Though I live here, I don't often play golf in OC on the weekend. But Itslikeimsayin and I saw some great late morning prices for SJH on GolfNow and couldn't pass up a $29 11:28 time today! Their rate... Continue »

Though I live here, I don't often play golf in OC on the weekend. But Itslikeimsayin and I saw some great late morning prices for SJH on GolfNow and couldn't pass up a $29 11:28 time today! Their rates on GN are bizarre as every tee time listing has a different price and it fluctuates wildly with no rhyme or reason. We took the best one available and you probably won't find a better deal than that in OC on a weekend. It was busy out there and we teed off a few minutes late. Front nine was very slow with groups backed up on most tees, but then the back nine opened up more. It seemed slower than the actual 4:40 pace. sngernz accurately describes the conditions from tee to green, but my rating will probably be lower than his. I wasn't too impressed with the conditions today. For $29, I can't complain. It's well worth that and I'll gladly play here often if they have deals like that, but I wouldn't pay anything close to the inflated OC rack rate here right now. Tee boxes fine enough. Fairways and rough are a hodge podge mix of bermuda and kikuyu and there were some thin spots and ugly transitional areas between grasses. Still, most lies I had were pretty good. Rough just as inconsistent. I was only in a couple bunkers and they were okay. The greens were pretty quick and I liked the speeds, but most were pretty bumpy. The 18th looked the worst of them all. The GK alert notes aeration is coming up, but I could swear a few of the greens on the front looked like they were aerated a few weeks ago as I noticed a subtle dimpled pattern. Not really sure. I enjoy the course layout with so many hills and it's more challenging than I remember. This was only my second time here and I only recalled a handful of holes. It was really windy today and it seemed it would always swirl around to be in our face on all the uphill holes, so it played much longer than the 6,300 yards from the blues I thought. A lot of elevated greens and the back nine has a few different design "identities" as other reviewers note, but 13-15 is a fun stretch. Recommended, but right now you'll want to seek out a good deal to balance out with the relatively mediocre conditions. One notable design quirk is that both nines end on a par-3. That's rather weird and I wish 18 was a more distinctive "signature" style hole. If you are going to finish with a par-3 coming back at the clubhouse, why not make it something special?