Apparently Troon has recently taken over management at Tustin Ranch, and I have a marketing idea for them: The Legends at Temeku Hills Tribute Experience! Want to feel like you’re in Temecula without ... Continue »

Apparently Troon has recently taken over management at Tustin Ranch, and I have a marketing idea for them: The Legends at Temeku Hills Tribute Experience! Want to feel like you’re in Temecula without the long drive? Want to see more varieties of grass in one place than you’ve ever seen before? Do you enjoy slow greens with lots of bare spots around the edges? Want to pay $150 for all this? Then come to Tustin Ranch! Okay, joke over. But I did get a strong “Legends circa 2016” vibe out here today. Earlier this week while browsing TeeOff.com for times available this weekend, I saw 3 “Deal” times available at Tustin Ranch for today. Two of them later in the afternoon were $133 each, and a single available at 11:20 was only $50! With 15% off promo code, I paid just $42.50 to play here today. For the last nine months, I’ve lived within a mile or two of the course, so I was happy to play “close to home” but I’d be seriously bummed if I paid any more than what I did. First, the good: Check in was super easy, single-rider cart no problem, got paired with a twosome and another single and we actually started early, and POP was great at a little under 4 hours, even with the back nine getting a little backed up the last few holes. Conditions-wise, it’s really hard for me to rate this place without factoring in their absurdly high rack rates. (I know, I know – it’s Orange County/“Do you know how much that land is worth?”) Overall, the course was very playable, but not especially pleasing to the eye (very blotchy and inconsistent everywhere you look), and the greens are still recovering from both the fungus issue that struck last summer and aeration about a month ago. Greens are slow, difficult to read, lots of evidence of large-hole aeration still apparent, and many have big bare spots around the edges or just off the edges. I played with a member who pointed out paint lines where the new Troon management apparently plans to increase the size of the greens to their original size. (I’d focus on just getting them good first.) The greens were quite soft and when you fixed a ball mark, they almost seemed to disintegrate into sand. Greens on the back nine did seem a little better/more healed than those on the front nine. Looks like the GK aeration alert has expired, but it’ll be a while before the holes are completely gone and no longer a factor. Fairways had decent coverage, but definitely not what I expect for a $150 price tag course. Seems like lots of different grasses. Because the rough was more grown out than the fairway, it seemed in a little better condition. Ball sat up top for the most part. I was only in fairway bunkers and they were pretty good. Blue tee boxes were all fine. I should probably stop playing here entirely. I only play here if it’s free or severely discounted, and even then, I still get frustrated with the fact they seem to thrive despite the quality of course they provide relative to price. Not sure what else to say beyond that.