I’m starting to get good at this “last minute” booking thing! Haha. Even though I already have plans to play golf Sunday, I woke up early Saturday morning with nothing to do for the day, so I started ... Continue »

I’m starting to get good at this “last minute” booking thing! Haha. Even though I already have plans to play golf Sunday, I woke up early Saturday morning with nothing to do for the day, so I started searching for possible tee times by refreshing a bunch of sites over and over. I ended up finding a couple slots available here at Balboa Park, which I’d never played before. I grabbed an 11:39 single time for $56 walking rate. That seemed a bit high, but there were few options available. The confirmation email said to be there at least 30 minutes ahead of time or else they can give your tee time to someone else (which is weird when other courses during Covid prefer you to NOT arrive until shortly before your tee time), so I arrived around 11:05 and checked in and paid. Then, after seeing golf holes along the ridgelines across canyons, I decided maybe I should ride instead of walking. It was another $22 for a single-rider cart. This was a Covid first for me: The practice putting green is open, but without any holes cut. It was representative of the on-course greens, though, so it does help to roll a few putts. Paired with two fun guys. We started right on time, fell behind a couple times but then would catch up when the course backed up some. We finished in four hours and 58 minutes.

Conditions are good! Many greens had some dirt/trouble areas around the edges, but fortunately it never impacted me. Other than that, they’re running medium-fast to fast, fairly smooth and accept full shots well. One or two greens seemed to have a bunch of unfixed ball marks. Fairways were good, green in color with pretty consistent coverage. The rough was probably a step down in quality from the fairways with more imperfections/thin areas. Not very deep, but does make you work more than when your ball is in the fairway. I was in one bunker and it was really good. Blue tee boxes were decent; lots of divots and seemed a little lumpy/unlevel on many holes.

As I said earlier, this was my first time here even though I’ve wanted to play it for many years. The first few holes play down in the “canyon” areas between various hills, but then later on the back nine many holes are routed along the ridgeline with canyons becoming “penalty areas.” Those holes are where the course really shines. Some of the front nine reminded me vaguely of The Saticoy Club. This is a course that definitely rewards accuracy over length. Good mix of fun par 3s. I really enjoyed it. It just furthers the “San Diegans are so spoiled” mantra when you consider how inexpensive their rates are here. Highly recommended. Next time I think I would walk. It wouldn’t be an easy walk, but I think it’s probably not as difficult as it looks from the hilltop clubhouse.