These greens are large, immaculate and well taken care of with few ball marks. The tees are mostly level and in good to excellent shape. Several fairways are still not where they would like them to be... Continue »

These greens are large, immaculate and well taken care of with few ball marks. The tees are mostly level and in good to excellent shape. Several fairways are still not where they would like them to be but seem to improve each visit. The fairways are mostly hard, so if you like spongy lies, this isn't the place for you.

Better keep it in the short grass.....The rough was really punitive in many places when this course reopened in May. With a dry summer, it wilted away in most places to being nothing to overly concern yourself about. After a rain or two it's already beginning to start up again. You can hit into a 6" patch right off the fairway where you have to practically step on your ball to find it. Assuming you find it, advancing it over 50 yards out of the above mentioned lie is a great shot many times.

I also find that I need to adjust my chipping style @ Olivas for several reasons.

First, The usual 15-20 mph prevailing wind can make 20-40 yard chip or pitch shots tough to gauge.

Second, that using a lower trajectory shot intended to run some over a flop type shot that I can't control because of the firmness of the greens and the hardpan fairways works better here.

Finally, the aprons around the greens aren't as large or mowed down as closely as another local links style course, Rustic Canyon.

You could have 2 golfers miss a green short right, maybe 15 ft. apart. One guy could have a shot going over rough and a traditional 3' fringe to deal with. His playing partner could be 15 ft from your ball and have a large links style apron that can stretch 25' or more to negotiate.

What I'm saying is this is a shot makers and thinking man's course and that you have to make more adjustments from 50 yards in than most courses require. If you only have a flop or a bump and run, you will likely get frustrated here because you can't get a ball close on many pin placements without the correct shot.