Played here for the first time today. Had heard good things, but personally; it didn’t impress me. It was definitely a muni, in the negative sense, in that it was showing its age (over 100 years old) ... Continue »

Played here for the first time today. Had heard good things, but personally; it didn’t impress me. It was definitely a muni, in the negative sense, in that it was showing its age (over 100 years old) and not very impressive in terms of course conditions or facilities. Which is interesting, because Torrey Pines is municipal as well—part of the same San Diego Golf system—and their course and facilities are exponentially better. I guess that’s what hosting professional events will do for you; evidently they don’t spread that money around.

But I digress. In terms of course conditions, greens and fairways were fine, bunkers looked fine (I wasn’t in any), but the rough was inconsistent. It was deeper in some spots than others, somewhat patchy, wet or muddy in some spots, and just generally not well kept. Tees were generally not in good shape. Lots of divots, but also lots of bare spots, which is obvi worse.

The conditions were enough to make me not care to play here again, but the layout was also a factor. It wasn’t bad, per se; just didn’t suit my fancy. The front nine is basically cut into a canyon, which makes for some funky holes with very penal areas if you miss on the wrong side of the fairway or green. Again, hard does not automatically equate to bad. But some of these holes just seem too forced into the terrain for me to buy in.