Hello fellow GKers, I rarely post reviews as I am just plain lazy. However, I recently played Strawberry Farms and noticed a dearth of reviews. Since my experience was favorable I felt a review was wa... Continue »

Hello fellow GKers, I rarely post reviews as I am just plain lazy. However, I recently played Strawberry Farms and noticed a dearth of reviews. Since my experience was favorable I felt a review was warranted.

Played Sunday 1/24/2021 with a 7:08 tee time booked thru GolfNow. Interesting that the course wanted $175 online to book, while GolfNow was $155 plus a $3 Convenience Fee. This is outside my usual price range for golf, but given recent challenges getting times I said "What the heck?" Fortunately upon checking in at the course I was charged $99, I gladly paid the lower rate and headed to the putting green.

Maintenance was mowing the putting green and when finished the speed was very quick with some significant slopes. Uh oh, I might be in trouble as recent putting woes have been a real problem.

Went to load up on a cart and head to the tee (on time) and the starter was busy wiping down all of the carts that were still wet from Saturday's rain. I appreciated the effort being made. He apologized for the inconvenience. I was impressed.

Joined up with 3 other gents on the tee, 2 of which were the epitome of "ready golf" almost to the point of being a little careless. They were good guys so no harm was done. As a result of our faster play we did a fair amount of waiting and finished in about 4 hours 20 minutes, which isn't real good when you are the 4th or 5th group out.

Course conditions and layout were to my liking. Tee boxes and fairways with good coverage, probably an 8. Greens were excellent, quick, sloppy, with a modest amount of ball marks, I'd give 'em an 8.5. Personally I like the layout a lot, it had been 20+ years since I played it last and I had very few memories of the course. I felt it was reasonably forgiving off the tee, with a fair amount of bunkers. The bunkers actually had sand in them and were great to hit from. Unfortunately, no rakes and due to the rain they were not smooth at all. Oh well, having actual sand made up for the lack of care.

For $99 on Sunday prime time in Orange County I felt like I got reasonable value for my money. At $155 or $175 I would expect to see bunkers in better shape and a Marshall out pushing players to play a little quicker. Frankly the two speed demons I played with should be giving lessons to other golfers on playing quickly.

Recommended.

Played today and conditions were really good to great. Can’t believe they are about to punch the greens because they were rolling perfectly. Fairways I was in (which was not many unfortunately) were w... Continue »

Played today and conditions were really good to great. Can’t believe they are about to punch the greens because they were rolling perfectly. Fairways I was in (which was not many unfortunately) were well covered and ran well. Rough had some bare and muddy spots due to heat but nothing you couldn’t take appropriate relief from. Recommend getting out as it’s always a fun time.

Played a late afternoon round last week. Course was in better condition than last several times I had been. Got off about 10 minutes earlier than our tee time, single carts available. Range and put... Continue »

Played a late afternoon round last week. Course was in better condition than last several times I had been. Got off about 10 minutes earlier than our tee time, single carts available. Range and putting green open. Golf shop still open. Played the blues, but many of the markers were at the black tees due to some tee maintenance going on. Other than the maintenance the tee boxes were generally in good condition, no complaints. Fairways were a bit thin, just a touch of brown in places but overall coverage is good and never a bad lie. Bunkers both fairway and grrenside had a good layer of decent sand. Not really much rough to speak of here. Greens rolled pretty well and speed was medium fast to my liking, but some had a lot of 'pock marks,' repaired marks but for some reason just didn't heal well or something. Those were slower and bumpier, eg hole 5 and 16. POP was 3 1/2 hours and we moved pretty well. I recommend playing here if you can get the resident or a slightly discounted rate.

We played here a couple days ago teeing off at 7:20 and finishing at 11:00. This is a great course to walk IMO except for the walk up to the 10th tee. Luckily our foursome had two single cart riders s... Continue »

We played here a couple days ago teeing off at 7:20 and finishing at 11:00. This is a great course to walk IMO except for the walk up to the 10th tee. Luckily our foursome had two single cart riders so was able to hitch a ride. We don’ Get a chance to play here much based on the high green fees but were able to treat ourselves this week with the $79 dollar senior rate. The course conditions are very nice right now. They throw a lot of water on this course so it is very green but not much roll in spots that were watered. Tees were level, fairways were lush, and the greens rolled smooth, semi fast and held shots. The bunkers were only okay but better than most of the other courses I’ve played. The real challenge was around the greens. Tight lies, flop shots over bunkers, and well placed pins made things interesting for us all. A great golf course with a nice variety of holes. Reachable par 5’s that with risk reward options and a 600 yard one that proved worthy. Great par 3 holes and many other great holes as well. Only wish they had better deals.....

Played here today (6/26) on a 9:00AM tee time with GK member Jon P. on what turned out to be a warm but very comfortable Chamber of Commerce day in Irvine. First time playing here and I’m glad I did. ... Continue »

Played here today (6/26) on a 9:00AM tee time with GK member Jon P. on what turned out to be a warm but very comfortable Chamber of Commerce day in Irvine. First time playing here and I’m glad I did. I had been dissuaded by some to try and play here as either the layout wasn’t to their liking or 6 hour round horror stories, but what I found was a great course with some quirk to it, though nothing you’d shake your head at. Pace today was also dictated entirely by our playing partners (members at Strawberry Farms) who played as fast as I have ever seen in my life and forced our way past an incredibly slow foursome ahead of us.

Tees: Played the whites and got lucky as most people played the blues and I’m sure those tees were more worn than ours. No real bad lies and even on par 3’s I was able to find a nice spot to hit from.

Fairways: I’d say good shape overall with ample coverage (carts did have divot mix) and fair roll all day. Visually it was nice to have the colors easily indicate good/bad shots.

Rough: I can’t recall it being overtly penal, however I attribute good play today to my lack of further information about the rough.

Bunkers: The ones I was in all had good fluffy sand and even limited footprints! It was a nice change of pace from others courses that seemed to let the bunkers go.

Greens: Wonderful, albeit a bit slow especially early on; left plenty of putts short today. No major trickery on the breaks and I found the roll to be true.

ETC: Staff today was friendly, check-in a breeze with the prepayment online. Carts have good GPS and enough giddy up. Pace as mentioned today was good due to our partners (got around in 3.5 hours!) however outside of that I’m sure it would have been closer to 4-4.25. Conditions are good, and the course IS overpriced but on a good deal (>100) you should come out!

Early morning time on what should turn out to be another hot day. Nice to beat the heat and also to play quickly. ( 2 1/2 hours ) Pro shop was great and the starter allowed us to get out a few minu... Continue »

Early morning time on what should turn out to be another hot day. Nice to beat the heat and also to play quickly. ( 2 1/2 hours ) Pro shop was great and the starter allowed us to get out a few minutes early. Thanks ! The course is really in nice shape, fairways are lush with plenty of grass. Not a lot of roll because they were watering the fairways while we played. Greens will be better later in the day, again because they were watering and spraying chemicals just before we reached each green. Bunkers were well maintained with lots of sand. A few of the tee boxes on the par three holes were beat up with heavy divot damage. I like playing this course, but frankly it is just to expensive for my budget. Additionally because they always have back nine play, you never know what to expect after you make the turn. ( We were lucky and didn't catch anyone until the last hole, which them took almost 15 minutes to play.) Nice course, great condition, wonderful staff, just to much $$$

S-Farms is open and in great shape. We played in just over 4 hours Friday morning in beautiful weather. Fairways are full and great cover, no rakes in bunkers but good sand although a bit wet and he... Continue »

S-Farms is open and in great shape. We played in just over 4 hours Friday morning in beautiful weather. Fairways are full and great cover, no rakes in bunkers but good sand although a bit wet and heavy. Greens fantastic, rolling semi-quick and true. Deals are around, need to use one to make it worth the fee. Restaurant open, range, and putting green, too. My favorite OC course. Recommended.

Played Strawberry Farms on 1/2. A buddy of mine got a Golf Moose coupon so we ended up paying $69. Great price for a beautiful course.

I've always wanted to play this course but don't make my way... Continue »

Played Strawberry Farms on 1/2. A buddy of mine got a Golf Moose coupon so we ended up paying $69. Great price for a beautiful course.

I've always wanted to play this course but don't make my way down from the South Bay too often. I think I'm going to have to start after playing this course.

Course layout is completely different between the two nines. The front nine is pretty straightforward and nice. The back nine is much more challenging and fun in my opinion. I made the mistake of hitting driver on 18, next time I'll know better!

Greens were really fast in the morning and slowed down later in the round which we all found very strange.

Sand was very nice, the rough not too bad.

I can't wait to come back and play this course.

Played on Black Friday, 11/29/19 to avoid the shopping crowds, with my brother and his longtime friend. We got a pretty good GN non-refundable $80 deal at 1110am. The course was more crowded than I ex... Continue »

Played on Black Friday, 11/29/19 to avoid the shopping crowds, with my brother and his longtime friend. We got a pretty good GN non-refundable $80 deal at 1110am. The course was more crowded than I expected after all the rains we had the previous 2-3 days, but Friday morning the sun was out, although cool, and we had some blustery wind on the first nine, calming down and cooling quickly after clouds moved in, but no rain until we got to the parking lot to unload the carts. After the previous rainy days, it was path-only everywhere, which didn’t bode well for my bum knee, but SF is fairly flat and the walks to-and-from the cart were not arduous. My spraying the ball worked against my plans to hit all shots near the cart paths – LOL. I didn’t rate the course due to the CPO.

The course was in fairly good shape after the heavy rains. Most greens here are pushed up from the surrounding areas and drained very well – they were pretty firm, held shots easily, and rolled with some bumpiness at medium speeds. Fairways were pretty wet, with lies ranging from lush to very thin, with very thin getting picked most of the time. Rough had been cut very short recently and was pretty easy to play from, and in some cases was dormant and didn’t slow errant shots very much at all. Lots of ESA here and we all visited it.

Traps were obviously very wet, but staff was active in the bunkers during our round, and most bunkers had been at least partially groomed, so that was helpful. We played the white tees (and the white plates on par-3s) as the course played long after the rains, and they were generally OK, with some sloping to the back of a right-handed golfer.

Carts are basic but powerful, and they do have a ball washer/club cleaner. Even after the rain, the driving range was on grass today. Since I last played here regularly a few years ago, many large trees and connecting shrubs/brush have been cleared out, opening up sightlines and giving the course a much more open feel. A Men’s Club member joined our threesome, and he had no social input to the group at all until we arrived at the 18th green, and never filled a divot or fixed a ballmark.

I’ve always enjoyed SF but can’t recommend it without a good price deal.