Played here for the first time in a GK/GolfMoose outing. Loved it. It's a fun layout. Not long, but it makes up for it with very small greens, some doglegs, and lots of slope in some of the fairways. ... Continue »

Played here for the first time in a GK/GolfMoose outing. Loved it. It's a fun layout. Not long, but it makes up for it with very small greens, some doglegs, and lots of slope in some of the fairways. Greens are perfect. There was a bare spot on one or two of them, but by and large, they were in fantastic shape, and putted great. Fairways and rough were good, just brown in spots, due to the summer heat and water restrictions. Bunkers were good, and tee boxes were good for the most part, with bare spots/divot damage on a few. All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience, and I would play here again.

Teed it up with GDR23, ag2000 and kmersola during a Golf Moose / GK Private Event I organized on Monday. Awesome day of golf with GKers and others that joined in.

I’ve lived in Westlake/Thousand Oa... Continue »

Teed it up with GDR23, ag2000 and kmersola during a Golf Moose / GK Private Event I organized on Monday. Awesome day of golf with GKers and others that joined in.

I’ve lived in Westlake/Thousand Oak area since 2002 and have driven by Sunset Hills CC more times than I can count. I’ve heard stories of how tight and quirky the layout is … this was my first time playing it Monday and like kassper7 I too was pleasantly surprised to experience a fun layout that was not too tight nor quirky for this golfer. In fact I really enjoyed it. It’s a challenging golf course in very good shape despite drought and water restrictions taking place in Ventura County. The greens are near perfect. Fairways had some brown areas but not much with full coverage good berumuda/kikuyu surface to play from. But oh that kikuyu rough greenside really put a premium on good iron play, which if you saw my forum post, has been severely lacking lately for me. The greens are small and well protected not only by the nasty rough but bunkers too. Want to play someone with a good short game … bet the members here have one because you got to have mad pitch game skills to handle this place. On the greens are no picnic either. While small they were very challenging with some severe slopes and undulations. Tee boxes are small as there’s not much space to fit them. With irons off the tee a strong possibility due to the how short and tight the track is some tees showed the wear and tear of summer play. Bunkers on the other hand all had excellent sand, groomed and a pleasure to play from. I’m so glad I finally got to play here!

Regarding facilities, nothing special but adequate. You got your clubhouse, bar/restaurant, tennis courts … unfortunately due to limited space they do NOT have a full size driving range. Instead they have a very small 160 yards irons only range and a nice hitting net where you can take bigger swings. They also got a small practice putting green and chipping green plus practice bunker (bunker was closed).

From an organizer’s perspective, so appreciative they had a full outside services helping out and their head pro, F & B director and staff to make sure we were well cared for. The staging area was small and simple. I enjoyed the whole experience and I’m looking forward to returning to put on more outings there. CHECK OUT the photos I just posted and THANK YOU to everyone that came! Recommened!

Sunset Hills reputation let me to believe it was a course I wouldn't like, but I came away enjoying my round there. The layout is a bit tight and there are some holes that can be a bit quirky but not... Continue »

Sunset Hills reputation let me to believe it was a course I wouldn't like, but I came away enjoying my round there. The layout is a bit tight and there are some holes that can be a bit quirky but not as much or as many as I had feared. Many holes have room in general and some have a whole side available for spraying.

Conditions were, as others have detailed, mostly really good. No complaints about from conditions for me.

My only frustration over the day was that the greens were mostly small and slanted and the rough around them so sticky and penal that it was really hard to make par if you missed the green by a little and difficult to make bogey if you missed it by a bit more.

Fun course though - I'd like to play it again

I had the distinct honor and privilege of playing a round with 3 GK legends yesterday at Sunset Hills CC. Johnny GK, GDR23, and Captain Kyle M. What a great day on a really challenging and fun private... Continue »

I had the distinct honor and privilege of playing a round with 3 GK legends yesterday at Sunset Hills CC. Johnny GK, GDR23, and Captain Kyle M. What a great day on a really challenging and fun private course. Thanks to both Johnny and to the Golf Moose team for these rare opportunities. As for course conditions, If that is what you are reading this for please go to GDR23's previous post for a much better explanation than I could ever give.

Sunset Hills is nestled under highway 23 and sits on the border of Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, and Simi Valley. This private club has quite a few amenities like a full tennis facility with 10 lighted courts, a giant pool, a workout facility, a killer bar that over looks the practice facility, and a game room. The course is just over 6000 yards par 71 with narrow fairways, small greens, and unique fairway slopes. This combination makes it much harder than the scorecard and rating would suggest. This is the type of course you could play everyday and still be challenged. The grounds crew does an exceptional job at keeping this place nice. Everything was clean and the course was a reflection of hard work. The rumor is that this is one of the best private deals in Southern California. With both family and individual plans that won't set you back an entire retirement check. Without question, a great course to play at least once, should you get the chance.

Out at Sunset Hills CC this morning 8/22/22 with the GK/Golfmoose crew on a perfect day for golf around 82 degrees with about a club wind. Pop was just shy of 5 hrs riding. Paired with a great group o... Continue »

Out at Sunset Hills CC this morning 8/22/22 with the GK/Golfmoose crew on a perfect day for golf around 82 degrees with about a club wind. Pop was just shy of 5 hrs riding. Paired with a great group of guys Johnny, Kyle and Andrew. My 3rd time at this private. Practice facilities include 4 stalls of mats where you can hit to targets anywhere from 60 yds up to 160yds. They also have a hitting cage in the upper parking lot, They had a full bar right next to the two adjacent putting/chipping greens that were in great shape. Carts were comfortable and provided coolers and sand fill but no GPS. All staff encountered were super friendly. The greens were in great shape. Superintendent should receive a raise. They were rolling around an 11 on the stimp. Not any ballmarks just pure as gold. Holding shots with spin very nicely. Perfect combo. Most of the green complexes here are small targets with a few exceptions. The members are blessed here to putt these greens. Rated 9.5/10 Fairways were mostly lush and nicely padded and considering water restrictions and dry weather I thought they were in good shape. Minor brown spots here or there that did not effect lies or play. Rated 7.5/10. Tees were mostly lush, mostly level and in above average shape. Rated 7.5/10 Sand was thick beach sand in the one greenside bunker I was in. Rated 8/10. Rough was mostly lush and in decent to good shape. Rated 7.5/10. Fringes were thick grabby kikkuya grass. No bump and running chips around here. Layout is up and down hills with some awesome dogleg holes like 1,2 ,15 and 18 that dogleg left and 3 and 13 doglegging to the right. If you can keep the big dog in play there is a score to be had, if he is acting up it could spell trouble. Accuracy a premium here. We loved our round and thanks to Johnny, Sunset Hills CC and Golfmoose for a great day.

Rode this morning 1/28/2019 at 7:15am for a playing lesson with one of my students. Thanks to Michael and his staff for having me out with my student who is a member at Sunset CC. I had only played on... Continue »

Rode this morning 1/28/2019 at 7:15am for a playing lesson with one of my students. Thanks to Michael and his staff for having me out with my student who is a member at Sunset CC. I had only played once here years ago with a member. I grew up a mile away from here so this for sure is a local private that I ride by daily.
The course was in very nice shape.

Lets start with the greens. These greens are the best greens that I have putted on in a while. Very quick, true and holding irons with a high ball flight. I am rating the greens close to a 9/10 today. Regarding the green complexes some of them have slope and most of them are small targets. I could putt these greens every day and twice on Sunday.

The recent rains have really helped improve all courses fairways. These were beautiful, mostly lush and green with just some lower lying areas that were wet. Great shape--close to an 8/10.

Tees were in very nice shape and were lush and level.

My student was able to test out some bunker shots and all bunkers encountered were raked with plenty of sand.

Rough was generally lush, medium thickness maybe couple inches and in good shape.

Layout here is a thinking man's layout. You can rip driver on every hole if you like and if you are long there are a couple drive able par 4's. Then there is the smart play of laying up in the fairway on holes like 13. Numerous holes have some awesome sloped fairways for a player to negotiate.

I would recommend a membership here. There is a lot of shot value and different angles and sight lines on this course. Fun course were accuracy is paramount.

Played the morning of March 28th with an 8:30 tee time as a twosome. The send people off both nines on weekend mornings and we had the last time before the change. The POP was right around 4.5 hours.... Continue »

Played the morning of March 28th with an 8:30 tee time as a twosome. The send people off both nines on weekend mornings and we had the last time before the change. The POP was right around 4.5 hours. There were plenty of groups out, but it was a perfect day so it makes sense.

The greens were fairly soft and held approach shots well, and putted pretty true. The sand was fluffy and played well. The fairways were cut tight, but not hardpan and I didn't notice any brown or thin spots. The tee boxes could be a little more level as there was more than one occasion that I had to move my ball as it felt like I was standing in a little hole, and some of the par 3's had some divots.

Overall the course was in great shape and like others have said, if you play a left to right shot the course can be a little tricky since most holes favor a right to left shot due to tree placement off the tees.

I would return, and had a great time at the course.

I played Nickesquire's favorite course today alongside GK'ers kviser and Dodontails. I originally signed up because they were promoting some sort of holiday tournament, but I guess there wasn't a lot ... Continue »

I played Nickesquire's favorite course today alongside GK'ers kviser and Dodontails. I originally signed up because they were promoting some sort of holiday tournament, but I guess there wasn't a lot of people signed up so it was pretty much just free play as guests. We had a 10:07 time and got around the course in under 4 hours. There were plenty of members out there today, but they all moved quickly, so that's one advantage of country club golf. The price was $65, which isn't a great value, but not horrible for a private course guest rate on a holiday. It included cart and also a lunch ticket that was good for a large drink, chips and either a cheeseburger or hot dog. We took a nice little break at the turn to enjoy our fresh-grilled burgers. The course was in decent winter shape. The highlights were the bunkers, which were very nice, and the greens. They were excellent. Receptive, smooth and rolling at good speeds. Some tee boxes were fantastic and others a bit more beat up. Fairways were just okay, but most lies I had were fine. Of course, I hit very few fairways today so my sample size was small. The rough was pretty inconsistent, but mostly pretty lush and quite tough to hit from in some places. This is one of the tougher 6,000-yard courses I've ever played, though it is especially tough layout for a fade hitter like me. There are very few comfortable tee shots. Usually there are big trees hanging over on the left side and many fairways slope to the right with bailout areas that aren't very forgiving. If you can't hit the ball straight or with a draw off the tee, you will have a long day here. Overall, it's a hilly course with a lot of narrow angles and tiny greens. However, if you can play it smart and safe, a good score can be had. Our group had several birdies, but also plenty of doubles (or worse). The old school layout definitely has some quirks and will not be for everyone. I'm still torn if I want a rematch because I played so poorly today and think I can manage the course better or if I'll just join Nick on the sidelines next time I have a chance to play Sunset Hills : ) Either way, it was a fun day with some friends and another local course I can check off my list! Also, I should note the staff was really friendly, from the pro shop/cart guys to the kid working the snack bar.

Played with Keith and his buddy, Pete (I think that's his name), on some kind of special. It was $65 including a cart and cheeseburger lunch (chips, soda). Not bad for a holiday Monday. Pace of play w... Continue »

Played with Keith and his buddy, Pete (I think that's his name), on some kind of special. It was $65 including a cart and cheeseburger lunch (chips, soda). Not bad for a holiday Monday. Pace of play was about 3 and a half hours. The course is really a mixture of grasses (kikuyu and fescue), with some clumps of whatever here and there. The fairways were somewhat dormant kikuyu but had good lies most everywhere. Some areas of rough were fairly deep and challenging to hit from. Most of the slopes were left long enough to hold your ball so you didn't just get an automatic roll down to the fairway. Lots of tree trouble, especially if you play a left-to-right kind of shot. Many elevation changes and some blind shots added to the challenge. Greens were small and fast. Really, the best part of this course. It did remind me of Porter Valley CC with smaller greens. I liked it here; the members seem friendly and all the course personnel were very pleasant. There was a little snafu checking in, but all in all it was fine. I'd play it again if only Nickesquire would join me. :)