Well, I’m pretty sure I’m about done with Hidden Valley. When I played here on New Year’s Day with caligolfer1031 I commented on the severe slopes around the course and my concern about my mobility be... Continue »

Well, I’m pretty sure I’m about done with Hidden Valley. When I played here on New Year’s Day with caligolfer1031 I commented on the severe slopes around the course and my concern about my mobility being able to deal with them. None of those things have changed – I was drawn back because I had a Costco certificate for HV (that I couldn’t use on NYD) and I certainly couldn’t let that get away (dummy!). I was joined by GKer sr714 for my final GK Cup 15 match, and GKer DeepSea14 joined us for a match with sr714. We had a sunny, warm and blustery afternoon at 12pm on Saturday, 6/27/20.

My unhappiness started early when HV told us that we could not take single carts, unlike every other course I’ve played over the past 2 months during this pandemic and with the rising COVID caseload in CA. I’m in a high-risk age group, but it was $20 extra for a single cart – VERY disappointing! No starter at the tee but we got off pretty much on time.

The first hole is brutal to start the round and sets the pace for the rest of the day. A couple years ago I was in a group that lost 8 balls on the hole – the group behind us must have been dreading the rest of the day. Starting with the first hole and continuing, fairway lies were spotty and inconsistent, and rough could be bare, bushy, or almost non-existent. I wasn’t in any traps, but playing partners complained and most traps looked like lightly groomed dirt. Sr714 had to drop from casual water in a greenside bunker on #16. Tees were very poor – almost all were torn up (we played White) and some were severely sloping to the rear of a right-handed golfer.

Greens for the most part were OK and the best part of the course. Generally good coverage and they held shots and rolled well. With the recent changes due to the pandemic it appears the course has slowed the greens down from what historically has been terrifying speed when going downhill – the green were much more puttable today, although downhill putts still required care.

The carts were pretty basic but did have a good GPS unit, which is useful with many of the blind shots encountered. But my cart had a problem with brakes – the emergency brake was hard to set, and even when set the cart would inch forward/backward on the steeper parking slopes, to the point where I just had to let it roll up against a curb before exiting.

As I said, the extreme slopes here all over the course are hard on my legs, and the resulting overall mode for me is stressful. I think I’ll pass on HV in the future – hopefully the course can address the conditioning and other issues going forward.