I hadn’t played Pacific Grove in probably about a year. I must admit I was extremely disappointed all around. From the half hearted COVID-19 measu... » More

I hadn’t played Pacific Grove in probably about a year. I must admit I was extremely disappointed all around. From the half hearted COVID-19 measures, to the poor conditions to the horrible business practices. I’ll start off with the check in process. I booked my round last week through a third party booking party. In Monterey County you have to pre-pay for your round before getting to the course. Pacific Grove lists on their website the couple of ways to go about it. I had a mid-day tee time and called about 1.5 hours ahead of time to give them my credit card. It took them 20 minutes to find my reservation then they charged me $2 more than my reserved price. I’m not going to waste another 15 minutes over a couple dollars (that’s my decision so no ding on them for not fixing).

When I called and paid, they finally took my credit card and said I was good to go… Until I got to the course. I arrived about 30 minutes early and was told the third party booking company had over booked the course and I wouldn’t be going off for another 2 hours. They actually thought they had done me a favor by squeezing me in. After a little “discussion” it was decided that I would tee off right away with the next couple on the tee box.

Here was the issue. If two separate groups book for twosomes for the XX time slot, the course separates those two groups putting them out on XX and XY time slot. So you can see how the course gets backed up. I get the COVID-19 precaution but as a course you have to make a decision. Let strangers pair up (single carts and walking) or don’t allow two groups to book for the same time slot. Dragonfly is doing it that way in Fresno, and it’s frustrating because the tee sheet gets filled very quickly but at least you know ahead of time what the process is. And of course for a business practice, the fact that they waited until I got to the course to tell me I had been backed up 2 hours was just plain…$h!++y.
Now on to the course conditions. I rated the greens at about a 5. The first few were somewhere in the 4-5 range and the back nine greens were in the 7 range. The first few greens were slow, bumpy and had some dead/disease areas throughout. The back nine greens were much better and were decent.

The fairways were OK. Some thin and dead areas throughout but generally decent enough overall to get good contact. The skirt areas around the greens were actually in great shape. Easily a 8-9. I had 13 missed GIR and was able to get up and down for par 6-7 times mainly due to great lies from the surrounding areas off the green.

Tee boxes were partly ok and partly horrible. I can’t imagine that much damage has been done in the two weeks since golf has been allowed again. Sand traps. The worst ever. I get the no rakes in the bunker due to coronavirus. But these traps hadn’t been raked since March. Seriously, whereas other courses are sending someone out once or twice a day to rake bunkers, or at least doing them every night. PG has not maintained their traps once since being back open.

The views at Pacific Grove are always great with ocean views throughout and especially the back nine which sits right on the water (across the street). Always plenty of deer to walking around and the lighthouse between the 16th and 10th tee boxes is special in it’s own right.

But even with the great views I can not recommend Pacific Grove right now.
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Played Pebble Beach this morning in absolute glorious weather. The social distancing requirements were taken to a whole new level at Pebble Beach. ... » More

Played Pebble Beach this morning in absolute glorious weather. The social distancing requirements were taken to a whole new level at Pebble Beach. Every other parking space was blocked off so you couldn’t get close to someone in parking lot. The range was set up so everyone was 15-20 feet apart and the shuttle from the range to the first tee wasn’t running. Also, they didn’t have a supply of tees on the range like usual. No big deal other than I had to walk back to my car. Even their social distancing signs were high class. See the GK app for an picture of one. ‘

Check in was simple. Payment was done in advance through central reservations. A person at the range verified your tee time and then a starter sends you off with your group once you are back down at the first tee. The pro-shop is completely closed so no shopping ?

As expected the course was in fantastic shape. Being this is the fifth day Pebble has been back open the tee boxes were a 10+. Fairways were a 9.5-10 as were the greens. Greens rolled at a medium-fast pace. As always. Uphill putts are manageable and downhill putts are… well, good luck with that!

Pace of play was the usual 5 hours but like I’ve said before. Who care’s?! It’s Pebble and on a beautiful day like today, you certainly don’t want to rush!

My two minor complaints. One, the pool noodles in the cups were a bit too high. All too often balls would skim right across and out. The last few holes seem to be better, but the majority need to be cut down a ¼ to a ½ inch. Also, because they have the retail shops all closed down the walk back to the car from the 18th is atrocious. They route you all the way around the shops and back up the road. Why they can’t open up the path near the practice putting green for a short cut I don’t know. Of course I might have just been mad because I put my approach shot on 18 into the water!

I will say, that Pebble Beach had a different vibe out there today. One that was much more relaxed than normal. They still had marshals every couple of holes to keep things moving but we fell ½ a hole behind for about 5 holes and no one said anything. True the group behind us had fallen behind as well but I was surprised that none of the marshals said anything.

As always, Pebble Beach is a truly fantastic course and experience. I posted a handful of pictures on the GK App
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Played Tulare on Monday 5/4 with an early (7am) tee time. I've only played here a couple of times but I'm guessing this is about as good as ever for ... » More

Played Tulare on Monday 5/4 with an early (7am) tee time. I've only played here a couple of times but I'm guessing this is about as good as ever for this course. Conditions were a solid 7 all around. Being that they just opened the tee boxes had little divot damage and the late April rains did the fairways wonders. Greens were smooth and divot free sans one which had a lot of pitch marks probably from the weekend.

Greens rolled at a medium speed. All the COIVD-19 measures were in place. Check in was done outside the pro-shop, no rakes, and flags remained in. We walked as this is an easy course to walk being completely flat. The layout is ok. Nothing spectacular but nothing horrible. There are a few holes with tight fairways that put a demand on accuracy over length

All in all it's not a bad place to golf with better than average conditions right now.
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Played Dragonfly on 4/20 with an early AM tee time. Social distancing practices are still in play with single person per cart, clubhouse closed and ... » More

Played Dragonfly on 4/20 with an early AM tee time. Social distancing practices are still in play with single person per cart, clubhouse closed and no rakes in the bunkers. They have the cups turned upside down to create a new “permanent” solution to the no reaching into the hole dilemma. The cup sits about an inch below the green with the ball coming to rest on the inverted cup so it sits up. It’s basically a nicer version of the pool noodle around the flag trick.

As far as course conditions go, the greens are back to their great shape and rolling at the perfect medium-fast speed. Rain a couple of days before the round as well as some rain during the round kept the greens soft so they easily held well struck approach shots.
Greens rolled true and smooth.

Fairways are very nice right now. The combination of warm weather and recent rains has the fairways in beautiful condition. Course was in the process of updating all of their sand traps just before the COVID-19 pandemic. If you land in one of the bunkers that had been updated, you’re in for a treat as they have excellent sand. If you are unfortunate and land in one of the few that haven’t been renovated then you screwed as they are hardpacked dirt often littered with pebbles.

Tee boxes were ok. They are all level but it appeared as if most of the tee boxes hadn’t been mowed since the closing of the course a couple of weeks ago. When using a driver and teeing up the ball, it wasn’t an issue. Use a 3 wood or iron off the deck and the un-mowed grass could present a problem.

We went off at 7:12 as the second group. The first group (twosome) was long gone by the time we got to the second (11th ) hole. Dragonfly is only accepting reservations 2 days in advance. I woke up at 5am on Saturday to book the Monday tee time. At 5am there was only the 7:12 tee time at a 4:30 foursome left. However, when we played. The course was fairly empty. What gives? Only a select handful of tee times? Like maybe 16 throughout the day. Or are people booking and not showing up. If that’s the case then the course should charge double for no shows and suspend the players account.
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After watching competitive Ball Room dancing (with commentary in Japanese no less) and trimming the front yard with a 60 degree lob wedge this past w... » More

After watching competitive Ball Room dancing (with commentary in Japanese no less) and trimming the front yard with a 60 degree lob wedge this past weekend all in the name of “excitement” to satisfy my need for sports and activity, I finally got out and played REAL golf!

Played Hunter Ranch mid-morning and the place was packed! Bogeygolf did fantastic job describing course conditions. Greens are excellent right now. Very smooth and rolling at perfect medium-fast pace. Greens were easily rated at a 9 today.

As mentioned there are no flags in the cups which is a bit tricky trying to get yardage. Luckily, I have an app on my phone that gives me decent GPS yardage to the middle of the green and Hunter Ranch has pin placement charts on their scorecard so it’s fairly easy to figure out where the pin is. That and we waited on every shot so you could see where the group in front was on the green as the got close to the hole.

Cups are raised 2” above ground for COVID-19 precautions.

Fairways may have been the best I’ve every seen them him. Perfectly lush and a nice beautiful green color. I rated the fairways at an 8 but they were close to a 9 as well.

Tee boxes were level but they are starting to get chewed up a bit with all the play the course is seeing. But they were still on the acceptable level.

I was in four bunkers today and three of them were great. The one “bad” bunker had a thin layer of sand on top of some hardpack dirt. There are no rakes in the bunkers but I managed to avoid other tracks and everyone did a decent job using their foot to smooth out the sand as best as possible. I think next time I’ll bring my bunker rake from home to use and help smooth out the traps.

POP was a little over 4.5 hours. Being one of the only games in town and the weather being perfect and the course in great shape, it’s understandable everyone is going to Hunter to play.

Customer service was good. They had a full staff of 4-5 people helping organize everyone. There were easily 15-20 people on the practice putting green waiting to tee off and staff kept everyone organized and adjusting groups to better suit everyone’s playing style/ability.

I chose again to walk as it was such a glorious day and I knew we weren’t going to set any speed of play records. The others in my group all rode and they mandated single player per cart.
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