowing which holes you need to NOT hit driver on. Overall really enjoyed the conditions except a few wet areas. The views are fantastic and it's a very pretty course! Enjoy it while it lasts!

Been a few months since I had been here in the beginning of summer, and the conditions have gone waaaaayy downhill since then! The course is a wet, soggy mess! Tee boxes are being redone , so they are bunched up, overused, wet, and janky. Fairways are soggy (even in 100 deg heat!) with many bare, uneven, and wet lies. Greens were generally ok, but lots of ball marks and inconsistent. Sand traps were the best part of the course, but they were wet also. The customer service is still exquisite, but I'll be sitting this course out for awhile until it gets back to the conditions that they are charging you for.

I was pleasantly surprised with the conditions of the military muni golf course. Coming out on a saturday at 10am, you know it's gonna be a 5+ hour round and it was. This course is packed full of people. Thankfully we didn't wait more than 5-10 mins between shots and people seemed to move as fast as they could. Conditions from previous review are pretty spot on. Well covered and groomed fairways allow for nice rollouts. Most of the lakes have been allowed to dry out (drought?) so some of the misses aren't as penal. Course is relatively flat, however the greens are the most difficult part of the course. Very large greens with multiple tiers and undulations make this a very difficult putting course. Speeds are firm and fast. Tee boxes were mostly good and level. A few are a little slanted. It can get windy in the afternoon here from the ocean and make your shots pretty difficult to predict.

Overall I really liked this course, amenities, and conditions, however putting is extremely challenging and the slow pace of play make it more frustrating that it should be. I'd come back.. if I could ever find another tee time! :)

Right now the course is still kind of in winter shape. Fairways have good coverage, but the Bermuda is dormant, so the fairways look brown. Lots of tight lies with some thin areas, but generally good coverage, just dormant. Greens were lightening fast and in good shape. Around the greens are tight, but good coverage. Tee boxes and sand traps were in good condition. I love the layout of this course as it's very link-sy with mostly wide fairways that rewards good shots, and penalizes bad shots. With the extremely firm fairways, you get tons of rollout and some of the holes if you play the correct side, you can roll your ball right up on the green. A few fun risk/reward holes make it exciting enough to use your course management skills. The layout goes out and around without pretty much seeing anyone or anything for about 16 holes. There's a snack bar/cart out around the 13th hole, but it's a beautiful 4-5hr adventure through the canyon. It can get really hot in the summer with not a lot of shade, and really cold in the mornings in the canyon, but Arroyo Trabuco is one of my favorite Orange County courses to play. Great staff, great amenities, and mostly great course conditions. What you get is a great Experience!! Looking forward to the grasses/hillsides to come alive in the spring time. This course is so beautiful with the surrounding hills covered in wildflowers and green everywhere.

Hadn't played this course in a few years because of the almost the doubling of prices. At $155 for a Sunday morning round, I expected perfection. What we received was mediocre at best. The course is in a nice area and the layout is a tale of 2 nines. Front and back are like two different courses, but in a good way. Tee boxes were level, if not firm and the sand traps were perfect. Green were super fast, but over half of them had disease on them and some stupid silly pin placements on the sides of hills made putting a joke. The fairways are the worst part of this course. While generally decent coverage, there were a lot of areas with thin coverage, GUR, and different grasses that just made this "premium" course feel very municipal. The course is pretty unforgiving with seemingly good drives getting punished as some of the fairways roll off the edges pretty easily. Service from the staff was exceptional, however the course conditions definitely don't justify the high cost. This is a $85-$95 course at best, but because you are in Irvine, it's double the price. unfortunately won't be back any time soon.

Hadn't played this course in a few years and was severely disappointed with how the conditions have deteriorated and price has skyrocketed. Paid $80 for a round at 1:20pm and due to packed conditions and slow POP, we finished in darkness around 6pm. No marshals or beverage carts were seen during our round. This course needs lot of work to justify the premium prices and would be overall rated as poor-> average at best.

Tee boxes: Generally good condition. Mostly covered with minor divot damage. Probably the best part of the course.

Greens: Greens were in what appeared to be great condition, but speed was inconsistent and a little lumpy bumpy. Some pin locations were in just ridiculously stupid positions.

Fairways: This is links style fairways with super hard pan and very inconsistent coverage. Fairways were very thin and some areas ok,, while others were barely covered with different grasses

Bunkers: Talega absolutely has the worst bunkers in Southern California. First of all, there are a crap ton of bunkers everywhere. But they are so inconsistent that you never know what kind of bunker sand you'll be in. It ranges to straight up concrete all the way down to beach sand. It made playing out of bunkers way more difficult than it should be. Some greenside bunkers were straight up dirt and impossible to get under the ball. Needs a complete overall and refurbishment.

Talega is in a great area and should be a premium course. They charge like it is, but what they offer is quality less than the muni (or even shorecliffs). The layout on the front nine isn't bad, but some really bad laid out holes on the back nine make it frustrating. There are some really long par 3's, and blind tee shots with forced carries. Unless the conditions improve dramatically, I won't be back anytime soon.

Have been to the "IKE" course a few times and this was one of the least enjoyable. Course is playing pretty rough right now with very 'winter' like conditions. Fairways are dormant, with mostly brown areas and some holes are extremely bare. Fairways were very inconsistent. One hole it wouldn't be bad, and the next would be just mostly hard dirt. Sand traps were moderate at best. Traps were thin with sand. The best conditions on the course were the greens, but while green conditions were good, the difficulty was insane. Greens are really fast and severely undulated. Many greens have multiple tiers, and often flags were placed on the side slope making 2 putts virtually impossible. It made for a frustrating day as you'd hit good shots, but due to the conditions, you were penalized heavily. I'd wait until spring/summer before hitting this course again and see if the conditions improve. Absolutely love the layout and the course in general. Staff are moderately friendly, but seem disinterested in your enjoyment. The driving range is not close (in parking lot behind hotel) and they don't let you take the carts to the range. Dumb! So much money lost there as people just refuse to walk all that way with their clubs.

This course has been amazing all spring / summer, but recently it's starting to go downhill fast. This course charges a premium, and usually you get a premium experience. The customer service is great and all the amenities you could want are there. Where it's going downhill is the course conditions. Played a 4some on a Wednesday morning and was throughly disappointed with the conditions out there. The course is over watered with muddy spots all over. Some greens had puddles of water on them and the sand traps have decent coverage, but it's thick, wet sand. Fairways were patchy all over...thin spots, different grasses, weeds, and wet. You never knew what lie you were gonna get. Rough was pretty thick and punishing. The greens (normally a bright spot) were awful! Lots of pitch marks (some unfixed), water puddles, and inconsistent speeds. Some were definitely slower than practice green and others were super fast. The tee boxes were really beat up and all the tee colors were hitting from the forward tees, so it made some holes a little more interesting. It hasn't been that hot of a summer so not sure what's going on course maintenance wise, but right now, it's not even close to good condition, and definitely doesn't justify the premium price.

Got a chance to check out this very nice course in the heart of Tustin. The course is in pretty good shape and has a very nice layout. It looks like it has the potential to be amazing, but there are a few areas that really prevent it from being worth the $100-160 they charge which is outrageously overpriced for this course. Max should be $65 during the week, and maybe $95 on a weekend.

Pros:
* Lush layout with lots of trees for shade.
* Firm covered fairways which give nice rollouts.
* Very fast greens and great condition.
* Some short par 4's that require precise course management
* Golf carts are excellent with great GPS
* Sand traps were PGA tour quality sand
* Decent driving range.
* Pace of play was great! 4 hours.

Cons:
* Some greens have 3 tiers and are ridiculously hard. Punishes good shots.
* Greens very fast with difficult pin placements and undulations.
* Fairways, while mostly covered with grass were thin and brown considering price.
* No hole markers signs anywhere. Can get lost.

The biggest con was the outrageous green fee price! This is not a $160 course! I was lucky to have a won a free round and I thoroughly enjoyed the round we played. I would have been disappointed at $160, but if you can get a good deal, it is a mostly beautiful course to play and feels like a Palm Springs resort course in the middle of Orange County. Not bad considering just reopened from Covid and course didn't get it's usual fully staffed maintenance. Just bring those green fees down and I'd visit a lot more often!