I played Castle Creek on 6/22, and saw a forum post after asking about it in general so here is a June 2025 review of it.

When you pull up to the parking lot on a Sunday and are one of 3 cars in th... Continue »

I played Castle Creek on 6/22, and saw a forum post after asking about it in general so here is a June 2025 review of it.

When you pull up to the parking lot on a Sunday and are one of 3 cars in the parking lot you know something is up. There's a note on the Clubhouse door that says "Back in 5 Minutes." It was really 10-15 minutes before someone came back. From what I could tell they only have one employee that goes between the "Pro Shop" and cart barn.

Positives: The tee time was only $22.50 per player which is unheard in San Diego county for a full-size course weekend rate. The pace of play for my twosome was around 3-3 1/2 hours on account of almost nobody being on the course. Also, the greens were shockingly nice compared to the rest of the course, although the green speed was still very slow.

Negatives: Besides the greens/greenside areas of each hole, the entire course has no grass whatsoever. The carts were the worst I have ever used and seem like they are at minimum from the 1980s. There are no playable bunkers on the course, you have to hit a chip or pitch shot instead if you land in one. There is a lot of overgrowth of trees that block out what probably used to be more open tee shots. Tee Boxes were mostly dirt and rocks, but were surprisingly still pretty level.

Layout: The course layout itself is pretty cool besides holes 10-12. There are around 8 forced carries off of tee shots, and if the trees and bushes were not overgrown, golfers would actually know where to aim to take on some of these risk/reward tee shots. Holes 10-12 are some of the narrowest I have ever played, excluding hole 18 at Balboa Park. Its a shame that the owner has let the course get this bad especially because of all the people who bought homes around the course. I hope that at some point they decide to sell and JC Golf or someone else could revive it like they did with Eagle Crest/Dos Osos Golf Club in Escondido.

If you're really desperate to play 18 holes and there is no availability ANYWHERE else on a weekend, then this is the course for you. For me though, this was definitely the worst course I've ever played, but I expected that going into it, so my expectations weren't too high.