Played Sunday, 8/16 used underpar, so $100 ea. Reasonable rate for the weekend. Tee off at 11:15. Service was great, they take your clubs down from the drop area. They let us take our coolers with... Continue »

Played Sunday, 8/16 used underpar, so $100 ea. Reasonable rate for the weekend. Tee off at 11:15. Service was great, they take your clubs down from the drop area. They let us take our coolers with adult beverages, maybe because there is no snack bar nor a beverage cart right now? We were with the wives again, so won't comment on POP, we were definitely the hold up, ugh!! Marshal was definitely on us the whole front nine. Not saying anything to upset us, just making his presence known and made my sister-in -law a little uncomfortable and rushed, but she does need to pick up the pace. Oh well.

Course in overall good to very good shape. Fairways were very nice!! Perfect cushion, nice roll out and bottles of sand on the cart, which helps. There were some brown thin areas, but not really where you should've been.

Traps were all very nice, actually. Since no rakes, they have them a little wet and a little firm, but easy to get out and you didn't leave huge footprints. They're doing a great job with these right now. Must be tough to maintain this way.

Greens were nice. Putted smooth with perfect speed. Held all shots very well, in fact you could really be agressive with the chips as they would bite very well.

Rough wasn't too bad, I hit a lot of fairways, so really didn't notice it too much. They have quite a bit of waste areas, now, so you might find some tough lies in those areas.

Teeboxes were just fine, no issues. Not perfect, but I didn't have any problems on the blue tees.

Service all around was great!! Cleaned your clubs after the round and took them up to the loading area while I brought the car around to pick everyone up. Great day and I'd recommend right now, especially if you can get a good deal. If it wasn't so hot, we would've tried to play at least another nine holes, it's unlimited with the underpar deal.

Played Sun 9/22. 8am shotgun. Challenging course. A lot of bunkers, quite a bit of water. Bunkers guarding many of the greens aggressively. Many of the greens elevated. I enjoyed it very much. M... Continue »

Played Sun 9/22. 8am shotgun. Challenging course. A lot of bunkers, quite a bit of water. Bunkers guarding many of the greens aggressively. Many of the greens elevated. I enjoyed it very much. Many of the holes required some thinking. Greens punched 2 weeks ago, and they are healing nicely. Can see the holes, but mostly rolled true. A fast 10 on the stimp. I probably played here 10 years ago, and I don't remember enjoying it this much. Had a great time.

Very late review for the Omni La Costa course played in the GK event on 7-13. Played with Johnny, Moose and Andy, a foursome in search of some fun. The foursome was great to play with, enjoying each ... Continue »

Very late review for the Omni La Costa course played in the GK event on 7-13. Played with Johnny, Moose and Andy, a foursome in search of some fun. The foursome was great to play with, enjoying each others good shots as well as their own and not letting the bad ones ruin a beautiful day. Having not played La Costa in over 30 years and always thinking it was a bit over-rated, I was pleasantly surprised by the redesign. Loved the front nine and the back didn't disappoint either. I agree with the comments on the practice range. My local par 3 has a better range. If I have to hit off carpet, at least make it nice carpet at a resort like this. The layout usually influences my reviews more than the conditions. I thought the greens were very good, quick but not DON'T GET ABOVE THE HOLE exasperating. The traps had decent sand with no gravel, but needed a deep raking. I didn't have a bad lie in the fairway all day. Rough was as expected this time of year, thin where there's no water, and thicker where there is. Not that keen on riding unless I have to, and you wouldn't have to here, though I didn't see anybody walking -I can't see why they wouldn't allow it. Others mentioned the carts going into reverse-only mode if you entered the fairway on some holes.
There was no warning to stay on the path in advance. The alarm would go off after you were 25 yards into the forbidden garden and you'd have to back out. Everybody hates getting punished for something you didn't know you weren't supposed to do. Overall had a lot of fun and will be looking to return with the Costco-GM deal.

Just a quick review after last weekend's GK Event at the usually very solid La Costa resort. Like most of the others have stated, it was not in the ideal shape that usually greets you when you get dow... Continue »

Just a quick review after last weekend's GK Event at the usually very solid La Costa resort. Like most of the others have stated, it was not in the ideal shape that usually greets you when you get down there. And to make it worse, the three-hour drive in inexplicable Saturday morning traffic already got things off to a bad start. We got out to the first tee though (in our case the third hole for our shotgun) and were greeted with burned out fairways, poor bunkers and far too many Cart Path Only holes which was all the more frustrating due to the less-than-ideal course conditions. Greens were in pretty good shape though and very tricky to manage. Plenty of tiers, false fronts and severe slopes to test the best of putters. This was a PGA course for a reason. Routing is very strong though and some of the holes are pretty awesome, just a shame that they were visually so disappointing. Cart service was good though and the staff did a good job taking care of us. Always a fun time to join up with fellow GK'ers, in this case new GK stud Matt and the terrific father-son duo of Ken and Kendrick. Special thanks as always to Johnny for getting us out there.

Thanks everyone that came out to our GK Plays Omni La Costa Resort outing on Saturday. I posted a recap on the GK Events page. Some mixed feelings about the experience. Obviously the playing condition... Continue »

Thanks everyone that came out to our GK Plays Omni La Costa Resort outing on Saturday. I posted a recap on the GK Events page. Some mixed feelings about the experience. Obviously the playing conditions were not up to Omni La Costa Resort standards which was very surprising. I later find out they had issues with the water pump a week before that prevented watering for almost 5 days. Hence why the golf course was abnormally so dry. I do my best to time these outings when golf courses are in great shape. In every prior GK Plays at Omni La Costa Resort that was the case.

On the flip side, as an outing organizer the staff did a great job preparing and staging our event. I really appreciated that they were willing to delay our start to wait for others to join due to the heavy traffic on the South 5. I like the extra touches they do with golf cart signage and scorecards. Staff is great to correspond with prior and during the outing.

We played the Champions Course and despite conditions not as good as expected I still had a great time. It’s a layout I always find challenging and loaded with fun shots. And teeing it with fellow GKers makes it even better. I expect the conditions to improve rapidly and might play another round there in August to see.

After play, although I was not pleased with not enough tables set up by the Vue restaurant staff and not allowing us to use more tables due to current reservations, I was ecstatic about the good times we had giving out Linksoul and Golf Moose gear. And how cool of Golf Moose to also give out polos in addition to their gift cards. In all fairness it was a Saturday night at a packed resort so I get them needing tables to accommodate guests.

Overall, fun outing, and I will be returning to do another. Likely an early morning outing to beat traffic.

Not much to add to the reviews posted by other GKers for the event on Saturday, 7/13/19. Great weather and great company made the day very worthwhile. As Fastfish433 noted, the widespread ‘cart path o... Continue »

Not much to add to the reviews posted by other GKers for the event on Saturday, 7/13/19. Great weather and great company made the day very worthwhile. As Fastfish433 noted, the widespread ‘cart path only’ areas made play pretty choppy, and us old guys with knee replacements and knee sprains had a bumpy afternoon. This ‘path only’ condition would seem to be an unusual choice for a resort-type course catering to vacationing golfers, especially for this much of the course in hot July.

Course conditions were generally good, although I can safely say neither of us hit the ball where we wanted to very often, so the areas where we DID play from were not always optimal - LOL! There were many bunkers found and most seemed to be in good condition, although some were pretty wet, even in the mid-afternoon.

The carts are nicely appointed (ball washer/club cleaner, comfortable seats) and the on-board GPS has good interactive graphics and gives distance to the pin position. Plenty of water available on-course and we saw the cart girl often, although she needs training about driving into hitting groups.

First off I would like to thank Johnny for another fun outing. I love your format and look forward to playing with the group again. I would also like to thank Linksoul for all the great gear thay prov... Continue »

First off I would like to thank Johnny for another fun outing. I love your format and look forward to playing with the group again. I would also like to thank Linksoul for all the great gear thay provided not to mention to Golf Moose for the shirts. Congratulations to Dconnally for his victory 6 and 4 in our GK Cup match. I feel like the Champions course could use some TLC. I felt like I was playing my local city course not a resort. The biggest issues I had were the numbers of cart path only holes ( I belive 8 holes had some or all restricted) This is a big issue for the older gang. On the 18th green (the first time we saw a marshal) we were told that the carts could have been adjusted to let us play on more of the fairways. A little too late for Dave C and myself. The course itself is a great layout with good greens a few thin spots but ok for play. They were fair to read and pretty fast as well. The fairways were cut very short and had many ground under repair areas (some marked some just bare) Thay were fair and you had to try to get a really bad lie. I found lots of sand this fine Saturday with some being soft and some very firm. The bunkers all seemed to have pleanty of sand it was as if you would have a dry soft bunker than a wet firm one. This was a bit of a challange for me and others in my foursome. I would have to have a good reason to play the Champions course again. The GK outings are high on my list of golf activities. I would play here again with the GK events.

Played with the Gk event this past weekend and hag a fun time with them. Big shout out to Johnny for setting everything up along with Royal Links, Golfmoose and Linksoul for the awesome swag for the p... Continue »

Played with the Gk event this past weekend and hag a fun time with them. Big shout out to Johnny for setting everything up along with Royal Links, Golfmoose and Linksoul for the awesome swag for the prizes. I have played champions a few times and I regret to say this course has seen better days. Now it has never been a perfect conditioned course when I have played but Saturday it seemed like the course has been let go a bit. I will go into more detail below about that.

The major issue we had Saturday was the Cart Lady! She is a thief! Being stacked up my brothers group was behind us so Gregholla decided to buy them a shot as we were on the green them on the fairway. We let the cart lady know that these two drinks were for the group on the tee. She said no problem and drove over to them. We found out later at the Vue restaurant that she did not give them the drinks and charged them for the ones they ordered. We were pissed. I must say the GM or Restaurant manager was very apologetic and promptly brought out doubles to them so that was amazing for him to go above and beyond especially seeing how the restaurant is separate from the golf facility. That is the only reason we gave a three star. The rest of the staff was friendly so that was nice.

As for conditions of the course I mentioned that they were sub-par for this course. Starting with the driving range were its all mats and half of them were missing the tee holders. Also there are not enough stations for one course let alone two. Tee's were decent and offered adequate space to tee it up. Fairways were Ok with mostly grass but sometimes different types. A lot of holes were CPO for some reason and the carts didn't tell us until on the grass were we had to back up to the CP. Rough was a real mixed bag of grass switching to brush the farther off fairway. Sand was absolutely terrible, I was in 5 or 6 traps and none had sand I dont know why this is a problem as its not windy often and the course makes money with the high rack rates. As for the greens they were medium fast and a little bumpy (from play not courses fault) Also the pins were in some tough location which is becoming the norm for all GK events it seems.

Overall if it wasn't for a GK Plays or event I wont be back until they fix some issues.

Played in the "GK Plays" outing on Saturday and did a high quality job stinking it up out there... such is life.

Arrival and check-in: This was an interesting sort of situation when it comes to ov... Continue »

Played in the "GK Plays" outing on Saturday and did a high quality job stinking it up out there... such is life.

Arrival and check-in: This was an interesting sort of situation when it comes to overall rating for me as this location is about 47 miles from my home and it took about 3 hours to get there on a Saturday. This does play a bit into my desire to make another trek in this direction. I know one thing for certain: It will NOT be a summer Saturday if I can help it. Removing this absurd traffic situation, the golf course is part of a resort and not in the "resort" sense such as many others I have been to. There is no parking right by the clubhouse where golfers can park isolated from the rest of the resort guests. The layout is a bit confusing and self-parking is quite a hike from the course check-in. I drove past the self-parking lot (I wasn't certain that was the self-parking at the time) and used the valet service as this looked to save about 5-10 minutes in walking (and I was already late in getting to the course). After I made it down to the golf shop the staff were great in all ways, and this makes up for the parking headaches somewhat.

Off to the course ...
(Note: I was there too late to actually hit at the range, so I cannot comment on the practice facilities other than a "4 tier" putting green with very little in the way of intermediate slopes. It is either the big drops or relatively flat. The putting green was pretty beaten up and looked to be burned in some areas.)

Tee Boxes: In general the tees are in pretty good shape and are mostly flat. Not much I can say here but that I appreciate a course that does a good job keeping tee boxes useful (flat, mown, and not concrete dirt).

Fairways: I didn't see much of these other than heading into the weeds to find my ball. For the most part, the fairways looked to be in great shape and were not "spongy" or very slow. I would say these were medium speed fairways and would be neutral to most golfers. I would say that if you need to hit a flop shot from the fairway areas near the green you will have a pretty tough time getting under the ball. Tried once and ended up pinching it in an epically bad way... thank goodness for spin bringing it back a bit.

Rough: Spent plenty of time here and I can say there is a bit of a mixed bag situation going on. I understand the course was working on removing "rogue" grass from the course and this caused a bit of damage to areas. Generally speaking, the rough is playable and I had no issues hitting pretty much any club from the rough. HOWEVER, if you get into the "dried/died/sparce dustfield" that is beyond the rough (spent too much time here) your ability to recover will be a crap shoot. I had 3 good lies and one just terrible lie.

Bunkers: Found a fairway and 2 green side bunkers. The fairway bunker was playable, but I would like to see a little bit of softer sand in the bunkers. As for the 2 greenside bunkers, I will have to say I was depressed at the conditions. People who know me understand this is a major pet peeve for me, but green side bunkers, especially those with deep/sharp contours, NEED to have sand in them to be playable. The sand needs to be soft and have the "fluffy" characteristic in order to get up and out. Greenside bunker on 16 was playable enough, but the extremely deep front bunker on #1 while hitting to a front pin position was impossible without sand. Made an attempt at getting out of that bunker once and then ended up picking up and just walking off back to the cart. (Side note: #1 was our last hole of the day and I was done)

Greens: Generally speaking the greens are pretty good and are multi-tiered. There is some ball mark damage present on most greens from people who can't be bothered to repair the greens. Beyond that, the ball rolled pretty consistently at what I would consider a medium-slow speed (around 8-9 on the Stimpmeter would be my guess IF there was a truly flat area to check the value). I found the greens to be confusing and I misread everything I saw. The others in the group did not have the same issue, so I would say that is on me. I am normally a good reader of the green but I was over-reading break and misreading speed all round. If you are comfortable with "muni" green reading (i.e. it will break less than you think 90% of the time) you will do well here on the greens.

Overall: The course layout is NOT what I am used to seeing in a "Resort" course. Most resort courses are set up to be "fun" for the 20+ handicapper, so I tend to go brain dead and just hit balls instead of playing golf. I am a HUGE fan of the RTJ Trail in Alabama, the courses in Pinehurst, and pretty much any TRUE Pete Dye course... courses that make you think. That said, there is challenge out there with deep bunkers, swirling/changing winds, and some interesting pin positions on multi-tiered greens. The yardage on the card is a bit misleading as I would say it plays a bit longer than the card would suggest. Position is key on most holes and you do NOT want to short side yourself all day like I did. Bad-bad misses will end up with you in advanced wedge play purgatory having to work hard for par. Good-bad misses will give you plenty of green to work with and multiple possible options around the green. It can literally be better to really miss a shot and have plenty of green instead of having just missed and have to hit a flop shot over a bunker from a tight lie.

If I get the chance, I wouldn't mind playing this course again when the "rogue" grass and bunker issues are addressed. I would be curious to see the other course too, but this would be fun to give a second shot when my game returns and there is fluffy sand in the greenside bunkers.