2019 Best Playing Conditions for Central California — Quail Lodge & Golf Club

This year GreensKeeper.org awards Quail Lodge & Golf Club Best Playing Conditions 2019 for Central California.

Not to be confused with “Worth the Green Fee,” “Best Playing Conditions” is awarded to golf courses open to the public listed on Greenskeeper.org that stand out above the rest with our site users at providing consistently the best greens, fairways, rough, tee boxes and bunkers around.

The job of the superintendent is the life blood of the golf course and most important contributing factor to enjoying a golf experience.  A golf course is a living, breathing organism whose health is constantly in flux.  It takes enormous dedication, resources and expertise by a superintendent and their staff to provide excellent turf conditions.

The rating system used on Greenskeeper.org is in part created by superintendents.  GreensKeeper.org’s trademark and creed, “Know Before You Go”®, centers on communicating these current playing conditions.

How Awards Winners Are Determined

Golf Course reviews and ratings submitted by our 78,000+ Greenskeeper.org community are tabulated over 12 months. Winners are determined for each area.

We divide awards into 11 sections —  Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Palm Springs Area, San Diego County, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, Southern California, Central California, Northern California and Southern Nevada.

[su_row class=””] [su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]Editor’s Note:  Johnny GK and Greenskeeper.Org has been recognized by the California Golf Course Owners Association as Good for the Game of Golf in 2017.  Shows you that both golfers and golf course operators understand the benefit of working with Greenskeeper.Org.  We are the RESOURCE where avid and casual golfers come to make their decision where to play their next round.  “Know Before You Go”® with Greenskeeper.Org.  You’ll be glad you did.  [/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]

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Recent #GolfCourseReview

Alex326
Posted: 10/09/19 11:15p
Member Since: Nov 20, 2015
From: Monterey, Ca

I had a couple of minor issues with the GK App at Spanish Bay and Johnny told me there is a new update. So I used that as an excuse to go play today so I could test out the app some more. I chose Quail Lodge because they do a ton of awareness and fundraisers during October for Breast Cancer Awareness month. As a side note they are doing a $50 special on Friday with half the money going to a local Cancer foundation. As of this morning there were only a couple of spots open on the tee sheet. At a third of the price, I’m surprised there were any still left.

Quail is always known for its excellent staff friendliness, great course conditions and they are also dog friendly. I arrived early, dropped off my bag with the attendant/starter and hit the all grass range (balls included) The range does have a 200 yard max so no driver or 3 wood.

Thanks to a nice tip to the attendant, he got me out about 30 minutes early. I made my way through a couple groups zipping through the front nine in an hour. The back nine was a completely different story, but I still finished in 3 hours.

The Review

The greens were a perfect 10. Extremely smooth, pitch mark free and gorgeous dark green in color. Greens were rolling very fast. Definitely the fastest I’ve seen them here.

They are in the middle of verti-cutting some of the fairways. Fairways are always top notch at Quail Lodge and once all of the maintenance work is done on them, I’m sure they will all be at a 9-10 rating.

No issues with the tee boxes. Divots had been smoothly filled in to keep the box level. All tee boxes had plenty of lush grass to hit off of.

Sand traps were absolutely spectacular. A definite 9.5 rating. I was in 5-6 green-side bunkers and all were top notch.

Final Thoughts

Even though 16 of the holes at Quail are completely flat, it doesn’t feel that way. Maybe it’s the mountains that boarder up against both sides of the course or just the great routing of the holes. The track is anything but boring. A definite must play and the hotel is an excellent place to stay at as well.