great weather for a round at maderas today. trying to use my forelinx membership but i've only played two rounds in 2 weeks. check in was easy and staff was very friendly. nice range area to practi... Continue »

great weather for a round at maderas today. trying to use my forelinx membership but i've only played two rounds in 2 weeks. check in was easy and staff was very friendly. nice range area to practice with complimentary balls. course is in good condition, with good fairway lies but not much rough to speak of. bunkers are filled with nice, fluffy white sand. greens are very tough. putting very fast when downhill and difficult to read break. i three putted five times. rolled true though and not very many ball marks. tees are in good condition. POP was about 4.5 hours, but only after a marshall moved a slow foursome along that was two holes behind. a challenging layout that will demand accurate tee shots and smart approaches. thoroughly enjoyed.

Played 11/21 in an SCGA "One Day" event at Maderas GC and was really looking forward to it. It was the first time I'd been there and knew it was going to be challenging because of previous reviews on... Continue »

Played 11/21 in an SCGA "One Day" event at Maderas GC and was really looking forward to it. It was the first time I'd been there and knew it was going to be challenging because of previous reviews on GK. The course lived up to those tough reviews! First of all, the greens are diabolical. They were some of the fastest greens I've ever played on, and they weren't even in great shape! There was still a noticeable amount of sand on them from being punched 3-4 weeks ago. I normally average 30-32 putts per round...and I had 44 putts at Maderas. Two other players in my group putted off of the 2nd green (front pin) from middle of the green! The rest of the course was dormant. The rough was a tan color and the fairways were only green because they had been sprayed that color. The fairways conditions were good otherwise. Tees were flat and in good condition. Both bunkers I was in had good sand in them as well. I can see it's a good layout, but I won't be coming back here unless it's a different time of year (Spring or Summer) and at Twilight rates.

Played 11-15-15 . Was supposed to go out at 9:40 but the starter was nice enough to let me go out the back as a single to try and beat the ran that was coming. Played the back in a little under 1 hour... Continue »

Played 11-15-15 . Was supposed to go out at 9:40 but the starter was nice enough to let me go out the back as a single to try and beat the ran that was coming. Played the back in a little under 1 hour and than was paired with another single on the front. Played the first 5 holes pretty quick and than caught the group I was supposed to tee off behind in the morning on the 6th hole which than took us a little over an hour to finish the last 4 holes. Glad the starter let me play the back first, ended up playing in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Felt bad for the other single who was going to be stuck behind slow groups on the back side. Course was in good shape from tee to green. Tee boxes were level and lush. Fairways were in good shape with nice lies. Rough was between 1 and 3 inches so depending on were you landed ball could be sitting up or sitting down in the bermuda. Didn't go into in sandtraps but they looked nice and well manicured. Greens were in good shape with medium/fast speed and mostly smooth. Real nice facility with great costumer service.

Played the Blues (73.1/138/6654) with Itslikeimsayin and a 2some in about 4 1/2 hours teeing off early on 10/24 using our Forelinx membership. My 1st time playing here, really liked the layout, desi... Continue »

Played the Blues (73.1/138/6654) with Itslikeimsayin and a 2some in about 4 1/2 hours teeing off early on 10/24 using our Forelinx membership. My 1st time playing here, really liked the layout, design and conditions. I saw some Moorpark CC, some Champions @ the Retreat and some Crossings @ Carlsbad in the look, feel and the way it played. Like the other 3, here you cannot get off the beaten path or your ball is gone and you are adding penalty strokes. Hilly course, it would be very challenging to walk. The tees were good overall, just a few par 3's needed attention. The fairways had good coverage and played nice. The rough also had good coverage and could be penal. Agree with Mark's analysis, the traps looked immaculate and the ones I was in played well. The greens? First, they are huge, undulating and many have tiers. You could easily have a 100+ foot putt on multiple greens on this course. Could be because of the hilly terrain, but I also agree with Mark that they are some of the trickiest to read I have ever played. I usually read greens fairly well, and twice I read a ball to go fairly significantly in one direction and it actually broke a little in the opposite direction. The first 7 holes or so, the greens putted poorly because of the cool, moist conditions. They were very soft & bumpy during this period. The group in front of us was not doing anything wrong and they were leaving footprint marks like they weighed about 500 pounds. Suddenly the temperature went from 60's to 80's, the greens dried out and because medium fast, smooth and firm. I rated them based on the last 11 holes, because those would be more typical conditions. I really liked the green complexes in spite of multiple 3 putts. This is probably one of the top 2 dozen courses I have ever played. Everything about it, from the layout, the design, the difficulty to the conditions were all well above average. Many very high end homes are high up on hills looking down on the course, the scenery and the views were both stimulating. The customer service was excellent. The guys paired with us evidently paid rack rate, and I about choked when they mentioned how much they paid. If you really want to be tested, this is a good test. We played the 3rd set of tees and it was plenty for players of Mark & I's skill level. Definitely recommended if you can get a deal, but playing here on the weekend for full price would be significantly more than I have ever paid for a round of golf.

Played Maderas Saturday morning at 7:18 with Nickesquire, each using our Forelinx membership. Paired with two nice guys, and we were second off the tee. The group in front raced out and I don't think ... Continue »

Played Maderas Saturday morning at 7:18 with Nickesquire, each using our Forelinx membership. Paired with two nice guys, and we were second off the tee. The group in front raced out and I don't think we ever saw them again. We played in about 4:50 total, not too terrible for such a difficult course.

Conditions are excellent in my book. The course was very wet (and the air surprisingly cold) early in the morning and took at least an hour or two to dry out, even as temperatures got very toasty. It played and looked much better when dry. The greens were mushy and wet early on, but then firmed up and were in excellent condition for the most part. A couple greens do show evidence of somewhat-recent aeration. Fairways and rough were also excellent. I thought the tee boxes were very good, and the bunkers were a perfect 10. They are FILLED with deep, soft, heavy sand. These are tied with Wolf Creek for the best bunkers I've seen all year. There are a few non-essential spots around the course with signs saying those areas are not being watered due to the drought. Even those areas didn't look too bad to me. All in all, outstanding conditions.

Having played here twice now, I find these to be the trickiest greens of any SoCal course I know. Three putts are abundant out here. Layout-wise, I feel like Johnny Miller (or his associates) designed the course to be difficult first and fun second. It's very challenging, quite scenic and also pretty fun.

It was a really nice day for picture taking, although almost too bright at times. Here's a link to my Flickr photo album of 40 images from today: https://goo.gl/HwsQv8

Played September 24 in a scramble charity tournament. I liked the course. Nice mix of elevation changes, doglegs and undulating greens. The greens were decently fast and true. The fairways were lu... Continue »

Played September 24 in a scramble charity tournament. I liked the course. Nice mix of elevation changes, doglegs and undulating greens. The greens were decently fast and true. The fairways were lush bermuda. It made for tight lies around the greens but was a good hitting surface throughout. The staff was great. I'd like to play it again with just my ball, although probably not at the rack rate.

Played yesterday and the course was pretty busy but despite this the pace was 4:30 hours. Customer service is was outstanding here as I have come to expect nothing less from this group.

Greens w... Continue »

Played yesterday and the course was pretty busy but despite this the pace was 4:30 hours. Customer service is was outstanding here as I have come to expect nothing less from this group.

Greens were better than the last time I played here but still slower than what I would expect here and what I have seen them in the past. Few old ball marks that should have been repaired sooner. I know on one hole I did affect my putt.

Fairways were much improved from the last time and it does seem like they are getting a good amount of water on them. Rough isn't bad but of course here the rough is more native areas.

Tee boxes were good and we played the green tees which were one up from the back and I hadn't notice this before but the actual size of the tee box was smaller than I expected. So much so that I thought we didn't have enough room to fit and hit our shots.

It was warm and with the water on the course it made the humidity a little higher. I'm glad we didn't tee off later. Overall it was very enjoyable as usual here.

played 9/8. course is challenging, lots of elevation changes, hard to know where to put it if you haven't played before. Definitely a shotmaker's course, typical Johnny Miller in that if you miss it... Continue »

played 9/8. course is challenging, lots of elevation changes, hard to know where to put it if you haven't played before. Definitely a shotmaker's course, typical Johnny Miller in that if you miss it in the wrong place, you are often in trouble.
Conditions were fair, but reasonable considering recent heat wave plus backdrop of drought. Greens were actually quite soft and lush from watering, very receptive, with lots of scars from unrepaired ball marks. rolling much slower than I remember from previous trips.
hot deal on golfnow definitely makes it a worthwhile play. Licking my wounds from a tough round due to suboptimal ball striking, but i'll be back

A little late on this but I played a shotgun tournament last week and as expected the pace was a little slow at 5.5 hours. Lots of waiting on par 5s since most are reachable in 2 from the whites.
... Continue »

A little late on this but I played a shotgun tournament last week and as expected the pace was a little slow at 5.5 hours. Lots of waiting on par 5s since most are reachable in 2 from the whites.

Greens have picked up a tick since the last time but I still think they can be a little faster. With the rain my guess would be they would need to dry out a little bit more before they can be rolled and cut. Greens were still pretty soft.

Fairways were in good shape. I don't remember too many bare spots. This is Maderas so good luck on getting a flat lie. It's a course you need to play the right tee box and know where to land the ball.

It was a tournament so I didn't hit out of the bunker but I did retrieve a couple of balls and the seemed pretty soft. That is certainly good for a greenside bunker but for a fairway bunker you need to make sure you get ball first otherwise you'll just chunk it out.

Customer service was fabulous as always here. This is one of few courses were the employees actually get it. Course seems to be improving and certainly shaping up nicely for the rest of the summer.