Played the afternoon of 9/10/18. Perhaps because this was a holiday afternoon, this was the slowest round I have experienced at Rustic, around 4:45 POP. Very unfortunate.

The course played well and... Continue »

Played the afternoon of 9/10/18. Perhaps because this was a holiday afternoon, this was the slowest round I have experienced at Rustic, around 4:45 POP. Very unfortunate.

The course played well and was greener than I expected and have seen over the past few years, though it did still play firm. Greens were a bit slower than normal, but putts still rolled well. Rough was sparse, but then the course offers very little rough overall. I was in two bunkers and both were in poor condition with little sand. Tees were level and in good condition.

No one should expect Tour-level conditions at Rustic, it's not a manicured course. What I have found consistently over a number of rounds over several years is a very playable surface that looks a bit scruffy, and greens that are really good.

I walked the Black tees yesterday 8/27/2018 with one of my best buds visiting from the Midwest. POP 4 hours, weather nice low 80's. I have played this course as my home course since it first opened. I... Continue »

I walked the Black tees yesterday 8/27/2018 with one of my best buds visiting from the Midwest. POP 4 hours, weather nice low 80's. I have played this course as my home course since it first opened. I have not seen the fairways, tees and green side rough in nicer shape than it was on Monday.

The fairways were lush, mostly all green and provided excellent padding. Staff is to be commended as it gets hot back here in the Canyon. Rated 8/10.

The tees were excellent, level and lush and in great shape. Rated 8/10,

The greenside rough was a 9/10. Lush, beautiful to chip out of.

I will not rate the greens today as it looked like on some of the front nine greens there were sections that had been recently punched with super small holes. At current time the greens look great to the naked eye but they are soft and slow. I am sure in a week or so they will be rolling their true normal beautiful self.

Was not in any bunkers but they all looked raked with firmer sand.

Wonderful display of some really tough par 4's from the Blue's or Black's along with some score able holes mixed throughout the round. Still one of the if not the best back nine's in the County.

Highly recommended.

Finally got a chance to play Rustic after years of seeing enthusiastic reviews on GK. I was in Ventura for the SCGA Senior 4-Ball Net Championship M/TU, 8/13-14/18, and decided to stop at Rustic on my... Continue »

Finally got a chance to play Rustic after years of seeing enthusiastic reviews on GK. I was in Ventura for the SCGA Senior 4-Ball Net Championship M/TU, 8/13-14/18, and decided to stop at Rustic on my way back to Orange County on Tuesday afternoon. Because of the distance from OC, the need to drive across Los Angeles and back (always best avoided!), my family situation, etc., I rarely if ever get up into that area anymore, and likely won't in future, so I decided this might be my last chance. Drove over from Ventura and booked for a twilight rate at 2pm, playing with a local who had only played here once. He had very little recollection of the course – I had looked at the course on Google Earth and I bought the yardage book, so at least I had a “map”. No GPS on the cart, but many sprinklers are marked and there are some yardage plates out there. The yardage book was most helpful. Repeated plays here are a must to know where to hit it off the tee and how best to approach the greens, depending on pin position. The course was not crowded on this hot Tuesday afternoon and we finished in just over 3 hours.

Course layout and topography at Rustic reminded me of Arroyo Trabuco/Talega/Black Gold in Orange County. On the recommendation of some GK friends I played Blue (6,628/71.6/128), which brought many more forced carries and difficult sightlines from the tees into play, compared to the White tees. I was glad I had the yardage book on several holes to help determine best playing lines, but after 3 par-5s on the front, the back nine has several tough par-4s that require long, precise tee shots and strong approaches. And after conditions at Olivas I had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the green/apron design setup at Rustic. The aprons right now are almost indistinguishable from the greens both in color and texture, but the greens are firm and the aprons are soft after recent verticutting. You can easily putt across them, but apron speeds there are different from those on the greens.

Greens generally had good coverage and rolled well. Some are pretty small, and some are very deep and/or wide. Some greens are almost dead flat, and others have significant mounds, swales, and ridges. Knowing where to miss around the greens is important. The canyon effect on putts must always be considered, as putts consistently broke sharply down the canyon axis, along with the effects of wind and the canyon sidewalls. It’s hot and dry here, and fairways are thin but coverage overall is good and we generally had good lies. Rough along the fairways is thin to bare to sand. The native areas can quickly get “lost ball” and should be avoided. (“Snakes” signs were out!) I was in a couple of bunkers and sand was dry, small-grained, and easy to play from, but some of those narrow “slit-trench” bunkers look evil! Tees are large and generally fine. No sand refill boxes on the par-3 tees.

I loved the design and challenges of the course, but don’t know if I’ll ever have an opportunity to get back here. Recommended.

Played 7/28. Quick update for rustic, they did Small Tine holes about 2 weeks ago, greens have healed nicely and putts rolled pretty good (but not rustic's standard quality). Obviously, given the mass... Continue »

Played 7/28. Quick update for rustic, they did Small Tine holes about 2 weeks ago, greens have healed nicely and putts rolled pretty good (but not rustic's standard quality). Obviously, given the massive heat wave(s) over the last 3 weeks they've had to find ways to get water down to the roots. All in all, very playable and probably 10 days away from back to being perfect. Fairways were actually the greenest I've seen them in a while, they must be watering a ton out there.

They also did a weird aggressive verti-cut style maintenance on the aprons as well. This was about 2 weeks ago when they small tined the greens. This may take a bit longer to recover than greens but again, play-ability was very high and putts still held lines well. Mid-August I would expect Rustic to be in top summer condition.

Echoing Webers experience...slow greens, weird punching of greens precluding easy putting. Tons of quirks off tee. ....get the yardage book, study the pics here on GK.....nothing beats experience. To... Continue »

Echoing Webers experience...slow greens, weird punching of greens precluding easy putting. Tons of quirks off tee. ....get the yardage book, study the pics here on GK.....nothing beats experience. Tough ball buster of a farm. I'll be back again to try again!
As always if you can get it-get it.

Had not played here in quite a while (Over 5 years) so was excited to return. I've never played well at this course, and sad to admit, today was no different. Without local knowledge, it was a rea... Continue »

Had not played here in quite a while (Over 5 years) so was excited to return. I've never played well at this course, and sad to admit, today was no different. Without local knowledge, it was a real struggle for our entire foursome.

Great pace of play - teed off at 8:30am and never waited once. In all fairness, our group played collectively so poorly, I'm not surprised we never caught the twosome in front of us, but then again, we were never caught by the riding twosome behind us. ( We are all walkers & seniors)

I was disappointed in the areas surrounding the greens which had been recently punched. Because of the "furrows" it created, made it nearly impossible to putt from off the greens, which is the most unique feature of this course Greens were just OK, but much too slow for my taste. I know this course is highly regarded by almost everyone, but while it certainly is a wonderful track, for me to make the 110+ mile drive, there are other courses I would choose to play. (La Purisima tomorrow being one of them)

Walked the Blues this afternoon 7/2/2018 first twilight group out at 2pm with my buddy RGM2525 and two nice singles Jason and Macey. Weather was perfect low 80's with a slight breeze and one of the re... Continue »

Walked the Blues this afternoon 7/2/2018 first twilight group out at 2pm with my buddy RGM2525 and two nice singles Jason and Macey. Weather was perfect low 80's with a slight breeze and one of the reasons I tied my personal best score at Rustic today!--very little wind today. POP was 4 hrs 10 minutes. Paid their walking twilight rate during the week which is $22.00. Great staff. They have re-rated Rustic and I think they are more on the mark now with the Blue rating going up to a 130 slope and the blacks now at a 135. Fairways were the best I have seen Rustic this year. Semi-lush with decent grass coverage in most areas. You might still encounter a harder pan lie here or there but they looked good to this golfer. It gets real hot out here in July, August, September so I commend the staff for how nice the fairways are at current time. Rated 7/10 The greens were two total different courses. Greens were generally all rolling true. The front nine greens must have just been watered and not rolled. They were slow for Rustic's standards putting wise. The greens on the back were firmer and putting awesome. Our group did fix and extra 3-4 ballmarks per hole. Overall would rate the greens a 7/10. The tees were mostly all level and they looked like they had just done some past verticut maintenance on some of the tees. They were not there usual lush and green self but looked decent. Rated 7/10. Was in greenside bunkers on 2 and number 12 that contained raked semi-firmer sand that was easy to get out of if you opened the clubface enough at address. Rated 6.5/10 The rough here around the fairways is always the poorest part of the course. Dry, hardpan in areas and clumpy. Rated 5/10 Greenside rough is beautiful lush and very green just off the fringes. Rated 8/10. Always love playing here--recommended.

Played Saturday and Sunday, 6/2 & 6/3. Was first tee time out 6am Saturday and walked in 3.5 hours (foursome) and played a 5+ hour slow round at 12:40pm sunday. It was a picture perfect weekend in Mo... Continue »

Played Saturday and Sunday, 6/2 & 6/3. Was first tee time out 6am Saturday and walked in 3.5 hours (foursome) and played a 5+ hour slow round at 12:40pm sunday. It was a picture perfect weekend in Moorpark with light winds and low 80's. The greens were perfect. Standard rustic, firm and fast. Maybe some of the best I've seen them out there ? I think the speed they were at this weekend were perfect. They still held you accountable on down hill down grain (towards the entrance of the course) but also allowed you to get aggressive if you were in the right position on the green.

I've reviewed this course plenty & not much to add other than its a fantastic collection of golf holes. Played from the Blacks Saturday and Blues Sunday and thought it was much more gettable from the blues. Holes 3 - 7 are a great stretch that require decision making but can also reward you with birdies if you execute. Once you get past hole 14 (maybe the easiest birdie besides hole 1 for a long hitter) you better be on your game. Holes 15-18, to me, are the hardest stretch of holes on the course! Will prob head back out this weekend.

Played RC Fri 5/25 at 8:10 w/ a relative in from out of town and another two some. i played blacks, rest of group played whites. due to relative's request, we rode, but always a great deal for $62. gr... Continue »

Played RC Fri 5/25 at 8:10 w/ a relative in from out of town and another two some. i played blacks, rest of group played whites. due to relative's request, we rode, but always a great deal for $62. greens were actually a bit slow for rustic as they had been fertilized earlier in week and thus grown out a bit, but they were still good. just not standard rustic. whole place wasn't as firm & fast as typical RC. most importantly, POP was solid, under 4.5 hours for sure. we rarely had to wait to hit and saw no major back ups. it's a long drive from hollywood area of LA, but nearly always worth it.