A friend of mine who was playing in the SCGA outing was able to arrange for a second round on the South Course. I am grateful he was able to include me as a guest. We teed off at about 1:45 and basica... Continue »

A friend of mine who was playing in the SCGA outing was able to arrange for a second round on the South Course. I am grateful he was able to include me as a guest. We teed off at about 1:45 and basically had the course to ourselves on a gorgeous afternoon. We did play through a slower twosome at one point. We had to have a forecaddie with us for this round, as well, but our guy, Scott was great. Like the North, the South was in equally amazing condition. Lush, green and perfectly manicured throughout tee boxes, fairways and rough. The greens were more receptive on this side (older course, more matured turf), but rolling at similar speed and smoothness as North. The bunkers here use a beautiful white sand that's softer than the more standard sand on the North. The bunkers on both courses were a pleasure to play from. The South just looks prettier because of the brighter sand and the amount of bunkers on this course (120-something according to the caddie). The bunkering is a big part of the story on the South Course, which is a very different overall design style than the North. It is awesome that they have to courses here that are different from one another. Whereas the North is more desert style, South is more lush with wall-to-wall greenery. There aren't any rugged desert "native" areas on this side (except for the 10th hole that parallels the 18th on North). Here, those areas are fully landscaped with shrubbery and flowers and they are much further away from any fairways. Otherwise, there is more rough and wide expanses of grass throughout the course. This gives you a little more room for error. However, there are a ton of bunkers and they are all to be avoided if you want a good score. Also, this course is hillier. No big elevation changes, but a lot of rolling terrain. Probably a tad less water in play compared to North, but there are a handful of killer water holes on this course, too. I loved both courses at Toscana almost equally, but may lean slightly toward South if I had to pick only one. This course reminded me at times of The Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe, largely due to the pretty landscaping and cool Tuscan-inspired homes/clubhouse surrounding the course. One thing I really liked about both Toscana courses was that they seemed fairly laid out for both fade and draw hitters. Most holes here favor one shot or the other with some big doglegs, risk/reward angles over water and those pesky diagonal greens that Jack loves. However, the distribution is pretty even between shots that favor a draw or a fade. Many holes require both for the ideal play (for example, a draw off the tee and then a fade on the approach or vice versa). They are real shot-makers courses, yet still more forgiving than they appear. You can play conservatively and still score well as long as you avoid trouble. In case you can't tell, I really enjoyed everything about this place!