Played Simi Hills this weekend for an SCGA tournament through Rancho Park Golf Club and was not disappointed in anything other than my driving and putting! In days past it used to be quite easy to get... Continue »

Played Simi Hills this weekend for an SCGA tournament through Rancho Park Golf Club and was not disappointed in anything other than my driving and putting! In days past it used to be quite easy to get tee times at this little gem of a course, but that's not been the case recently, so I was thrilled to sign up for this event when I saw it on the calendar months ago.

I played from the gold tees and my group had a noon starting time under hazy skies that soon gave way to a beautiful blue and one of the best early days of the spring. The fairways are in very nice shape right now and you'll get very good roll on your ball on tight fairways. The rough was very playable and not too thick at all. Bunkers were in quite good shape and I had no problem getting the club underneath the ball, while the tee boxes were all in very nice condition.

The greens were super challenging for me on this day and I'm not exactly sure why, but they were quite fast and very difficult to read, but rolled true, held shots and their lines well. For the life of me I can't understand how I just could not get the pace down all day, but that's golf sometimes. But overall they are in excellent shape.

The layout at Simi Hills is very fun and engaging with each hole presenting its own unique set of challenges. And the usually dormant creek that runs through holes at the start of the back nine was an actual river - something I don't think I'd ever seen here before, so that was quite stunning and cool to see and listen to throughout the round.

Facilities at Simi Hills are very good but must admit that the driving range is very small with only probably about 18-20 stalls max. Strange with so much land around, but I'm sure there is a reason for it. I'm sure on normal days that's fine but with a large SCGA tournament it was difficult to find a spot to warm up.

POP was pretty solid throughout the day despite the tournament conditions, meaning we finished in about four and a half hours, and there was cart service throughout the day providing everything we needed. No GPS on the carts though in case you're wondering.

Always love coming out to Simi Hills and can't wait for the next tournament here again.