It was a memorable day back out at Black Gold this past week but not in the usual positive way unfortunately. When I arrived I was surprised to find the driving range turned into a parking lot. Yes, t... Continue »

It was a memorable day back out at Black Gold this past week but not in the usual positive way unfortunately. When I arrived I was surprised to find the driving range turned into a parking lot. Yes, there is and will not be any range at BG for at least six months.

They are currently re-doing the main parking lot with solar panel roofs and after that will be re-doing the driving range itself, so for now you've got a few nets adjacent to the lot and free balls and mats to hit from - not really ideal for a premium course as long as they let everyone know in advance. Our outing was booked online so we had no idea this was the case.

There was some other first tee drama which I won't bother going to deep into but needless to say everything got off to a pretty poor and delayed start thanks to errors on both our parts and the club's. It happens I guess.

As for the course itself, I don't ever remember it playing as tough as it did this past week, but I also had the most awful ball striking day in years so it was definitely the worst possible course for that coincidence. There is a significant carry on 80% of the holes at BG and the landing areas are as tight as you'll find in SoCal - a recipe for disaster if your game is off.

Conditions were mostly good though at least with the greens being really superb. They are tricky, fast and often infuriating - but that comes down to the putter. Shots were very difficult to hold without a doubt but great shots ended up in great areas. Fairways were mostly in good shape but definitely some dry and thin patches out there, while the rough was pretty much non-existent as there's really only fairway and mayhem out there - that's it.

Played from the blue tees and they were all mostly in good shape, while the bunkers looked much better than they played. It always seemed like there was more sand in them than there really was so skulling a few bunker shots is not out of the realm of possibility - be prepared.

Cart service came around numerous times and the carts are very nicely appointed and have a very good GPS system on them. Nothing to complain about there. In truth, I just had an awful day playing so that soured me on the course, but also the initial problems seemed to have a good deal with that outcome, but who knows? On another day I'm sure it will be a great course again to me but I'm in no major hurry to get back until my game is in proper shape again.