I played the Chino Creek course on Monday, 7/27 after checking this site for any pending maintenance alerts - green light says go. The starter suggested that it was the less busy of the 2 courses, an... Continue »

I played the Chino Creek course on Monday, 7/27 after checking this site for any pending maintenance alerts - green light says go. The starter suggested that it was the less busy of the 2 courses, and charged a low $10 green fee to walk, so away I went. The tees and fairways were in fine shape, but the greens - they were by far the worst I have ever played on at El Prado. It appeared that some maintenance had either been done, or was planned for the very near future. Greens were sandy, shaggy, soft, bumpy and extremely slow. Straight 4 foot putts bounced offline by half a foot, and downhill putts would stop well short of the hole. At one point, I considered using an iron to chip on the green, but thought better of it. Disappointed is how I felt at the conclusion of my round.

Played here yesterday with Itslikeimsayin and his son, and we were joined by another GK member, Sean (can't remember the screen name). We had a huge gap in front of us when we started at 10:07, so it ... Continue »

Played here yesterday with Itslikeimsayin and his son, and we were joined by another GK member, Sean (can't remember the screen name). We had a huge gap in front of us when we started at 10:07, so it wasn't until the back nine when we caught up to the groups ahead and had to wait a little after that. Otherwise, a 4-hour pace is hard to beat on Saturday. Price was $25 and change through TeeOff.com with a 30% promo code. Mark broke down the conditions well. I did find a few weak fairway lies that were either bare or big patches of weeds, but for the most part the coverage was nice. The rough was brutal. It was very thick and deep kikuyu in many spots or it was bare dirt/weeds, so it was penal any time you missed a fairway or green. Greens fairly slow and bumpy at times. Though pretty rough around the edges, there's not much to complain about with the price we paid. I wouldn't have high expectations coming to El Prado these days, so it's as good as you can hope for. This was only my second time playing Chino Creek and it's definitely a better course than Butterfield, but that's not saying too much. I regretted playing the blue tees this time because it plays a bit long for my tastes and there isn't much variance in hole distances. All the par-4s range from 370-400 (except for 18 at 440 uphill) and the par-3s are all right around 180, though 16 was playing up a bit yesterday. I won't be in any rush to return, but it's a solid track for the price and always a convenient option to consider.

Played at 10:07 today with sixpez, my son and another GKer (Sean? Shawn?) who saw my Meet & Play post earlier in the week. Agree with the previous reviews about the fairway conditions being much impro... Continue »

Played at 10:07 today with sixpez, my son and another GKer (Sean? Shawn?) who saw my Meet & Play post earlier in the week. Agree with the previous reviews about the fairway conditions being much improved, but unfortunately I didn't take advantage many times with an erratic driving day, and the rough is in pretty ugly shape. Some spots of the rough are bare and others are deep and lush, so it's often penal in one way or another. The fairways are very nice and the ball sits up great on that lush kikuyu. Greens look good and look smooth for the most part, but they are somewhat slow and our group got several bumpy putts. Tee boxes were not bad nor good, except No. 16 which was all torn up even though the alternate tee was in good shape 20 yards further right. I wasn't in a bunker but Keith's ball bouncing out of one and onto the green pretty much summed up their conditions. I feel like I'm making conditions sound worse than they actually are. If you keep the ball in the fairway and are ready for slower than normal greens, you should enjoy yourself here right now. Especially at the great rate we got on TeeOff.com (~$25 pp incl. cart).

Dido on Melnick's review, course is in the best condition I have seen it in years. Welcome back El Prado ! Funny that with the drought conditions, just how lsuh the entire course was. Greens are ... Continue »

Dido on Melnick's review, course is in the best condition I have seen it in years. Welcome back El Prado ! Funny that with the drought conditions, just how lsuh the entire course was. Greens are much closer to where they used to be years ago. Congrats to the maintenance staff! Staff in the pro shop are always great. Well priced muni type course, wish there were more of these around.

First time I have played this course (Chino Creek) in over 10 years and I was pleasantly surprised. Conditions were well above average for a Corona-Chino area course. Fairways had no bare spots, gre... Continue »

First time I have played this course (Chino Creek) in over 10 years and I was pleasantly surprised. Conditions were well above average for a Corona-Chino area course. Fairways had no bare spots, greens rolled true and were receptive to approach shots and teeing areas were spotless. Only negative were the dirt bunkers - sand was disguised as hardpack. Ownership has definitely upgraded the facility in the past few years. Best of all, I paid $9.00 for an 11:00 tee time at teeoff.com!!!

Kind of late on this one...played Sunday 6/7 at 12:40. What drought??? The course is as green and lush as I've ever seen it. Fairways and tee boxes are great. Rough is deadly, easy to lose your ball a... Continue »

Kind of late on this one...played Sunday 6/7 at 12:40. What drought??? The course is as green and lush as I've ever seen it. Fairways and tee boxes are great. Rough is deadly, easy to lose your ball and tough to punch out if you find it. Wasn't in any bunkers but they looked good. The greens still show signs of aeration, they are a bit bumpy. For $29, I'm happy with what I got. Will play again. Oh, and beware the wind in the afternoon!

Played Chino course last week - more quality turf on this course than I have seen in many years of playing this course. Rough was particularly deep and lush - fairways were perhaps as good as I have... Continue »

Played Chino course last week - more quality turf on this course than I have seen in many years of playing this course. Rough was particularly deep and lush - fairways were perhaps as good as I have ever seen in some 30 years of playing this course. As most players in the IE know, this course was for many years in the midst of a large number of dairies which left the course "olfactory challenged" and "insect adundant" - however, most of those dairies have departed, the area around the course has become developed for warehouses and storage facilities and thus the the above challenges have been removed or at worst severely subdued. With the removal of the challenges mentioned, what you have in the Chino Creek course is a very nice traditional routing with a number of moderate elevation changes, water hazards and afternoon winds - on top of those facts, the cost to play this course is significantly below that of the upscale courses in the IE/OC area and frankly is a great bargain in the afternoon with early twilight rates in effect. Ordinarily one might not even want to have other golfers know about a bargain course like this, but given the current situation with a number of courses of the past couple of years in the IE closing, one wants to see this course survive and provide enjoyment to those of us who just appreciate a good decent place to play golf for the cash in our pocket on a weekend afternoon without having to drag out the credit card for a $75 green fee.

Haven't written a review in quite a while due to my wife's illness. It's been about 6 months since I've been able to get out and play. So on Sunday morning played El Prado Chino Creek for the first ti... Continue »

Haven't written a review in quite a while due to my wife's illness. It's been about 6 months since I've been able to get out and play. So on Sunday morning played El Prado Chino Creek for the first time. Had originally made a tee time at Butterfield, but driving up noticed the smell from the Plant across the street, so we decided to Play the other course. Starter got us out within 20 minutes and we played as a threesome. Played from the Blues, around 6800 yards. was impressed with the variety of holes and especially the condition of the fairways and greens. everything was very green, good coverage on the teeing areas and basically the whole course. The greens were very fast and didn't really hold shots, so there was some adjustments to be made, but overall a very nice Golfing experience, and would highly recommend playing here. Close to the Los Serranos courses, but not nearly as crowded.

Played without a reservation as a walking single on 2/23/15, teeing off at ~10:25AM. Due to rain the previous night, driving range was closed, so warmup consisted of putting and free swinging. The s... Continue »

Played without a reservation as a walking single on 2/23/15, teeing off at ~10:25AM. Due to rain the previous night, driving range was closed, so warmup consisted of putting and free swinging. The starter sent me to the back nine first, as there was still some flooding around the seventh hole, the lowest point on the course. I worked my way around the back nine without seeing hardly a soul, but by the time I finished the back nine, they were sending groups off the front nine. I worked myself between a group of 3 and a group of 2 on the first hole, and was able to play through the group of 3 on the second hole. Playing at a relaxed pace, I finished easily under 4 hours. No drink cart service on the course this day. Played from the blue tees (6,850 yards/124 slope rating/72.0 course rating). Tee boxes were level, some just a bit shaggy, with little to no divot damage - always easy to find a good spot to hit from (maintenance crews were mowing as I played, so shaggy tee boxes probably improved through the day). Greens were typical for El Prado - they held well-hit shots, rolled true at medium speed (some downhill putts were quick), but had far too many unrepaired ball marks; many of these older unrepaired ball marks have left ugly dark spots. Rough was as usual a mixed bag, ranging from bare dirt to fluffy grass that left balls sitting up perfectly, to thick, lush and penal, where balls were difficult to advance. The several bunkers from which I had to play had hard packed sand (no fluffy sand at all); some still muddy from rain. Best of all were the fairways! The grass was green and lush, with good coverage all around, with balls sitting up nicely, except for a few spots where my ball ended up in unrepaired divots. I have noticed much improvement to the fairways here over the past several months, with current fairway conditions about the best I've seen here in recent memory. Amazing what only a little rainfall can do for a golf course!