Santa Anita Golf Course

Golf Course Review Santa Anita Golf Course Arcadia California

Reviewed by: dconnally, Mission Viejo, CA

I played Santa Anita Golf Course at 10am on Saturday, 1/12/19, with my monthly club. We generally play here every January. It had rained early that morning, but the weather looked like it might clear around 9am. But, oops, it started sprinkling on #7 and pouring on #9. About half of our tourney group bailed out at the turn, but by the time we reached #11 the rain had stopped and we had clearing weather afterward. The course was not very crowded as a result of the earlier rain, and the many defections during the storm resulted in a very light crowd in the afternoon.

The Review

Greens very firm but with few ball-marks and rolled at a medium+ pace (they slowed down during and just after the deluge). Fairways with pretty good coverage everywhere. Rough could be very thin and playable or deep and juicy – we played lift/clean/place so lies were generally not a problem. Traps appeared to have adequate sand but it was obviously packed down by the rains.

Tee boxes were generally OK but #18 (we played the blue tees) is badly uneven and sloping to the left rear – this is a long dogleg right with a huge tree just to the right of a tee. A fade is almost the only play available here, but it’s hard to hit that shot off an uneven tee with the ball well above your feet!

Hole 3 doesn’t have a very well-defined fairway area – it seems like you are on deep, soft Kikuyu everywhere! There are a couple other holes where the fairway definition is “vague” or where the mowers had not been in a few days.

Final Thought

Overall good conditions for a casual round.