Westridge Golf Club

La Habra, CA

Reviewed by: grantar2, Mission Viejo

Played Westridge Golf Club in La Habra, Friday 8/24/2018, 1:30 pm tee time on a Underpar deal at $35 per player with cart. (Restrictions on deal were a tee time after 10am Mon-Friday).

Arrived early checked in at the pro shop. Staff was nice, but the attendant on duty was not familiar with Underpar or the deal being offered and tried to tell me we could only play the morning even though she confirmed we were scheduled for 1:30pm until corrected by her co-worker, who then showed her how the voucher worked. Fortunately, we were checked in, went downstairs and checked in with the starter (very nice) got our cart and headed for the driving range. Medium bucket 80 balls was $8 dollars (The Underpar deal did not come with range balls).

We were sent out about ten minutes early with a note we might be joined by twosome either at the tee or as we played. The twosome showed up as we were teeing up and I am glad they did. Two guys who regularly play this course Tony and Glenn were among the nicest guys I have played with. My buddy is a single digit handicap so it was nice that both of these guys were competitive with him. I had a tough day with a two-way miss.

The Review

The course is beautiful, located in the hills of La Habra not far form Beach Blvd, off of Imperial. It’s not as majestic as Black Gold, but I think I like it even better layout wise. The fairways are very narrow and slope hard to one side. There is little in the way of rough, errant shots are most likely to find native area that is protected both by rule, and rattle snake as a result, I donated about three sleeves of balls. Where there was rough it was deep and very penal.

Carts are basic, no GPS, clean functional.

The tee boxes were lush but could have been more level, and compact. There were some irregularities not quite holes, soft or very hard areas. The tee boxes aren’t terrible and aren’t too uneven, just lumpy however given the overall condition of the course they are the noticeable let down.

Rough, most rough is around the green, and in thin strips along the fairway. If the ball stops in the rough it will require all your attention as it is thick and sticky, but given the slope of the fairways the ball is as likely to go out of bounds.

The fairways are narrow and feature very good coverage of mostly green grass. If you control your ball find the fairway, don’t get an unlucky bounce you will still most likely find yourself with a uphill, side-hill, downhill, uneven lie.

The narrow undulating fairways pockmarked with fairway bunkers seem to be the courses main defense. This is target golf.

Bunkers – The course features numerous fairway and green-side bunkers. The fairway bunkers are a fair test but deeper than many I have seen on other courses, and the green-side bunkers look like they were dug by marines defending the area. The use of Bunkers around some greens present almost a moat surrounding the putting surface.

The greens are beautiful, fast with more breaks than TV show. I loved the greens, if you holed a one putt on these greens of more than four feet you feel accomplished.

Parting Thoughts

This course has a really nice playing layout, with majestic views of the surrounding community. The tee boxes need a little attention, the bunkers well hard packed are very playable. Pace of play is very good, we took around four hours. The course needs more water stations. The separation of the parking lot from the clubhouse, and the starters station do a good job of preventing you bringing a cooler of water, however there were only two water stations on the course (at least that we saw), there were two low output water fountains by the restrooms. The snack bar is such that you have to go off route to stop as you make the turn and with the pace of play we experienced on Friday that would have been a train wreck. There is no sign on course giving you a number to pre-order. We did not see a beverage cart on course at any time during the round.

Would I recommend this course, yes very much, and I would definitely play it again at this rate? It’s not easy, and I was physically sore for a couple of days after playing. The course overall is in good shape, and well worth testing your game against.