Spent Sunday afternoon up in Ventura at River Ridge's Vineyard course thanks to the dearth of available tee times in LA County, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable day thanks to great weather, a ... Continue »

Spent Sunday afternoon up in Ventura at River Ridge's Vineyard course thanks to the dearth of available tee times in LA County, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable day thanks to great weather, a fun course and some good company I got paired up with out there. It was my first time playing this 18 at River Ridge in a non-shotgun tournament setting, so I was looking forward to seeing the course's teeth. But before that, the parking lot was packed when I arrived so I was expecting a six-hour round and other drama, but check-in was simple, got my cart, hit some balls on the open range, and away we went playing the whites this time with an 11:50am tee time. The course has two very distinct sections - the first 13 holes are on the main side of the property with a decent amount of elevations, some target holes where going away from the fairways can lead to disaster, and some very tricky green complexes to toughen things up. From holes 14-18, you go off the main property and the fairways widen as homes begin to surround the area, but never too tight. It's a bit more open parkland style, but lots of water features as defense, including the island green on the par 3 18th. POP was surprisingly a dream as we moved pretty steadily all afternoon, passed the group in front of us on the 14th tee box as they had stopped to eat at the clubhouse, and then found ourselves on the 18th tee box at three hours and forty minutes - dreamy. Course conditions are slightly above average currently, but the visuals are less flattering, especially on the main side of the property (things green up a good bit the last five holes). There are a lot of yellow-ish, dried out looking fairways, but they play pretty darn good despite that. Rough is not nice so avoid at all costs. Bunkers were in good shape that I found, and the tee boxes were serviceable enough with the par 3s being more routinely beat up. The greens on the first half of the course were deceptively quick and rolled quite nicely, but as previously mentioned, there are plenty of tricky slopes and tiers here so be prepared. Strangely enough, the greens on the last five holes were less appealing, with lots of coot 'offerings' everywhere, and a very bumpy 18th green to finish off your round. Still, it was a very enjoyable round and I would not think twice about playing here again, now or well into the future. Nice enough variety of holes and challenge, while not overwhelming with anything too tricky or gimmicky. And it's also got available tee times, so there's that. Go check it out.