I played here on Sunday, August 14, as part of a small tournament. Good overall conditions and wonderful weather. Add in the early afternoon breeze and it almost felt a little cool with low 70 temps. ... Continue »

I played here on Sunday, August 14, as part of a small tournament. Good overall conditions and wonderful weather. Add in the early afternoon breeze and it almost felt a little cool with low 70 temps. There's not a lot to add to Gary's review as conditions remain very good. There were some areas of the fairways that seemed to be overly wet, but most likely it was due to overnight irrigation as we were off early in the morning. Greens: Smooth and rolling at a medium pace, but picking up pace later in the round. Occasional ball marks, most notably on the front half of Hole 7. The greens were soft and fixing ball marks was very easy; I'm just not sure why some people just don't seem to bother. Fairways: Good amount of roll, but still very lush. There were a couple of areas that were roped off and the occasional thin area. It was fairly easy to take a divot and I did fill many with the sand bottle provided on the cart. Rough: There's not a lot of rough. Mostly you will find a small amount of rough, then immediately it changes to deep, unmowed, "natural" areas. It ranged from 1"-2" where it was mowed to deep and forget about finding your ball in the unmowed areas. Once you get into the "natural" areas it was really a crap shoot. You might find your ball and it might have a good lie or be completely unplayable. Good times, right? You can only blame yourself if you end up there. There are a couple of dried up lakes that you could play out of if you find your ball, so that can be nice. Tees: We played the white tees and they all were level and lush. Par threes had a fair amount of divots, but the teeing ground is rather large so it was easy to find a good place to tee up. Sand: Good overall sand quality. There were some damp areas but they remained playable. Olivas is always a good choice in the summer to escape the inland heat. I really like the layout of the course and people here are friendly.

This review spans previous month conditions as I have played multiple rounds with buddies the last month. Fairways right now are in perfect shape. Lush padded surfaces where you feel bad compressing ... Continue »

This review spans previous month conditions as I have played multiple rounds with buddies the last month. Fairways right now are in perfect shape. Lush padded surfaces where you feel bad compressing the beautiful turf and taking a divot. Rated 9/10. Tees are super lush, thick and mostly level. Tees might be the star of the show here. Rated 9/10. Rough just along the edges of fairways are super green even greener than the fairways and in perfect condition. Rated 9/10 Sand is in good shape mostly raked. Some of the bunkers are firmer than usual but in good shape. Rated 8/10. Greens are healthy. Probably a 10 on the stimp. They are very soft and receptive. The greens are huge here and you need to be a good lag putter here. Rated 7.5/10. Usual afternoon 1-2 club breeze makes things cooler temp wise and challenging on holes 6, 8 and 12-14 into the wind. Friendly staff, great practice facility. Awesome summer temps, great layout and great prices. Gem of a course right now. Recommended

Played Olivas on Friday 8/5. 8:30 tee time, last group of a small tourney. We started at least 20 mins behind. Which means with 10 minute tee times, they snuck 2-3 groups out before our tourney. It sh... Continue »

Played Olivas on Friday 8/5. 8:30 tee time, last group of a small tourney. We started at least 20 mins behind. Which means with 10 minute tee times, they snuck 2-3 groups out before our tourney. It showed with a backed up 2*45 min front 9. No grill or bar area here. They sell drinks in the golf shop/trailer. Drink cart is out & about. Olivas has a nice grass range & short game/sand area. Tee boxes are large & flat...BUT, with a huge range of tee placements available, they placed many in sanded areas. I guess who ever did it isn't a Golfer. Fairways are beautiful, like carpet. The few small bare spots were GUR clearly marked. The best I've played on a muni course. A couple buddies compared them to Palm Springs area fairways, a huge compliment. Rough is med short & gets spotty further from the fairway. Quite a bit of "Nature area", no carts but you can hit from it if you can find it. Again really well done. Greens med fast, again, really nice. Collars are mowed short, allowing bump & run or putting from off the green. Great condition. Bunkers, I was in one, adequate sand. All I saw were groomed nicely. POP; as I said earlier was very slow. We finished in about 5:15. Other than pace, a perfect day. Breeze off the Pacific always great. Course wonderful condition. I wish I could get good tee times more often here! Highly recommend.

Catching up on this review. Please check out the outing recap in the forums at the following link: https://www.greenskeeper.org/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=97&topicid=102429

Such a great time an... Continue »

Catching up on this review. Please check out the outing recap in the forums at the following link: https://www.greenskeeper.org/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=97&topicid=102429

Such a great time and experience at Olivas Links as expected. It was in the 90s in Thousand Oaks and even warmer in most other places in SoCal but in Ventura we were treated to low 70s, ocean breezes and a beautiful sunset. Kindof how it always is at Olivas Links in the Summer afternoons. I posted one photo here on the course page from the round to showcase how special late afternoon play is here. More photos posted in the outing recap link above.

Playing conditions got straight 8s across the board for me which is rare for me to do but everything was in very good to mostly great shape. They did a super friendly job hosting us with great service. They had a bathroom repair for the mens restroom which they quickly replaced with quality porta potties. Mary was super handling the Beverage Cart service. The whole team at Olivas Links delivered from booking to executing day of. Love these small yearly GK Plays outings we do here and can't wait for next year. Fantastic Course, GKers and Awesome Sponsors Linksoul, GolfMoose and OnCore Golf balls. Book It!

Played 6-26-22 afternoon in the GK outing with David, Matt and Steve for a very fun round, finishing in a little under 5 hours. Tee boxes were in really good condition, mostly level with great coverag... Continue »

Played 6-26-22 afternoon in the GK outing with David, Matt and Steve for a very fun round, finishing in a little under 5 hours. Tee boxes were in really good condition, mostly level with great coverage. Fairways were in nice shape with a few minor sanded bare spots, they were very lush with decent roll out and a real nice surface to hit from. Rough was in real nice condition 1-2 inches along fairways with some thicker areas the farther you got out. Was in a few bunkers that were in nice condition with soft white beach sand. Greens were in nice shape rolling medium pace and fairly smooth, and playing semi-soft. Overall course in real nice condition and well worth a trip to play.

Played in the GK Plays on 6/26, making the trek from Vegas with John_T. Would we win "GK'er who traveled the farthest award?" Nope, because our buddy Williebeamon14 flew down from Alaska to join us fo... Continue »

Played in the GK Plays on 6/26, making the trek from Vegas with John_T. Would we win "GK'er who traveled the farthest award?" Nope, because our buddy Williebeamon14 flew down from Alaska to join us for the golf weekend.

Olivas Links seemed to have a great "look at me" feel this weekend. Maybe it was the slightly cloudy skies, and ocean breeze which provided for a cool day, but made the par 5 2nd hole feel like it was a par 7. Fairways were pretty lush, with just a handful of brown/thinning areas which did not affect play. Rough was pretty consistent, with thicker 2-3 inches just off and fading away. Bunkers had some deep heavy sand. Greens were more on the fast side, I just could not get a read or feel of them.

Olivas has a large putting green (big enough to handle all the groups heading out) and a busy driving range. The pro shop, while small, did have some nice merchandise. No real grill, but they did have hot dogs and a nice cooler with some local beer selections.

Thanks to JohnnyGK, Linksoul, Golf Moose, and OnCore for a great event.

This might sound stupid, because I've never been to Scotland let alone played the Old Course. But when I'm at Olivas Links, I sense that it's a similar feeling to playing St. Andrews. I love the long ... Continue »

This might sound stupid, because I've never been to Scotland let alone played the Old Course. But when I'm at Olivas Links, I sense that it's a similar feeling to playing St. Andrews. I love the long views across almost the entire course broken up by colorful natural areas, and the late afternoon sunlight brings out so much character in the contours. So it's no surprise I had a great time at the GK Plays Sunday afternoon. Great company with Johnny, Kevin, and Jeff!

Conditions are excellent. Greens are smooth, medium to medium-fast speed, and accepted full shots well. Fairways have good coverage and provided good lies all day. Fairways and rough were green and mostly great, although I did see some occasional bare spots in the rough. Blue tee boxes were good. I don't believe I was in a bunker but they looked good for the most part.

Every time I play here, I wish I lived closer so I could get out here more often. Highly recommended. Thank you Johnny and all the sponsors for the great prizes! Love my new Linksoul tee and polo.

I played yesterday in the GK outing. Big thanks to Johnny GK and Olivas Links for a wonderful outing in the relatively cool coastal climate of Ventura, CA. I'll take 75 degrees over the inland heat an... Continue »

I played yesterday in the GK outing. Big thanks to Johnny GK and Olivas Links for a wonderful outing in the relatively cool coastal climate of Ventura, CA. I'll take 75 degrees over the inland heat any day this summer. Additional thanks to Linksoul and OnCore Golf; Johnny, I really appreciate all the Linksoul clothes I have received over the years! The OnCore golf balls (I got the Vero X1) were pretty nice as well. I will most likely get myself some. Appreciate the discount through GK! I also want to give a shout out to Mary, the beer cart attendant, who comped me a beer when I was out of cash! Unfortunately, she does not take credit cards at this time.

Olivas Links is in good condition. True, there were a couple of areas that looked like it had stressed turfgrass; maybe due to heat or inadequate sprinkler coverage. However, those areas were few and far between. Overall very nice conditions from tee to green. I saw a couple of the iconic wind-blown pine trees have bitten the dust. Too bad, but the skeletal remains indicate what once was.

Greens: 8/10 Good roll with an occasional spot that needed some love. They were soft and running on the medium fast side. The softness did necessitate the fixing of the occasional ball mark. These greens are very nice. Lots of undulations provide good challenges for your green reading skills.

Fairways and rough: 7/10 There were occasional areas that needed some attention, but overall the course plays great. Good turf grass coverage and root zone to take a divot, if that's your thing. Nice roll on many drives; several of my topped tee shots ran out way further than I expected. The rough is great as well. I'm talking about the rough that sees a mower. Anything outside the mowed areas are hit and miss. If you end up in the deep kikuyu grass, you might miss finding it. They can call it an ESA, or Environmental Area, or Natural Area, but I would rather they made it all turf grass and hit it with a mower. The game is slow enough without a bunch of us traipsing around looking for errant shots.

Tees: 8/10 We played the Club tees (Wendy on the Players). All seemed very level and lush. No complaints there.

Overall a great experience here. I hit balls at the range and practiced putting on the very large and undulating PPG. There are additional chipping areas including another green with a bunker to practice from. The course can get very busy and despite 10 minute tee time intervals, it still took nearly 5 hours to complete the round. Keep that in mind if you come out on a Sunday afternoon.

Olivas Links gets it. It's all about the grass. Every time I play here, the greens fairways and rough are in good shape. The grass has good roll but also spongey enough for confident shotmaking. B... Continue »

Olivas Links gets it. It's all about the grass. Every time I play here, the greens fairways and rough are in good shape. The grass has good roll but also spongey enough for confident shotmaking. Beyond the rough, the lay of the land is very seasonal and can be punitive.

It's a good variety of hole lengths and difficulty that normally the offshore breeze has a say in.

The GK event here didn't disappoint. Had a good group with good weather at a good course that was in it's usual good shape.