Got out for a quick AM round on 1/30/18. Having played a lot at SC Muni over the last 20 years, I am continually impressed by the conditions for a muni course here - and this time it was as good as I... Continue »

Got out for a quick AM round on 1/30/18. Having played a lot at SC Muni over the last 20 years, I am continually impressed by the conditions for a muni course here - and this time it was as good as I have ever seen here.

Everything is in good shape here, plenty of grass in the fairways. Rough is not penal out here, lots of grass with a rare bad spot here and there. Sand is fine. I normally play sunrise golf out here, and so the greens are usually a bit damp and slower than later in the day. Today, even early in the AM, the greens were fantastic. Plush, but cut short enough to give it a bit of danger. Thumbs up SC!

First off at twilight last Sunday (Jan 21st) to finally check San Clemente off the list. Always heard good things and I'm here to report... that they are all pretty much spot on. Everything was a notc... Continue »

First off at twilight last Sunday (Jan 21st) to finally check San Clemente off the list. Always heard good things and I'm here to report... that they are all pretty much spot on. Everything was a notch above what you'd expect from a municipal course and in same cases at least two notches above. fairways were excellent, tee boxes and rough were both what I would call solid. Greens were firm and ran forever until you putted away from the ocean then they went NOWHERE. Pretty amazing. I loved the layout and the POP was just over 4 hours for $32. What is not to like?!
Will be back and hopefully sooner rather than later.

Hosting an out of town guest who wanted to play early, so with concerns about possible frost delays, where better to play than San Clemente ! A beautiful morning. Teed off a little before 7am, which ... Continue »

Hosting an out of town guest who wanted to play early, so with concerns about possible frost delays, where better to play than San Clemente ! A beautiful morning. Teed off a little before 7am, which was ahead of our tee time. Great pace of play. Our foursome never waited as we walked in about 3 hours 10minutes. I felt badly because the threesome behind us caught us on a couple holes, and felt like we were holding them up? Hope not !

Now I've played here enough times to know the greens, but today I was useless. Could never get the speed or break, so needless to say, did not make anything all day. Greens seemed to really roll out downhill/towards the ocean, but were super slow in the opposite direction. Duh ! Hello, use your head and think when you putt !

Otherwise course was typical condition. Greens were recently verticut, so not as smooth as I'd like, but the way I putted today, nothing would have helped. Fairways were nice, as were the four bunkers I found.

Staff was as usual - excellent. Lovely day to play on the "pride of the pacific".

Did not feel like driving too far, so decided to get back to San Clemente. A beautiful morning, particularly when you consider it's almost December. Staff as usual was very friendly and accommodating... Continue »

Did not feel like driving too far, so decided to get back to San Clemente. A beautiful morning, particularly when you consider it's almost December. Staff as usual was very friendly and accommodating. Paired up with a couple nice guys and was nice to get around in just about 3 1/2 hours.

Course is in nice condition, with the greens being the best part. Fairways had plenty of grass. Bunkers well groomed with nice sand. Overall, very satisfied with conditions.

Always enjoy this course as it is a pleasant walk, does not beat you up. (Other than #16 which I struggle with) Just a very nice old style traditional track where everything is right in front of you. The kind of golf I grew up playing.

Played 11/27/2017 as a single and actually walked the course. Teed off at 9am with a threesome, POP was 4 hours. Not a soul out there, it had rained earlier that morning. By 11 am the wind was blowing... Continue »

Played 11/27/2017 as a single and actually walked the course. Teed off at 9am with a threesome, POP was 4 hours. Not a soul out there, it had rained earlier that morning. By 11 am the wind was blowing hard, easily 15-20 mph (made club selection tough). Tees level and nice coverage. Fairways cross mowed with great coverage, those kikuyu fairways are sure nice to hit off. Greens were in really good shape, firm not spongy and not to grainy, rolled nice and held there line (down hillers and anything towards the ocean were pretty quick). Rough was 1 1/2 to 2" of sticky kikuyu, tough to hit out of. Overall course was in really good shape. Defiantly worth the money, by far the best deal in town.

Haven't played very much lately, but decided to playing san Clemente because I thought it would be a little cooler. I thought the course was in nice shape, the people there are always friendly and ov... Continue »

Haven't played very much lately, but decided to playing san Clemente because I thought it would be a little cooler. I thought the course was in nice shape, the people there are always friendly and overall I had a very pleasant time with the Jenny, Wendy and Bob and look forward to playing there again soon..

Was headed to Long Beach early this morning and for some unknown reason I just kept going ... all the way down to San Clemente. Just wanted to play something different. Anyway, name on the waiting l... Continue »

Was headed to Long Beach early this morning and for some unknown reason I just kept going ... all the way down to San Clemente. Just wanted to play something different. Anyway, name on the waiting list gave me time to hit a couple dozen balls and then on the first tee joining a few older locals. Kikuyu is the name of the game here, the stuff is everywhere, mostly green and super lush ... like walking on thick carpet ... a few brown areas popping up and turning into that matted, thin lie Kikuyu that's not fun to play from. But for the time being, very much fun as long as you stay in the fairway because the rough can be brutal. Greens are still that grainy Poa and whatever else is there. Can be fast toward the water and very slow uphill. Difficult to read in some sections ... some un-true rolls to boot ... it is what it is as the greens are not the highlight here. Bunkers not maintained today so they kinda sucked depending where you ended up. Nice journey thru the SC hillside, walkable (as I did for $31 senior rate), which why I enjoy this course. PoP was 4 hrs as the guys I joined were a bit challenged but they had a good time and isn't that what we come out for? Recommended.

Played today at 8am. Very nice condition fairways. Greens roll true but very slow away from the ocean. Traps are decent. Place looked better than I've seen it in awhile.

Played today at 8am. Very nice condition fairways. Greens roll true but very slow away from the ocean. Traps are decent. Place looked better than I've seen it in awhile.

Walked on at twilight (1:30, $26 walking rate) Friday afternoon out here. Pro shop guy had me pay right away and was calling me to the first tee within about three minutes of putting my name on the li... Continue »

Walked on at twilight (1:30, $26 walking rate) Friday afternoon out here. Pro shop guy had me pay right away and was calling me to the first tee within about three minutes of putting my name on the list. Paired with two really nice guys. We all walked and POP was decent, although it felt like we waited a lot. Two groups in front of us was a slow group, but we still finished in about 4:10. I hoped heading to San Clemente would allow me to escape the scorching temps somewhat, but it was still hot (low 80s) and also surprisingly humid. There was some breeze that helped cool things down, but I was absolutely exhausted when I finished walking that hilly course. (It would have been a perfect litmus test for the Casey Martin controversy many years ago because not only was I physically tired, but also mentally. I’m quite certain I would have shaved several strokes off my score had I splurged for a cart. Anyway…)

Conditions are pretty good overall. Like Jay mentioned in the previous review, the greens are very grainy right now. Anything toward the ocean/setting sun runs out quite a bit, while putts headed the opposite direction are pretty slow. The down-grain putts aren’t necessarily fast, but they just don’t stop…they keep trickling and trickling. Kind of a fun challenge trying to read the grain and adjust your stroke accordingly, although I struggled and had multiple three-putts. The greens were pretty soft, smooth and accepted full shots well. Although again like Jay said, approaches with longer clubs definitely didn’t stick as well as well as short irons. Fairways are about 80-85% really nice and the rest some thin/browning spots. The rough is spottier with some thin/bare areas, but also some really lush kikuyu that can play tough if the ball sits down a bit. Overall rough was much more inconsistent than the fairways. Tee boxes were decent. I wasn’t in a bunker but they looked pretty good.

Always love this layout and it looked really nice in the afternoon sun yesterday. There are few (if any) courses I’ve played more than San Clemente, but I hadn’t played it since I started making photo albums of courses. So I created a Flickr album of 44 images that can be viewed by copying & pasting this URL: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm3X6Zih