4/30 review guru outing--my 1st time on this course--fairways are deep green in color evenly mowed to the point of nearly looking artificial and having a consistent length to provide excellent lies wh... Continue »

4/30 review guru outing--my 1st time on this course--fairways are deep green in color evenly mowed to the point of nearly looking artificial and having a consistent length to provide excellent lies while being firm enough for roll--some of the nicest I've seen recently. As for the "rough" if the fairway"s appearance is akin to artificial turf the rough is like the short cut shag carpet which along the fairway being about an inch long most often provided a lie where the ball sat up quite nicely. Areas around the greens seemed a little longer with the ball sinking in a bit more. Bunkers have white rather fine grain sand some what compacted. Found 1 fairway trap which was firmer than the 2 greenside ones--all were playable but I could have used some practice to get better results. Tees level and almost all were lush. Greens were medium fast fairly consistent hole to hole firm but receptive for full shots--not a lot of undulation but would take some time to judge better as the prevailing topography seemed as important as the contour of the green(where the heck is the Salton Sea anyway?) With bright and dark shades of green and multiple well placed white sand bunkers and the bordering desert landscape and some lakes and water features the course is quite pleasing to the eye. The layout provides a good variety of holes and requires proper club selection, thoughtful shot choice for course management(where would my miss do the least harm?) and most of all good execution. Overall I think Rams Hill is deserving of its reputation as a quality course and even with it being rather hard to access for many golfers it is worth the journey to experience at least once. Find a deal get a carpool together and go!!!

Great place, pace (mostly), people and way to enjoy my birthday! This place never disappoints! There was a shotgun tournament out in front of us so the parking lot was almost totally full and there we... Continue »

Great place, pace (mostly), people and way to enjoy my birthday! This place never disappoints! There was a shotgun tournament out in front of us so the parking lot was almost totally full and there were more signs of play all over the course than I have ever seen and it still was a total pleasure to play. As I said to some of the GKers this was the roughest condition I have ever seen this course in and still it was fantastic to play. Only thing a bit off may have been the speed of the greens being a bit slower than what I and some of the others are use to here . . . but again they had gotten a lot of play that day and it was the latest in the day I have ever played here. Glad to see they are doing well and keeping the course in tip top shape!

Like Sixpez, being fairly close to Rams Hill makes heading out there a little easier than some of the other members that played. I really like the course and doing the Guru things is a great way to e... Continue »

Like Sixpez, being fairly close to Rams Hill makes heading out there a little easier than some of the other members that played. I really like the course and doing the Guru things is a great way to enjoy a great course with great people from GK. Fun day with Keith, Bob and Wendy. Practice facitlity is great with ProV1 balls and nice grass stations. The range finders weren't there this time. Plenty of targets to shoot at while warming up. Tee boxes are always some of the best in SoCal. Level and plenty of nice grass for teeing it up. Very clearly marked for yardage as well. Fairways were well groomed with lush grass in most areas. Some areas have browned from heat a bit, but, the lies in those areas were fine. Rough was more tightly mowed than previous visit. Plenty of awkward lies are available when venturing in the rough. Sand traps were the low point. Most all had a crusty top. Hard to gauge what was below, one would be hardpacked/wet and the next fluffier. Very inconsistent. Greens, fantastic as usual. Smooth as silk, minimal ball marks and not quite as fast as the greased lightning of previous visit. If the hole was 2-3 feet closer, I'd have putted a bunch better... :) Rolling 11 per the board, probably closer to 10-10.5 when we hit them in the afternoon. The maturing greens are accepting of good shots and show more footprints from those that walk with a heavy foot. Previous visits the course was in 10 condition. This late in the year I'd call them an 8. It's tough when the standards are so high when in great condition. Still beats most of the courses here in the CV in this state! Awesome course. The golf gods must have been punishing us. Every hole that was long was into the wind. Whether it was going E, W, N or S, we always seemed to be fighting the wind. It got started mildly around the 10th hole, and really got going about 15 or so. The last three holes were tough. There are also some holes where the wind is shielded and kills a shot. Staff was great and helpful. Always look forward to visiting Rams Hill. Thanks for the outing.

I always enjoy any excuse to make the drive out to Rams Hill (especially now I live a little closer), so the GK Guru round was ideal. We had fun on an always-great course!

It's a little crazy when ... Continue »

I always enjoy any excuse to make the drive out to Rams Hill (especially now I live a little closer), so the GK Guru round was ideal. We had fun on an always-great course!

It's a little crazy when a course sets such high standards of conditioning. Yes, there were a few little dry spots and some browning here and there. Not quite the deep green carpet at this point in the season, which is understandable as the weather heats up. However, everything played perfectly. Never had a bad lie all day and everything was well manicured from the tee boxes to the fairways to the rough. I was in a handful of bunkers. Generally very nice, though maybe a little inconsistency from trap to trap. I love that the greens have matured and are very accepting of shots now. I even had to fix a couple of my own ball marks! The sign on the pro shop said the greens were rolling at 11. I would have guessed 10.5 while on the course. 10.5-11 is usually an ideal speed for my tastes. However, I had previous Rams Hill lightning greens in my head all day and could not adjust to slightly slower speeds. That was just my own problem, though, because the putting surfaces were still rolling smooth and pure.

This is such a great course and well worth the drive once or twice a year. I will certainly look forward to future visits and GK Guru outings here!

When the opportunity arose to play Ram's Hill for the first time with the Guru set, well, it was a no-brainer. The chatter about this place is incredible and I had to see for myself. Of course, you ha... Continue »

When the opportunity arose to play Ram's Hill for the first time with the Guru set, well, it was a no-brainer. The chatter about this place is incredible and I had to see for myself. Of course, you have to also take into account the 3+ hour drive for the day which will factor into the assessment of whether or not it was 'worth the trip.'

In a word, yes. It was definitely worth the trip. Once. I very much enjoyed the layout and the serenity of the surrounding desert. I loved the variety of holes, the thrills and perils that were present on many of the holes, but also the forgiving nature that Fazio puts into many of his courses that let you make up for a bad hole on a tough one by following it up with an easier one that gives you a little push.

Now, if Ram's Hill was of course within an hour of me, or even an hour and a half, it would become a regular on the rotation. But its remote location will likely mean a one and done for me, unless paired up with another trip to Palm Springs or perhaps even one of the other courses around Borrego Springs that may be worth visiting.

Being my first time, I thought the course was in very good shape, but not nearly as pristine as I had read about over the last year. However, thanks to the ever-informative Sixpez (with whom I had a great time with along with Robule and Abbacat), I found out they close down every summer, perhaps the attention to detail wanes a bit during this period before closing (who can blame them?), but again, it was still in really great shape overall to play in comparison to most other places.

There were some brownish areas on the fairways, but never anywhere close to a poor lie, and many areas of beautiful green carpet to work from. The rough was a very favorable cut and easy to play from. Tee boxes were in nice shape for the most part (we played the blue tees), and the sand traps were all very good (like Abbacat, I happened to find seven of them on the back nine!). Perhaps a tiny little bit of crust here or there, but overall had no troubles with them. The greens were in very nice shape, rolling true and accepting of shots. Definitely some very tricky green complexes and was surprised though that the speeds were not super fast as I had always heard about before (only 31 putts on the day - was fearing much worse).

Not much of a mobile cart service on a hot day, but there was a stationary cart service on the 10th hole tee box that was greatly appreciated. I'm actually surprised there were not more water stations every few holes considering the location in the middle of the desert. The driving range is also very nice - almost as nicely manicured as the course itself.

So overall, super happy that I checked Ram's Hill off the bucket list and would recommend it all day. I do hope to come back again when combined with another golf weekend and return when it's a 10 out of 10 and not its current 8-9 out of 10. But it's certainly a fun day out and a good place to swing the sticks. No doubt about that.

I played yesterday, 4-30-17. It is a long, tiring drive to get to Ram’s Hill, but it’s amazing to see such a beautiful place out in the middle of nowhere. Some non-golfer friends were in the area cam... Continue »

I played yesterday, 4-30-17. It is a long, tiring drive to get to Ram’s Hill, but it’s amazing to see such a beautiful place out in the middle of nowhere. Some non-golfer friends were in the area camping and we met for lunch at the clubhouse. The view over the 18th hole was perfect. The food was good but seriously overpriced.

I had a very fun time playing with fellow GK Gurus sixpez, robule and roarksown1. The course was in great shape as always, though it was surprising to see quite a bit of browned grass around some tee boxes and rough, which was cut quite short. The greens rolled slower than the previous times I’ve played here but were smooth with few ball marks. I was in so many bunkers I lost count. A couple of them were thin and borderline crusty but all the others had lots of clean, soft sand.

I really like the layout of this course. Although it’s quite short from the forward tees, with all the bunkers and the fairways that always seem to slope right into them, it is always interesting and shots take a bit of planning, especially with the many tricky pin placements. The wind kicked up pretty high late in the afternoon making the last 3 holes even more challenging.

I highly recommend Ram’s Hill and look forward to playing there again.

Played yesterday (4/23) and loved it. The layout and condition are just about perfect. You won't punish yourself but miss your shots and you'll pay for it. Greens, fairways, and tees were perfect. ... Continue »

Played yesterday (4/23) and loved it. The layout and condition are just about perfect. You won't punish yourself but miss your shots and you'll pay for it. Greens, fairways, and tees were perfect. I played in a tournament and my only complaint would be that he had us playing the whites, WAY too short. 400 yard par 5 down wind....no thanks, but thats an easy fix. I believe they had 3 other tee boxes to choose from.

My wife and I had breakfast before the round, she loved it. She would normally play with but headed to the spa at La Casa Del Zorro for a spa day while I golfed. Great way to spend a spring day in SD county. Hoping we can make it back for a stay and play before they close for the summer.

Took a trip to the desert with my wife for our anniversary weekend. I said "let's try someplace we've never been and play golf. Rams Hill is supposed to be amazing!" Amazing doesn't even begin to desc... Continue »

Took a trip to the desert with my wife for our anniversary weekend. I said "let's try someplace we've never been and play golf. Rams Hill is supposed to be amazing!" Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it. We played Saturday 4/21 at noon and Sunday morning at 8:50am. Course knowledge round two was definitely a big help. We got around in about 4 hours on Saturday as a twosome, playing through one group. It was about 98 degrees with only about 5 mph of wind, so it was warm, but great. Sunday morning we played as a threesome with a single, and the wind had picked up considerably. When we finished the round, winds were constant at 20-25 mph and definitely had an impact.

I really love Fazio designs, and Rams Hill is one of his finest. No two holes are the same, and you need to hit many different shots to score well. The conditions are pretty much perfect all the way around, so there's really no point in going into much detail. The greens are as pure as they get, and I felt bad taking divots out of the perfect fairways. There are a few spots that are starting to brown in the fairways, but that's nitpicking. The rough is cut down to just over an inch or so, and isn't very penal. The sand in the bunkers is heaven. It has a little bit of crispiness to it that is easy to play from, but the ball doesn't really plug.

The service and food are outstanding. We stayed down the hill at La Casa del Zorro, which is a great resort, but we wished we had eaten every meal at Rams Hill. The only thing missing for me was an on-course beverage cart. There are water and ice stations every 3 holes or so, and they do put one beverage cart in between the 9th green and 10th tee.

The course is preparing to shut down for the summer months, but will be overseeded and should be even better in the fall (is that possible?) I'd have to say Rams Hill is the second nicest course I've ever played, and the nicest (Tiburon Gold in Naples, FL) hosts a PGA Tour event every year. However, Naples gets tons of rain, and Rams Hill is in the middle of the desert. Unbelievable experience. We can't get back there fast enough.

Played 4/21 at 10:00 AM. I'd run out of superlatives trying to describe my experience, so I'll just leave it at "the best course I've ever played". Perfect throughout. This should be on every golfer's... Continue »

Played 4/21 at 10:00 AM. I'd run out of superlatives trying to describe my experience, so I'll just leave it at "the best course I've ever played". Perfect throughout. This should be on every golfer's bucket list.