Had an 8:30 match at #1 on Saturday, fought some early sprinkles as the latest storm moved out of the basin, and got around in 4:40 (CPO) for $40 walking (member rates, I'm guessing, since we had a pr... Continue »

Had an 8:30 match at #1 on Saturday, fought some early sprinkles as the latest storm moved out of the basin, and got around in 4:40 (CPO) for $40 walking (member rates, I'm guessing, since we had a practice with the Brookies). Always like the old school layout here, mostly wide fairways lined with mature trees which narrow those fairways big time. Also, various H2O hazards to contend with and lots o' bunkers. Like Johnny mentioned, long and short par 4's dominate this course, and from the blues on a wet day, it played looong. Greens were super soft but rolled quick. A few pin locations were marginally fair, above the hole was not the place to be. Lotrgolfer mentioned the sparse fairway cover, especially near the Bowl, which needs some TLC to get back to full. Agree, nice to visit once in a while but a bit of a hassle to get to unless you are local. Still, I hear it gets pretty crowded here so beware.

Played 12/27 with my club at 9:20 in the morning off the blue tees. Brookside is in peak SoCal muni condition. Fairways, rough, and tee boxes run the gamut from "Hey, that's pretty good" to "Yikes, I... Continue »

Played 12/27 with my club at 9:20 in the morning off the blue tees. Brookside is in peak SoCal muni condition. Fairways, rough, and tee boxes run the gamut from "Hey, that's pretty good" to "Yikes, I wish my ball were 2 feet in any direction so I could be on grass". The recent rains have made the course damp but overall the fairways are thin making for a strange combination. The fairways will be a parking lot on Monday so hopefully the maintenance crews are up and ready to go to deal with tire tracks on wet turf. I'd stay clear for a couple of weeks after the Rose Bowl for that very reason. The greens are very good and VERY quick, especially downhill. Stay below the hole if you want to score, otherwise have fun with your 3 putts. The price is right for $50-$55 or so with the greens being so good. It's a fun track and worth my yearly visit.

My first time at this southern California gem and I really liked it. The first thing I noticed is how classic the clubhouse, the patrons, and the whole vibe really is. The whole thing was just perfe... Continue »

My first time at this southern California gem and I really liked it. The first thing I noticed is how classic the clubhouse, the patrons, and the whole vibe really is. The whole thing was just perfect old school Los Angeles and I loved it. The course at first it doesn't appear to be very special in terms of its layout. But once you get out there if you start to develop a real appreciation for the trickiness of the holes in the quickness of the greens. The conditions of the course were terrific – even though they were getting ready to turn it into a parking lot for the Rose Bowl Ha! And playing in 75° in late December is never bad. Finally, probably some of the best freshly made bloody Mary's and chorizo breakfast burritos Ive ever had. I had a wonderful time at Brookside and can't wait to go back.

For some of you that follow my Johnny_GK Facebook account, you already got some insights into my round yesterday in real-time. btw – I have a lot of fun on that Facebook account.

I normally would ... Continue »

For some of you that follow my Johnny_GK Facebook account, you already got some insights into my round yesterday in real-time. btw – I have a lot of fun on that Facebook account.

I normally would never play Brookside Golf Course especially at holiday rate, $75, on a crowded holiday break. So many better options for your buck and time. But could not pass on an opportunity to tee it up with GK’ers BGarcelon and Krajan01 from NoCal. And like many times in golf, sometimes who you play with makes up for where you play which was definitely the case today. Just a fantastic time start to finish, 5 ½ hour round.

Met up with the Brandon and Kish in the clubhouse, had a delicious breakfast burrito and something to drink. Great service we appreciated which motivates us to come back after the round for quick appetizer, delicious chicken quesadilla and beer.

Now onto the starter and first tee. What a train wreck. Long line to check-in, ignorance paying at the window about if they were running on time, which they were not, but of course they said they were. Our tee time was at 10:00am and come 10:00am there were four groups on the tee and they had not even called our name. I decided to ask the guy in the cart behind ours in line when his group was book for and he said 10:02am??? – OK, now I get it, holiday week, great weather and the course was squeezing in more groups. We finally teed off at 10:30am and it’s a crawl through the entire golf course as expected. Still the great company of Brandon, Kish and Tommy made up for the wait times.

As for the course conditions, surprisingly better than I expected. Greens were running fast, holding shots and mostly smooth. Very difficult to read at times and do not be above the hole, especially on hole #1! Fairways mostly thin and after they park cars on some of the fairways for the Rose Bowl Monday, January 2nd, expect them to be more thin, however they provided some decent lies most of the day. Rough, same condition of the fairways with some patches of poa turf here and there greenside to make for some challenging pitch shots. Bunkers in good shape with quality sand. Tee Boxes also in good shape, mostly level, some divot damage, we played the white tees. Overall I’d say the course was in good shape. I posted some photos.

We played the #1 course which I like the layout and its very cool to me to play in the presence of the Rose Bowl, especially with the big game coming up! I even managed to bomb a drive on 18 into the Rose Bowl facility – just glad no one got hurt. The course is long, tree lined, and the greens are challenging. It’s a great test of golf on a mature course. I’m not a fan of only 3 par 3’s and 3 par 5’s. Many of the Par 4 are either very short of monsters. But its nice variety of holes.

Would I play here again? Only under special circumstances like yesterday.

Got out on 9/21 and paid $35 to ride. Apparently, they offer this rate for SCGA members so I brought my card as proof. The #1 course was packed. Our time was 9:00 am but it took us forever to get th... Continue »

Got out on 9/21 and paid $35 to ride. Apparently, they offer this rate for SCGA members so I brought my card as proof. The #1 course was packed. Our time was 9:00 am but it took us forever to get there coming from the east and going through traffic. As such, we got there a bit late and the starter was pissed with us. Sorry Mr. Starter but I didn’t think it would take me an hour and 40 minutes to go 20 miles. My bad!! Our time was also in between a large tournament in front of us and a men’s club skins tournament behind us. It was a slow day. A lot of waiting particularly on the par 3’s. The back 9 however, really picked up but was still a little over 5 hours to finish. Oh well! The course has always been rough around the edges and it doesn’t seem like they put the TLC like they used to. It is playing pretty good right now though. Fairways are in ok shape. There are some bare spots out there but not many. Sand traps are in very nice condition. The greens are very fast right now. Never seen them this fast at Brookside but it was nice treat to see the putts rolling true. This course always plays tough for me. I’m not real long and some of the holes require length. As I’m sure most people know, they use the fairways for overflow parking for UCLA football games and other Rose Bowl events. There is game this coming weekend and the next so you can see the crews out there lining the fairways with chalk in preparation. Let’s hope the parking doesn’t provide too much damage. Pace of play is always an issue so expect a long round if you ever come out.

Played Saturday 7/30/16 with a tee time around 8:30. POP was pretty grim, but about what you would expect for #1 Saturday (5.5 hours). It's been a few months since I played #1, and I was not prepare... Continue »

Played Saturday 7/30/16 with a tee time around 8:30. POP was pretty grim, but about what you would expect for #1 Saturday (5.5 hours). It's been a few months since I played #1, and I was not prepared for the poor course conditioning. There are numerous bare spots in fairways, perhaps caused by the compaction from parking at the RB. I didn't see any effort to remedy the situation (see, for example, the wide area of dirt on 18 fairway where tee shots would stop), even though it's the norm for many fairways. The green surrounds also have bare ground, usually in front of the green. Finally, kikuyu appears to have invaded the majority of the greens. Some greens, like 10, are now predominantly kikuyu and putts are greatly affected by these patches. Given the invasive nature of this weed, I don't know how they will salvage the greens. Some tee boxes have little grass, at all (17 is the best example). The greens crew seems totally overwhelmed, which leads me to believe that Pasadena just doesn't consider their "golf jewel" worth preserving. I guess they'll just keep putting all the fivesomes out that the course can tolerate, and just not worry about it. It's a great track, but there are any number of worthy alternatives that are cheaper and better conditioned (Wilson/Harding come to mind).

Today, 7.18, 3:50 teed off as a twosome. $21 per person with a cart made it a very good deal and well worth the fee. The general condition is very much the state of many munis right now — pretty good ... Continue »

Today, 7.18, 3:50 teed off as a twosome. $21 per person with a cart made it a very good deal and well worth the fee. The general condition is very much the state of many munis right now — pretty good overall with some rough edges. Tee boxes not perfect, but mostly close to flat, and with pretty good coverage. Fairways are pretty nice where it is green, which is mostly, but there are numerous and some extensive patches that are browned out, thin, and even occasionally bare. Not unusual and I don't consider it a big deal at this point in time since most of the less desirable areas are still reasonably playable, if thin. Rough was more green than bare, usually offering a decent lie with a chance to recover. The greens were a little marked up, but really pretty nice, running medium quick and enjoyable to play on. Bunkers were good enough. Pace was only a little sluggish, consistent, and ended up being a little over four hours, which I think is quite good. You have to appreciate this time of year when you get out around 4:00 pm and still get 18 holes in easily. My personal taste is that I'm not a huge fan of Brookside although many people seem to enjoy it enough. Today, as a change of pace, I enjoyed and appreciated it more than usual.

Walked #1 today, $40 SCGA rate, with a buddy and another twosome. Teed off @ 7:25 and finished in 4hrs 45 min.
The good...Greens! They were in excellent condition with no divots, rolling medium spee... Continue »

Walked #1 today, $40 SCGA rate, with a buddy and another twosome. Teed off @ 7:25 and finished in 4hrs 45 min.
The good...Greens! They were in excellent condition with no divots, rolling medium speed. Bunkers! Plenty of very good, fluffy, sand.
Tee boxes! Decent coverage and level stances for all but a few holes.

The bad...The Fairways! Way too many browned out grass areas as well as dirt lies throughout the round. When you found grass you had an okay lie but you when you found dirt, just hit it and go get it.

I enjoy the layout here but this is nowhere near being worth the $75 rack rate.

Got out here at 5:30 on the 26th. Managed to finish 17 holes on not the quickest of days. Course felt much different than recently. Fairways were in great shape for the course, some brown spots but... Continue »

Got out here at 5:30 on the 26th. Managed to finish 17 holes on not the quickest of days. Course felt much different than recently. Fairways were in great shape for the course, some brown spots but nothing really dead. A lot more green and living than normal. The rain and no parking seems to have brought the course back to life. Most of the tee boxes were also in good shape. Greens have mostly recovered from being punched a month ago, but still not pristine. First time in a while in a while that I wouldn't have been disappointed at the rack rate during the week. It is a pretty tight and walkable course. Nice that it is tough to lose balls, though you will end up on the wrong side of trees if you spray it too much.