Played this Sunday in the Rancho Park Men's Club tournament of champions which is held yearly at the fabulous Ojai Valley Inn. When I played last year, my game was much sharper so I played the blue te... Continue »

Played this Sunday in the Rancho Park Men's Club tournament of champions which is held yearly at the fabulous Ojai Valley Inn. When I played last year, my game was much sharper so I played the blue tees, but the game's been pretty poor this year so I was in the flight playing from the white tees this time around. Not a problem - should be fun!

I always love this course for its unique and fun layout with some very target-oriented and memorable short holes to start, followed by some parkland style on the back nine and then a big finish with some truly memorable holes. Conditions always seem pretty prime here and this time around was no exception.

My group had a 10:00am tee time and you could not have asked for a more perfect early autumn afternoon. We rode in the very nice carts with a solid GPS system and hit the ground running. Speaking of running, the greens were running really nicely - and quite fast. They were in pretty great shape and I enjoyed them very much to the tune of a 29-putt afternoon. The tee boxes on some holes were a bit uneven, but for the most part they were fine. Fairways were in nice shape with the occasional thin spot but optically they looked quite nice all around. The rough was mostly playable and the bunkers varied a bit from hole to hole but none of them were unplayable. I wouldn't call them fluffy though, either.

One disappointment? On a very busy and warm Sunday afternoon there was never one hint of cart service for the entire day, and there's really no convenient snack shop at the turn. Apparently there is a market en route to the 10th tee box but you are also fighting for a quick in and out with every other guest at the resort - not ideal.

But despite that little annoyance, still had a wonderful day out at OVI and will always happily return for this event every year ... if I qualify!