Carmel Mountain Ranch CC
San Diego, CA
Reviewed by: lookylookitzadam, San Diego, CA
Played out here on 6/29/18 at 110am as CMR sent me an email to come out and play for free since the course is closing on July 8th, 2018 due to the inability to make profits and rising water costs. Previously I never really cared for this course even though it is only 10 minutes from home, however this time I thoroughly enjoyed myself so I am sad that it is closing.
Greens:
The greens were surprisingly soft and rolling very nicely. I had several plugged shots on the green on Friday which I did not care for. Where ball marks were repair correctly, the greens rolled very true and with a decent speed.
Fairways:
Fairways were so bare that I was easily getting 30-40 yards of roll-out on tee shots. Approach shots from the fairways were also difficult since it was almost like hitting out of a hard-pan waste area in some spots. If there was grass within a club length of a ball in the fairway we all decided to play it as “ground-under-repair” and place it on the grass. (Not official I know, but this was just a fun round).
Bunkers:
Lots of the bunkers looked so hard but the ones I found were all green-side and played nicely. They had about 2″ of sand and were well maintained.
Rough:
There is no rough…literally no rough. In place of rough you get pine straw or crushed rock; this makes for a really horrible sinking feeling when you stripe your tee shot (don’t forget about that extra 40 yards of roll-out) and watch you ball run all the way through the landing area, catches the “rough” and then accelerates way off the fairway.
Course isn’t worth checking out in its final days unless you haven’t played it (check it out, its really interesting layout but lined with houses) or you want to relive some nostalgic moments (but only if your memories come from before all the turf reductions from what I have been told)
Editor’s Note: It’s confirmed that Carmel Ranch will be closing soon. Now is the time to enjoy the course before it goes away for good this coming July 8. Click HERE for the article.
