Played with my monthly group on Friday, 2/7/20, at 10am on a beautiful SoCal winter day – mild temperatures, little wind, and annoying traffic noise only on the “freeway” holes (#s 1 through 18). I re... Continue »

Played with my monthly group on Friday, 2/7/20, at 10am on a beautiful SoCal winter day – mild temperatures, little wind, and annoying traffic noise only on the “freeway” holes (#s 1 through 18). I realized Friday that my club had been coming here every February for the past 20+ years. Very little has changed over that time – they’ve added a hitting net where there was none, course conditions are pretty similar every year (they are pretty good this year), but there seems to be less and less play on these “public” days.

Greens were the best part of the course, receptive and rolling well at medium+ speed. We saw only occasional scattered old ballmarks. Many greens have fairly severe sloping front areas. Fairways had good coverage but the type of kikuyu here meant that the ball mostly sat a little bit down. We played LCP so that didn’t affect us too much. Rough could be cut down fairly short or be up to 6” deep and juicy, mostly along course margins and under groups of trees. Some tees were sloping a little bit, but most were fine. Sand was in good shape all over the course, although a little damp to start the round.

The facilities here are older and the course looks pretty scruffy around the perimeter. The fairly large hitting net is tattered and balls are older and dirty. Only 5 hitting mats are available but with the limited number of players it was adequate. Carts are basic but serviceable. No yardage book available, but each cart has a small interactive GPS – distances are given to the F/M/B of the green, not pin position. Most holes have colored distance stakes (200/150/100) placed along the cart paths.

OK for a casual round. Course plays pretty long at 6,804/6,531 from the Blue/White, especially when the kikuyu is in the softer/wetter conditions it‘s in now. Conditions are especially tough from the Red tees (6,098) - the women don’t get many breaks here in terms of leveling out the distance.