Guys, Greenskeeper.org audience, I don't normally like to mention a number rating for any of the courses I play, but Griffith Park's Wilson course deserves no better than a 3.5 at best.

No, this is... Continue »

Guys, Greenskeeper.org audience, I don't normally like to mention a number rating for any of the courses I play, but Griffith Park's Wilson course deserves no better than a 3.5 at best.

No, this is not a rant- this I mean is just a very- very poorly maintained golf course to say the least. Going through each details from tee to green will be a waste of time for both you and me. This, I can confidently say without holding back, let this course be worked on and heal.

It really is very sad to see a good laid out golf course in such a pitiful condition. I'm just all sad about this all together- it's terrible.

Course is in lousy shape right now. Some holes are in quite good condition, but lots of others are chewed up with dead patches everywhere and big mounds of dirt in the middle of the fairways. Few area... Continue »

Course is in lousy shape right now. Some holes are in quite good condition, but lots of others are chewed up with dead patches everywhere and big mounds of dirt in the middle of the fairways. Few areas marked ground under repair, would've taken many liberties had I not been playing a tournament today. Lots of thin, wet lies make chipping around the greens very tricky. The greens are actually in pretty good shape, rolling fast and mostly true, but some of the pins are just in comical locations. Very few opportunities to be aggressive with putts, just a tedious defensive situation on nearly every hole.

Range is poor. Breakfast burrito is pretty good. Deer spotted every time I play, which is cool. Won't be playing here again anytime soon.

Getting caught up on reviews after playing twice in three days over the weekend. Sunday morning I headed over to Griffith Park a little before 9:00 as a single to see what the possibilities were. I wa... Continue »

Getting caught up on reviews after playing twice in three days over the weekend. Sunday morning I headed over to Griffith Park a little before 9:00 as a single to see what the possibilities were. I was truly surprised to be sent out immediately to join a three-some on the first tee at Wilson. On top of that, the flow of played moved along pretty well all day. This was not the weekend Wilson I'm familiar with, but I wasn't complaining. The course is in nice shape. Level, green, teeing grounds, generally green and more often lush fairways, and mostly green and playable rough. Bunkers here are not fluffy, but they are decent and reasonably well maintained. The greens are in nice shape, reasonably clean and true, and running at a medium quick pace that seemed consistent. It's a muni, not a resort, but as such, one of the classic ones and in solid shape.

Played about 7:00 am today. Walked up and was on the tee within 10 minutes. Enjoyable round and turned out the threesome I joined had two players I had played with before. Good time. Did I mention... Continue »

Played about 7:00 am today. Walked up and was on the tee within 10 minutes. Enjoyable round and turned out the threesome I joined had two players I had played with before. Good time. Did I mention we played in 3:40? Great pace of play considering three of us were walking.

I had not played Wilson in quite a while. It was in pretty good shape. The course was lush. I was in no bare spots in the fairway. There was no roll considering how wet it was that early. The rough, cut to about ball height, was very much a factor and was much, much thicker than the rough on the west side I have been playing. The sand was thick and wet in the one trap I was in.

The greens were disappointing to me. They look like they had not fully healed from the last aeration, whenever that was, and they had a heavy top dressing of sand. They were relatively slow with quite a few bumps. That said, there were quite a few birdies in our group so they were rolling okay. Not as good as Harding last time I played it and not as good as this course usually is.

Service was great. The lady in the coffee shop is a sweetie, the lady in the half way house wanted to make sure I had all the necessities for the boiled eggs I bought, and I really appreciated the starter looking for and filling the group about to hit the tee.

The course is recommended and I bet next week the greens will be nice after the sand is assimilated and they are cut.

Overall course conditions continue to be similar as the previous reviews with a couple main differences. They have mowed a lot of the first cut of rough, so now you can actually find your ball if you... Continue »

Overall course conditions continue to be similar as the previous reviews with a couple main differences. They have mowed a lot of the first cut of rough, so now you can actually find your ball if you happen to miss the fairways. I don't know when they did it but it looks like they micropunched the greens recently. I played last week and the greens were great, now they're very bumpy and much slower and sandier than usual. They should be fine/healed within a week or two. Still one of my favorite local tracks...just a heads up.

Played at 2 pm today with a couple of friends. Never played this course as i was scared off by pace of play and conditions.

I really enjoy this very expansive layout. This is a big big golf course... Continue »

Played at 2 pm today with a couple of friends. Never played this course as i was scared off by pace of play and conditions.

I really enjoy this very expansive layout. This is a big big golf course with wide tree lined fairways. Did not think a course this existed in middle of LA.

Greens were running at 8.5. Fixed two to three ball marks per green. Sandtraps were average. Fairways were lush with plenty of coverage. They used recycled water here.

Rough was thick and juicy and super penal. I played the blacks from over 7000 yards. Some par 4s i was hitting driver, 3 wood to get on.

Customer service was great. Snack shops were well stocked.

Will return soon!

Played Wilson on 6/11 as part of an SCGA outing. As usual, these outings are lot of fun and this day was no different. Got paired up with 3 others who also walked the course with me. As typical on ... Continue »

Played Wilson on 6/11 as part of an SCGA outing. As usual, these outings are lot of fun and this day was no different. Got paired up with 3 others who also walked the course with me. As typical on Saturday it was crowded. I was in the first group and they let us out a bit early before 10:00. I fully expected a slow day and it was. 4:45 was the time that it took us. Was a bit concerned early in the round though and while puting out on #1, I noticed a guy in the group ahead of us seemingly giving lessons to others in his group on #2 tee box. They ALL hit 2 tee shots as their first ones were all ground balls. Not good and was about to say something before they took off. They picked it up a bit but it was still a slow day. But it is a weekend and that’s just the way it is. I have always liked this course. It’s challenging and it does play long. (we played the blues at 6718 yards). Noticed they revised the yardages on the scorecard for each tee box and it appears most if not all of the tee boxes have been renovated so they are better now. New grass and all are pretty level. The fairways were ok at best. A lot of divots and many poor lies. The rough was horrible. I wouldn’t call it rough. I’d call it weeds! They need to take mower and cut it down a bit. We spent a lot of time looking for balls in the rough (weeds) that just barely missed the fairway. (Yeah I hear you saying, “well hit the fairways and you won’t have to worry about it”. Couldn’t agree more!! ). Greens were nice. Not very fast but rolled nicely. They held good shots just fine. There are some pretty big breaks in many of them and course knowledge really helps. The guys I played with never played here before and were appreciative of any advice I gave them. It was my pleasure and anytime someone can covey course information to the others, it is really helpful. Regardless, this course is fun and I always enjoy playing here. It is a good layout, easy to walk and I still think it’s challenging despite its rating. My complaint about this course is the driving range. Aside from the mats wearing down, the range balls are pretty bad. For $3.00 you can get a warm up bucket but the balls really don’t fly straight. But again, its LA muni golf and you get what you get!!

Finally made it back out to Wilson this Sunday at 10am from the blues with three friends, and was of course very surprised to see the parking lot not crazy full on a Sunday. We had a 10am tee time, bu... Continue »

Finally made it back out to Wilson this Sunday at 10am from the blues with three friends, and was of course very surprised to see the parking lot not crazy full on a Sunday. We had a 10am tee time, but were allowed to head out early around 9:50 with no one on the first tee box. Unfortunately 'Know before you go' only applies if you check ahead of time! I was surprised to see when we arrived at the first green that they had recently been punched, and the healing was definitely still a ways off. If GK is correct, they were punched a few weeks ago, but I can only assume it was later and that's why the course was relatively empty - shocking on a beautiful, warm Sunday in Griffith Park. But we made the best of it, and the crazy part was that the greens, while punched, were still very hard and rolled very fast. It was a total contradiction to expectation and took a long time to catch up to the speed. It was also surprising that putts did tend to roll pretty true, although each green seemed to vary a little with each new hole. The fairways I expected to be much greener after the recent rains, but there were more than enough dry areas out there still, especially in the rough. Still, it wasn't anywhere near 'bad.' The rough itself was a mixed bag of dry spots, bit of mulch, lots of sticks and debris - just keep it in the fairways! But it was cut to a nice length where the grass was lush. The tee boxes? Also recently punched and hard as rock - very hard to get your tee in the ground and not good at all ... level though throughout - no issues there. And the two sand traps I was in were about what you would expect - not great, not bad. POP since we were taking our time on a hot day ended up at just over 4 hours - remarkable again for a prime time Sunday slot at Wilson. Great snack bar at the 10th hole and just a real fun day with some good friends. Wilson has some long holes so be prepared to launch it to get near the greens, but it's a fun layout that two Wilson first timers enjoyed very much. I would say that it's a pick your poison scenario right now. The greens roll and play better than they look, but if you want to wait until they're fully healed, you may be losing out on decent fairway conditions as it looks like it's only going to get drier out there heading into summer.

A quick update after my last review a month ago...the greens were back to speed today. They're running fast, smooth and true. Why do they always "punch" the greens when they finally have them just r... Continue »

A quick update after my last review a month ago...the greens were back to speed today. They're running fast, smooth and true. Why do they always "punch" the greens when they finally have them just right. Better play Wilson before the end of March!