I guess I have the honor of posting the first 'Black Friday' round, so here it is: off on time (6:44)at Skylinks this morning, $52 walking Holiday rate. PoP just a tick over 4 hours with just a bit o... Continue »

I guess I have the honor of posting the first 'Black Friday' round, so here it is: off on time (6:44)at Skylinks this morning, $52 walking Holiday rate. PoP just a tick over 4 hours with just a bit of waiting. The course was full but not crowded, marshal out keeping folks moving. Bermuda fairways getting thin and firm, as is the rough which is cut low, trees and bunkers are the dangers here. Lots o' thin lies to work with and lots o' run out. Bunkers were maintained and were in generally good condition, some thin areas but good quality sand. The undulating greens were not cut today so they rolled medium speed but can be really fast here, the ground is firm and will only hold a well struck iron. So, a bit bumpy but rolled semi-true nevertheless would sum it up. Enjoyed the layout, will return, just a bit pricey for what you get. Also, I was able to book a single tee time on the SCGA website.

Some of the greens were recently punched again in the front but really didn't come in to play much. Fairways and sandtraps are good. Played Friday at 8:30am and finished in 3.5 hours. Course was... Continue »

Some of the greens were recently punched again in the front but really didn't come in to play much. Fairways and sandtraps are good. Played Friday at 8:30am and finished in 3.5 hours. Course was empty. Course is a little pricey but is always in good shape.

Played in a tournament with my monthly club at 10AM on Saturday, 11/15/14. Usual wretched pace (5+ hrs), but we started almost on time and I was generally impressed with the course. First time here in... Continue »

Played in a tournament with my monthly club at 10AM on Saturday, 11/15/14. Usual wretched pace (5+ hrs), but we started almost on time and I was generally impressed with the course. First time here in 15 years and there's been a redesign recently, so it's all new to me. I liked the look of the course and the design is very playable. Greens are large and most have a lot of internal movement - swales, humps, and runoff areas. There are some areas with significant slope. This is the most challenging aspect of this new design. Many fall away in the back part of the green, so getting frisky with blue flags can be problematic. With all the internal hogbacks and noses dividing the greens, it's important to be in the right portion of the green to have a makeable putt (or just to 2-putt) - repeated plays are necessary to know where to hit and where to miss. Greens were firm, rolled well at medium-fast speed, and had a lot of debris on them, as well as numerous scattered old and new ballmarks. Seemingly random small areas, mostly on the front side, had been punched and sanded, usually away from the pin location. Fairways were firm and generally provided good lies. Rough was short and very playable. In both cases there were numerous large divots throughout the course that had not been filled - some recent, some old. We found a couple with what we thought had been good tee shots. There's a lot of sand on the course with the new design, both in fairway and greenside bunkers, and all was in very good condition, with good coverage and quality. Unfortunately, also lots of instances where earlier players had not raked their disturbance. Tees were uniformly level and very playable, although par-3 tees were pretty gouged up. We had a problem with the GPS being set up incorrectly and giving wrong yardages, so after a few holes we went to hand-held measurements. The marshall we saw 3 times was generally just giving encouragement. Cart girl drove into our group teeing off once, and then just drove past later. Green fee was a little stiff for a City muni on a weekend. Recommended for challenging greens and overall good conditions.

At Skylinks for a 7:40am time, went off closer to 8, a 4:20 PoP round. Green fees were $46 walking, Friday morning. Maintenance crews came out late so greens were not cut but they were still very fi... Continue »

At Skylinks for a 7:40am time, went off closer to 8, a 4:20 PoP round. Green fees were $46 walking, Friday morning. Maintenance crews came out late so greens were not cut but they were still very firm and quick, just a bit bumpy at times, somewhat inconsistent. They aerate front and then back, so all the pins were red today which you'd think would make for some easy birdies since there are many short par 4's on this course ... no so. The key word here is 'bound'. Most shots, even a spinning sand wedge, would bound when it hit the green, sometimes 15-20 feet. A poorly struck iron was off the back. Fairways are matted Bermuda and get a ton of roll. Rough non-existent but you can find that gnarly stuff around the greens that a ball can settle into and this makes for a difficult pitch shot. I'm not a big fan of this layout to be honest, it's a mixture of short and long with tricky greens, a ton of bunkers ... and a very stiff fee for what you get.

Improving. I came close to posting a "poor" review a few months ago, but didn't get around to it. Played a couple times since and am happier now. Skylinks always has great bunkers, and I'm happy a... Continue »

Improving. I came close to posting a "poor" review a few months ago, but didn't get around to it. Played a couple times since and am happier now. Skylinks always has great bunkers, and I'm happy about that. During my last round, I twice hit from a fairway bunker onto the green! Much of the course's challenge is managing the bunkers, and if a course is going to do that to you, then they should be of good quality, and these are. For the rest, I was tempted to write that its "better than most munis", but after playing a couple higher tier courses lately, I'd have to say that this place is "better than most". I don't recall a bad lie or "poor conditions" situation in my last couple rounds here. I also like that they're now placing the blue tees in their proper spots. I'm not sure when they changed that but when I was playing here regularly up to June 2013, the blue tees where by the white stones. Probably a pace-of-play decision but its nice to see the tees on the proper locations now. I find the course generally easy though and somewhat short, even from the blue tees. Though its not boring. Nearly every hole is unique in some way, not a cookie-cutter type of place with parallel fairways that are identical to each other. This is why I consider it my favorite "local" course.

Teed off about 8:00 am on Sunday, October 5. Played in about 4:45, waiting on about every shot. The course was in decent shape. Some tight lies in the fairway but otherwise a good hitting surface, ... Continue »

Teed off about 8:00 am on Sunday, October 5. Played in about 4:45, waiting on about every shot. The course was in decent shape. Some tight lies in the fairway but otherwise a good hitting surface, the rough was fairly low most of the time, and the sand was okay. The greens were good in my opinion. To the extent half the greens were punched a couple of weeks ago, that did not affect putting. Possibly because they are big greens and the holes were on unaerated portions. The practice putting green was much more evident on aeration than the greens on the course.

Customer service was okay although I think they forgot about me on the waiting list. It was weird the way it went down but it appeared to me I had to wait at most one or two groups longer than I should have if they had been on the ball. The lady in the coffee shop was pleasant as was the cart lady whom we saw a couple of times.

Nice day on the links, if hot.

Kudos go to the course superintendent for some very fine course conditions found on September 14th. Temps reach 100 by midday but the course held up and the greens were great to putt on. If only peo... Continue »

Kudos go to the course superintendent for some very fine course conditions found on September 14th. Temps reach 100 by midday but the course held up and the greens were great to putt on. If only people learned to fix divots! The bunkers were in great condition with enough fluffy sand to get the ball out easily. My only negative is pace of play as it took close to 5.5 hours to play. Next time I will walk the course when its cooler and play midweek instead.

Many OC courses where I normally play are in sad shape at the moment. Enjoy this course now, LA County.

Played Sat. 06/28 in a GK Match with Tom (ganmando) Course is in very good shape.
Tee Boxes were level with very little divot damage. Overall, fairways are in very good condition. Some were a litt... Continue »

Played Sat. 06/28 in a GK Match with Tom (ganmando) Course is in very good shape.
Tee Boxes were level with very little divot damage. Overall, fairways are in very good condition. Some were a little dry but still very nice. Greens were very soft but putted very fast in my opinion. Sand traps are in good condition also. The only drawback was POP. It was 5 hours. There were some risk/reward holes which made the course a good pick to play a match.

Played a Match play event with Tom at Skylinks. It was a great day, warm and a hit of a breeze. The match started well and both of us had a putt at par. Tom drained his and I missed a 4' putt for par.... Continue »

Played a Match play event with Tom at Skylinks. It was a great day, warm and a hit of a breeze. The match started well and both of us had a putt at par. Tom drained his and I missed a 4' putt for par. That would set the tone for the whole day. It was a hard fought battle but I never got the putter going and could not keep up with Tom.

The fairways were hard and cut tight. There was no real rough to avoid. The greens were nicely recovered from aeration and running true. They were slower than normal uphill and fairly quick down hill. Many of the holes were cut on side slopes and very tough to get at. But given all the heat recently they have done a good job of balancing watering and keeping the course from swamping.