Played July 14, and the course was in great shape. The fairways were nice and green. The greens were smooth, rolled nicely, and not too many ballmarks to fix. The sand could be a bit more fluffy, b... Continue »

Played July 14, and the course was in great shape. The fairways were nice and green. The greens were smooth, rolled nicely, and not too many ballmarks to fix. The sand could be a bit more fluffy, but I shouldn't have been in there in the first place. It usually takes 5+ hours to finish a round and it only took 4:30.

greens look smooth, but actually really bumpy. Conditions are okay, pace of play is pretty good unless you have a foursome that arent very good. Please...if your hitting a driver on a par 3 185 yards,... Continue »

greens look smooth, but actually really bumpy. Conditions are okay, pace of play is pretty good unless you have a foursome that arent very good. Please...if your hitting a driver on a par 3 185 yards, dont play from the blues.

I was hesitant to embrace my father's suggestion of playing at Santa Anita, yesterday, 7/1, as visions of a packed course and 6-hour golf flooded my mind. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surpris... Continue »

I was hesitant to embrace my father's suggestion of playing at Santa Anita, yesterday, 7/1, as visions of a packed course and 6-hour golf flooded my mind. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised.

Total playing time was about 4 hours, 15 minutes, and aside from the last 3-4 holes, when things started backing up, we hardly had to wait to take a shot. I know that this course continues to hold a reputation for slow play, so we may have been lucky in playing in the middle of a weekday.

To the course. The grounds are in excellent shape. The fairways are well taken care of and provided great lies all day. My first impression of them was to say "Wow, they're huge." After consistently playing courses with narrower fairways, lined by trees, the open freeways at Santa Anita were a very welcome and rewarding change of pace.

The greens were very smooth and played very true, though not obscenely fast. Many of the greens boast multiple tiers and some undulating slopes, requiring accurate iron shots into the green, and tricky lag putts.

The layout of the course itself is not overly difficult, but does boast some tricky doglegs and longer par 3's (3 of which can play to around 200 yards or more, depending on the tee box placement). Accurate drives and well-placed iron approaches will have your scoring very well here.

The only real negative to the round was the inconsistent, but often rock hard condition of the bunkers. My first trip to the greenside bunker on 12 had plenty of give and allowed an easy recovery shot, while my trip to the greenside bunker on 17 required 3 attempts, as my wedge ricocheted off the hard dirt, skulling my first two tries.

Additionally, I'll mention that the group we did finally catch up to on 12 was extremely deliberate, and probably would have led us to play a 5 1/2 hour to 6 hour round, had we been stuck behind them the whole way. From my memory, you will run into these groups at Santa Anita.

I give a big "thumbs up" recommendation for this course, and encourage you to give it a try. If you can avoid the crowds, it's a great day of golf and well worth the money.

Santa Anita Golf Course is an LA County Course. Green fees are $30 on weekends, $23 on weekdays walking, and $9 on weekends, and $5 on weekdays for juniors, and around $12 for a cart.
The course also... Continue »

Santa Anita Golf Course is an LA County Course. Green fees are $30 on weekends, $23 on weekdays walking, and $9 on weekends, and $5 on weekdays for juniors, and around $12 for a cart.
The course also has a driving range, and a practice putting green which is $8.50 for a large bucket of balls. The range is a mat driving range which can get crowded at times.
The golf course is a Par 71, 6300 Yards from the Blue Tees, with mostly flat greens and slopey, hilly, undulating fairways. The course has some long Par 3's like one that is over 200 yards, and one that is around 190 yards. The couse is well maintained, and the fairways are really maintained, and this is one of the well maintained courses I've played so far, and one of the most well maintained courses operated by LA County.

I was really expecting much less from this course, but was pleasantly surprised! My father-in-law said the constant changes in elevation kept it "confusing" and I tend to agree. Not really confusing t... Continue »

I was really expecting much less from this course, but was pleasantly surprised! My father-in-law said the constant changes in elevation kept it "confusing" and I tend to agree. Not really confusing to me, but definitely kept it from becoming routine or boring. Didn't notice any water coming into play anywhere, but frankly didn't miss it ;-)

We noticed as we were driving up how green it was - that was nice. All the temporary tee boxes on the par 3s are gone, so yardages are back to scorecard. Beware the sand - absolutely horrible. They might as well be filled with dirt. By the time I needed to get out of one, I had seen 3 of our 5 take a total of about a dozen swings to get out of 3 bunkers.

For $23 (the guys holding LA County Sr. cards played for 11.50), I'll definitely be back.

Played today 5/13 7:30 tee time. Was pleasantly surprized. The course is in great shape, fairways were lush and rolled nice, rough was cut short and easy to play out of (did lose 1 ball, could not see... Continue »

Played today 5/13 7:30 tee time. Was pleasantly surprized. The course is in great shape, fairways were lush and rolled nice, rough was cut short and easy to play out of (did lose 1 ball, could not see it). The greens were lush, very few ball marks but played real slow.

As t8fish mentioned in his review, all the par 3's are using temporay tee boxes but were playable. On hole #4 the first par three it listed the yds at 110 but played around 90. You can then tee from the blues for #5 but have to come back to #4 tee box and around the chain link fence to get to #5 fairway.

Would give the course a 7.5, could be 8 but for the par3's and many divots on faiways, walkers don't carry sand, including myself. We played in 4 hrs as a 5some, three riders and 2 walkers.

Showed up as a single @ 1-ish on 5/10 and got out along with two others almost immediately. Actually hurt me for the front nine because I expected to have some kind of wait and a chance to warm up -- ... Continue »

Showed up as a single @ 1-ish on 5/10 and got out along with two others almost immediately. Actually hurt me for the front nine because I expected to have some kind of wait and a chance to warm up -- I never hit a single practice putt. That aside, I'm not complaining. I didn't see the clock on the way out, so I'm not sure of the actual duration, but I'm guessing the round was a bit over 4.5 hours. Very good for a weekend muni. The front nine moved along well while there was more waiting on the back nine. Conditions were good. The greens were almost all the way back from aeration. I say almost because I did see at least one perfectly struck putt (not mine) mysteriously deflected on it's way to the hole. The one obvious drawback was that all the par three tee boxes are being redone. As examples of the current difference, I lifted the info stated in the earlier review:
Hole 3: 129 down to 100 yards
Hole 8: 193 down to 150 yards
Hole 12: 208 down to 165 yards
There are three shown here, but all four 3's were being done when I was out. When they open them up, those teee boxes are going to be really, really nice. The current temps are still challenging enough. This course is deservedly praised as one of the better munis around. The guys I was paired with were pleasant company and I enjoyed the course. A good day.

Played here 4/27/08. All of the par 3 tee boxes are being redone so they are playing about 25 yds shorter than normal. Greens need about a week to be perfect after being aerated. Excellent custome... Continue »

Played here 4/27/08. All of the par 3 tee boxes are being redone so they are playing about 25 yds shorter than normal. Greens need about a week to be perfect after being aerated. Excellent customer service from starter and guy in proshop. Hard to find a better value.

I suspect it's a combination of my age and where I learned to play golf. (Chicago), but I love these old traditional style courses, and Santa Anita is among one of my favorites. When you think about i... Continue »

I suspect it's a combination of my age and where I learned to play golf. (Chicago), but I love these old traditional style courses, and Santa Anita is among one of my favorites. When you think about it, every hole is different, playable with some challenge but not overly penal. You shouldn't lose any balls and a bad shot generally only cost one stroke. The condition, for Santa Anita was as good as I've seen it. (All the par 3's are having new tee boxes, but improvements, while inconvenient, are welcome. All this good golf for $23.00 - like a walk in the park!