Played this morning, 5/6, at about 7:00 right before a men's club tournament. Courteous and professional checkin and food service interaction. Pace of play was mediocre at about 4.5 hours.

One of t... Continue »

Played this morning, 5/6, at about 7:00 right before a men's club tournament. Courteous and professional checkin and food service interaction. Pace of play was mediocre at about 4.5 hours.

One of the reasons the course is playing slow is it is playing relatively tough right now. Lush at all levels. There was little roll out on the fairways and the rough was up. My group lost a couple of balls in places I would not expect it and had to look hard for some others. The course was also quite wet with some casual water. Lakewood was playing long. The greens were sneaky fast and rolling well. They had some tough pin positions presumably from the tournament.

It is a good test right now. It is just not a fast round.

Played Lakewood on Saturday around 7:30 am. A blip in the pro shop based on our error in making the reservation that was handled courteously and professionally by the lady at the starter's desk. She w... Continue »

Played Lakewood on Saturday around 7:30 am. A blip in the pro shop based on our error in making the reservation that was handled courteously and professionally by the lady at the starter's desk. She was great. Lakewood is one of the few courses I have seen that have gone back to fivesomes. It has been reflected in the pace of play recently but today it was nice. Played in 4:10 with four walkers.

The course was interesting -

The Good - The greens were great. Quite quick even when wet in the morning, they rolled great throughout the round. My delight may have been a result of actually making putts but the greens were definitely not bumpy. Being below the hole was recommended. The sand in the green side bunkers was good also.

The Bad - I was in an inordinate amount of bald, hard pan areas, in the rough and at least twice in the fairways. I almost put the fairways in the Good category because they generally were very nice, but there were some bare areas. I and another player hat balls through fairway bunkers so I can only assume they were pretty darn hard. On #7 my ball was a good 20 yards past the bunker after rolling through it.

The Ugly - The goose crap everywhere. Walking, we could not avoid it. Very annoying. That was it though. Everything else was pretty good.

I would note that par 3s #5 and #12 played 217 yds and 209 yds. I forget exactly how far #17 was (I think 217 into the breeze), but I have never teed off from the black tee rock before and the blue flag was insult to injury. It was an experience.

Highly recommended with the greens the way they are right now.

Late review from last week's round at Lakewood ... very surprised to play on a gorgeous Sunday and to see the parking lot only half full - thank goodness for the NFL. Unfortunately we still got stuck ... Continue »

Late review from last week's round at Lakewood ... very surprised to play on a gorgeous Sunday and to see the parking lot only half full - thank goodness for the NFL. Unfortunately we still got stuck as a twosome behind some slower foursomes so the POP was not great.

I frequent El Dorado and Skylinks much more than Lakewood, mostly due to availability, but always enjoy playing here when I do get the chance. This course never seems to show up as readily on my booking apps as the others, but it's a fun layout that is challenging but never overwhelming.

Conditions are pretty good across the board with the usual complaints around LA this time of year ... the fairways could be greener, the rough nicer, the sand fluffier, the greens faster and smoother ... we've heard it all before. But it's definitely playable right now while not perhaps at its absolute best.

Give it a shot right now.

11:50 Saturday start on a very pleasant fall day $64 inc cart. Course was a in very good condition overall. Greens were extremely soft, perhaps prepping for aeration to start on 10/10. Bunkers were gr... Continue »

11:50 Saturday start on a very pleasant fall day $64 inc cart. Course was a in very good condition overall. Greens were extremely soft, perhaps prepping for aeration to start on 10/10. Bunkers were groomed but lacking sand. Some nice wide open fairways, not too penal if you drifted into son trees… Several long, challenging par 3’s around 190-200 yards from the whites. No drink cart, but snack bar was open at the turn. Remodeled bar had good service…. Recommend for a nice price on a weekend!

Played Lakewood on Saturday morning early. I have not played here in a while. The three in our group were paired with a single who was good company. I was surprised to see several fivesomes in front o... Continue »

Played Lakewood on Saturday morning early. I have not played here in a while. The three in our group were paired with a single who was good company. I was surprised to see several fivesomes in front of us. They have kept the 10 minutes between tee times though and, even though we waited on almost every shot, POP was good at 4:10 (we were 1:55 on the front nine).

The course was relatively lush. There were a few dry areas in the fairway although I was not in any. The rough was really up on places. It was about as thick as I have seen it here. They are putting quite a bit of water on it also - I had to take drops twice from casual water. The greens were really soft. There was quite a bit of check for almost any chip shot with a lofted club. They were running at a medium speed.

Overall, I was happy to be back at Lakewood. The facilities are nice and the course is in pretty good shape.

Played here for the first time today, in preparation for an upcoming tournament. We had an early tee time at 7:20am. As a result, the course was pretty wet on the front nine, due to the morning wateri... Continue »

Played here for the first time today, in preparation for an upcoming tournament. We had an early tee time at 7:20am. As a result, the course was pretty wet on the front nine, due to the morning watering. This made for lots of standing water in the rough, and wet/muddy bunkers, but I guess this comes with the territory of playing at that time. These issues certainly improved as the temperature warmed up throughout the round, and were nonexistent by the time we reached the back nine.

The greens were great: pretty smooth, maybe a bit slow if putting uphill, but not if putting downhill or with the slope. Some ball marks, but not too many. Fairways were good: maybe a little thin in some spots, but mostly fine. Rough was the same, and actually quite long in some spots, relative to other muni courses. There were issues with underlying tree roots in several areas of the rough, but you could usually see them, so it's not like they were hidden; just had to watch out. Bunkers were fine, just some unraked footprints, as is the norm these days. Tee boxes were the weak point of this course, for the simple reason that they weren't cut short enough, which made it more challenging than it should be to tee up your ball the way you're used to.

All in all, it was a decent track in all aspects, and is above average, compared to other county-run courses. If you are familiar with the LA City courses, I would put it on par with them, whereas most of the County courses that I've played are not as well-maintained. Perhaps I should mention that we played the white tees (6400). Blues here are 6700, and the scorecard has a black tee that measures 7000, though they did not have the black tee markers out. All that to say that it's longer and therefore more challenging than most municipal courses, should you choose to play it all the way back (in which case, the slope rating isn't overly high, at 128, but the course rating is respectable, at a 2-over rating of 73).

Played Lakewood for the first time ever yesterday (4/27). Teed off at 8:10 into some breezy and overcast conditions that gave way to some sun by mid-morning. I enjoyed the layout of the course, with... Continue »

Played Lakewood for the first time ever yesterday (4/27). Teed off at 8:10 into some breezy and overcast conditions that gave way to some sun by mid-morning. I enjoyed the layout of the course, with the mix of holes and combination of tough par-3s, mixture of par-4s and birdie-able par-5s. Bunker placement both off the tees and around the greens really makes you think about your shots which I liked. The pace started off very slow with a group two spots ahead of us really slowing everyone down. I believe the group in front of us called the marshall, and we saw the marshall speed over to the problem group and speak to them by the time we finished #3. From then on, the pace was amazing and honestly our group was falling behind. But awesome to see the marshall deal with the problem so swiftly. We finished in 4h:15m, and it could have been a lot faster if not for a slow player in our group.

I would say the course conditions right at the moment are a combo of good and just-ok. The fairways are decently lush for the most part, the rough had some very wet and very dried out spots but mostly grass, and the tee boxes were good.

Most of the detail in this review will be about the greens which are playable right now, but I wished I had some hints before the round. They had punched their greens about 3 weeks prior (23-24 days), so I was most curious how they would look/play. The greens are just ok at the moment, and probably will get better in the next couple weeks. They were very soft and receptive to approach shots, but the layer of grass itself was somewhat thin and "loose" in the sort of way that if you dragged your feet a bit you'd definitely risk dragging up the turf. There were also very narrow vertical lines on nearly all the greens that are visible up close, which made you worry a bit about how they would affect the line of putts. The greens were quite bumpy and if putts were hit with too little pace, they would bobble left and right a decent amount. Chip shots hit with spin will just die with no release when they hit the green too, so beware of that and I recommend chipping with PW or even 9-iron if you're close to the putting surface to get the ball rolling out to the hole.

I was in 2 bunkers all day: the front left bunker on #3 had nice fluffy damp sand, and the front left bunker on #8 was not-so-great damp compacted sand. So probably kinda hit and miss with bunkers, but I was only in 2 of them so take it fwiw.

Overall, I'd like to come back and play Lakewood again, and if you keep in mind how the greens are playing right now, I'd recommend it to others.

Played Sunday 1/2 in the early morning. There was some frost on the ground as we walked off the first tee but it eventually warmed up. POP was just okay at 4:15.

We all walked but it was cart path ... Continue »

Played Sunday 1/2 in the early morning. There was some frost on the ground as we walked off the first tee but it eventually warmed up. POP was just okay at 4:15.

We all walked but it was cart path only for carts. The course was pretty wet with many roped off areas. There was little if any roll in the fairways. That said, the course was in decent winter shape especially considering all the rain we got last week. The sand traps needed to be fluffed and the ball had to be moved out of wet/muddy areas on occasion, but overall not bad. The greens were outstanding. Quite quick and rolling well. They were a pleasant surprise.

I always enjoy Lakewood. Recommended.

Played Lakewood CC for the first time today at 10:10am. Arrived early and got a warmup bucket for $7. The range looks pretty new and in good shape with easy to see targets and yardages posted on the... Continue »

Played Lakewood CC for the first time today at 10:10am. Arrived early and got a warmup bucket for $7. The range looks pretty new and in good shape with easy to see targets and yardages posted on the pillars. Mats are decent but there are not that many stalls. I'd guess maybe around 20 stalls total..

Putting green was rolling nicely at a typical muni course speed which mimicked the greens on the course fairly well.

Tee boxes were pretty good, level, not super chewed up. Fairways, the few I hit, were pretty decent as well. Bare spots were minimal and if you hit a good drive, you were rewarded with a good lie.

I was in 2 bunkers on 12 and 18. The sand was consistent in both, not fluffy but not hard pan. Dry, fairly simple to hit out of.

Greens were surprisingly good as well. They rolled smooth and although not super fast, you could easily roll a downhill putt 5-6 feet past if you're not careful.

We stopped by the snack bar at the turn and the cafe for a beer after the round and both were nice. Friendly service, decent pricing, good nachos at the cafe.

For my first experience at Lakewood CC, i was pleasantly surprised and would definitely return here. Paid about $66 to ride (Veterans day) but this course is absolutely walkable. I'd say it's a pretty good bargain to walk for ~$40.