Rancho San Marcos Golf Course

Santa Barbara, CA

Reviewed by: roarksown1, Playa del Rey

Played our GK Cup matches at Rancho San Marcos on Sunday and, after having waited a year to finally come back to this super fun course, it did not disappoint at all. The staff was fantastic all day long and did us a solid by allowing us to play our replay match free after the initial $65 greens fee – what a steal. The drive up is beautiful and when you get the course, it just feels like you get even more of that.

We pretty much had the course to ourselves the entire day and all 36 holes, which was a bit crazy. However, it was over the 100 mark so that may have kept the crowds away. We were not complaining one bit. Kudos again to the staff for taking care of us and having water every four holes or so. It was necessary.

Layout at RsM is one of the most fun you’ll likely ever play, and the setting is terrific. As for the conditions, really good all around for the most part, but there were a few spots that needed some attention, but totally understandable with the heat wave currently. The fairways definitely had plenty of lush, but you could certainly find a dry or thin spot here or there, especially around the greens. The rough is playable but anything just off the fairways is serious trouble. Tee boxes were in good shape for the most part, but the bunkers I found to be a little lacking overall. A lot of thin bunker shots that were played more like chips than sand shots.

Greens were very nice. The held shots well, had plenty of tricks to them (tough to read!), and rolled medium-fast (with a tiny bit of edge on the fast side) and stuck to their lines for the most part. There were a few areas that didn’t have the best coverage though, but for the most part they were solid and fun to play.

Carts are nice but no GPS or USB ports. There are also some 4×4 areas on the course where the cart path just ends and you have to get squirrely, but nothing to worry about for the most part.

In summary, a great deal of thanks to Rancho san Marcos for styling us out and showing how much they appreciate the GK community. I’ll play here any time I can. You should, too.

Rancho San Marcos Golf Course

Santa Barbara, CA

Reviewed by: Alex326, Monterey, Ca

Played Rancho San Marcos on Sunday as part of our GK Cup matches. Had a blast of a time on a course that’s quickly becoming a personal favorite (6 birdies in 3 rounds helps). The layout is super fun and dare I say the perfect mix between challenging yet very scorable. There are some wide open fairways with elevated tees that allow you to grip it and rip it. Yet there are some narrow doglegs with tree trouble that make accuracy with less than driver the ideal choice. Add in a couple of lakes and forced carries over dry (for now ) ravines and you can’t help but come away with a smile after playing this track.

Condition wise we were forwarded that the summer heat has taken a bit of toll on the course. Still it was in nice shape around a 7.5 out of 10 overall. Greens were rolling fast. Again they offer a decent amount of challenge but are very manageable. There were a few unrepaired pitch marks on a few of the greens which must have been brought to their attention because they had a kid out repairing divots. Very cool to see that. There were also a couple of greens that had some small GUR areas. The damage may have been caused my wildlife. Regardless the pins were placed far away from these areas so they were pretty much a non factor.

I seemed to find great lies every time in the fairway (regardless of which fairway I was in).
Some of the bunkers were showing signs of the summer heat with crusty and/or hard packed dirt. Others were fine.

Staff was excellent and POP was whatever we wanted. We practically had the course to ourselves.

I used to always look forward to going to thie Santa Ynez region for cycling and racing. Now I think I’ll start making regular plans to hang out in the area for golf.