Golf Course Review Yocha Dehe Golf Club Brooks, CA
Reviewed by: sbarajasjr, San Diego
Golf Playing Conditions 8.39 GREAT
Played here 10/2 with GK member molebio (Nat) as our first stop on a quick Nor Cal visit. I had read plenty about Yocha on Keith’s blog and various other sites but I was still blown away. The moment you know it’s a Troon property, you expect something nice and just like Classic Club or Maderas, I was not disappointed. This place just screams class and the course was spectacular. I won’t gush too much now, however it quickly became a personal favorite. A note on the review…It rained a fair amount before our tee time and we got quick a soaking from a cell overhead that eventually passed, so fair thee warned that this was taken into consideration.
The Review
Tee boxes: Good shape overall. A really great mix of tee options for skill levels of all types. A fair amount of turf to place the tees and although the rain made the ground soft, it was very playable.
Fairways: Wonderful condition. If they drain and play this well in pouring rain, I can only imagine how amazing they must be in high season. Cut perfectly and the cut patterns were visually stunning. Consistency of the grass was also excellent. Can’t fault the course for rain, but you can praise their staff for doing a great job of avoiding standing water and performing preventative maintenance to make sure the course was playable in that kind of weather.
Rough: No joke, this grass was Torrey tough. It was thick and sticky, with the height enough to hide a white golf ball easily and quickly. It was penal and brutal.
Sand: Unfortunately you can prepare everything else on the course to drain a bit except for the bunkers, so the rain made the sand into oatmeal and shot shaping was nearly impossible. I get the feeling these bunkers are normally pearly white sand that’s the perfect consistency.
Greens: Excellent condition. Again, given the rain, they ran very quick and even on roll. They were a beautiful green color and the undulation was challenging.
Parting Thoughts
ETC: Everything about this property was amazing. The staff is what you would expect from Troon; attentive, courteous, and friendly. From bag drop to club cleanup, the staff at Yocha we’re the cherry on a delicious sundae. The carts were great with good GPS. Water in coolers as well as fridges everywhere on the course. What more can be said about the layout; one of my favorites. Highly recommend anyone who can make the trip and play here, you will not be disappointed.
Golf Course Review Angeles National Golf Club Sunland, CA
Reviewed by: JohnnyGK, Thousand Oaks
Golf Playing Conditions 6.48 GOOD
Had a meeting at Angeles National on Tuesday that pleasantly turned into 15 holes of golf. Been a while since I’ve played it. I was also curious how it looked after the brush fire damage from last year. Have to say looks even better. I love how they’ve incorporated wood chips, gravel and landscaping (lots of blue agaves which I dig) into the layout. Plus it’s nice to get a free drop from those wood chips bordering some of the fairways 😉
Golf course was in great shape for this time of year. The fairways are light green, excellent coverage, a few thin spots, firm and dry. Which is to be expected. I talked with the superintendent Matt before the round and found out the course in built on very rocky terrain where they only have about 6 inches of top soil. What this means is the fairways roots can only go so deep and doing a deep fairways aeration is impossible as the rocks will break the machine. However they do 3 shallow holes aeration on the fairways per year to keep them healthy. I thought they played very well and enjoyed the extra roll.
As for the greens, really good shape, not as firm, smooth and fast as some of my previous visits but I expect them to speed up and roll better moving forward due to coming cooler temps. It’s a hot climate so makes sense to not cut them down yet. My favorite aspect of Angeles National are the green complexes. They are very big yet diabolical. They allow you to get creative with all the contours to play a large variety of shots. On every hole you can find a spot where you enjoy practicing your short game for hours. Makes the golf course a blast.
Tee boxes in great shape. Lush, cut tight and level.
Bunkers are well groomed but need more sand.
Rough, there really is not much. Through the green the golf course is pretty much fairway height. Definitely puts more demand on the tee shots and approaches to keep it in play.
As for the views and ambiance of Angeles National, love it. Yes there is some freeway noise but that becomes unnoticeable, at least for me, after a couple holes. The backdrops of Angeles National Forest Mountains are stunning. You feel like you are on a desert golf course at times. The clubhouse is beautiful. You know you’re at a high end golf course from the level of service and amenities that immediately greet you. They have an excellent driving range and practice facilities.
Golf Course Review Bartley Cavanaugh Golf Course Sacramento, CA
Reviewed by: sixpez, Rancho Mirage, CA
Golf Playing Conditions 6.33 GOOD
This was the last/bonus round today. Got there around 4:00 and it wasn’t too busy out. Just some scattered groups (mostly twosomes/singles) on the course. Ultimately finished in about a 2:20 pace. $23 twilight rate with a cart.
Course conditions were okay, with things playing better than it looked with the grass pretty dappled green/brown. Tee boxes fine. Fairways adequate. On the thin side, but generous roll-out and I usually had a pretty decent lie. Rough decent. Bunkers good. Greens good. A little bumpy late in the day, but fully healed from aeration and in nice shape overall.
This is a really, really fun muni course! It was designed by Perry Dye and has a lot of the Dye family hallmarks (mounds, moguls, water hazards, railroad ties, collection areas, etc.). There’s even a mini Sawgrass island green 17th, but it’s only about 100 yards and much less intimidating. The fun part is the layout is short. Par-71. Played the blue tees at around only 5,700 yards. It’s a Dye-type design, but it’s one where you can really score well. Target golf, but you may not need driver off of many tees and you’re hitting shorter clubs into the well-protected greens. I really enjoyed this course and would recommend it as a Sacramento value gem.
Golf Course Review Eagle Glen Golf Club Corona, CA
Reviewed by: JohnnyGK, Thousand Oaks
Golf Playing Conditions 6.74 GOOD
First thank you everyone that came out to be a part of the GK Cup 12 Final and those that participated this year! Also want to thank Eagle Glen Golf Club for hosting our GK Cup Final. I always felt it would make for a fun championship due to its challenging layout, awesome closing holes and excellent clubhouse which includes a restaurant overlooking the property. Worked out great.
I was in the last the group, the finals group, teeing off at 11:00am. They were running a little behind and we teed up closer to 11:15am. Pace of play was slow as they had a full tee sheet Sunday morning. But wait, it was Ryder Cup Sunday, oh yeah, it was over when everyone woke up, so let’s go golfing!
I thought the golf course was in very good condition. End of September can be a challenging time to find a well-conditioned golf course in Southern California due to many in maintenance, prepping for maintenance or dried out from the summer heat. So given Eagle Glen aerated their greens in the beginning of September, I was confident they would be healed and I was right. With exception to the very first hole, as I had the same feelings as Itslikeimsayin’s review, the remainder of the greens were rolling moderately fast, mostly smooth and holding shots. The rest of the golf course played mostly firm, was light green, had occasional light brown/thin turf, yet overall provided a good surface to play from. I was only in a few bunkers and they were well groomed with quality sand.
After the round we got together in the restaurant to celebrate HmtGolfGuy’s GK Cup victory. I could not help seeing the patty melt Itslikeimsayin was about to dive into (there I go again referencing Mark’s review, feel like such a copy-cat! – lol) so I ordered it, super good tasty. Seemed they only had one, maybe two staff working the bar/restaurant so service was slow however professional. I’ve ate here before and always enjoy the food. If it was not so hot Sunday I would have liked to be out on the balcony looking over the course, its good dining experience.
Thank you again to everyone that came out!
btw – was also a very special day for me, please see my Pebble Beach forum post 🙂
Golf Course Review Emerald Lakes Golf Course Elk Grove, CA
Reviewed by: sixpez, Rancho Mirage, CA
Golf Playing Conditions 8.08 GREAT
This was my second round this morning. I had a pretty tight window, but thankfully the course wasn’t too busy. I had bad timing as multiple groups were backed up on the first hole when I arrived, but the pro shop guy was awesome and told me it should be wide open in front of them. He let me jump ahead to the 3rd hole. By the time I got back around to 1, it was open and I was able to zip around the 9 holes in the pace I needed. $24 with cart a bit steep for 9 holes, though this would normally be an easy walking course on a normal day.
I have to say the conditions at Emerald Lakes overall were the best I’ve played so far on this trip (including 2 private clubs)! This place is lush and green from tee to green. Some of the tees on the short par-3s and par-4s are a bit chewed up, but fine. Fairways fantastic. Rough lush and well-kept where it matters. Bunkers were beautiful with soft sand and perfectly raked. Greens soft and receptive, rolling smooth at medium speeds. Very impressed by the conditions of a relatively inexpensive par-33 course that obviously gets plenty of play.
The layout is fun and short. A few weak holes, but mostly pretty enjoyable for an executive design. Mildly interesting green complexes and some good contours, with a couple big water hazards coming into play. Recommended as a great local short course for casual/novice play.
Golf Course Review Sand Canyon Country Club Santa Clarita, CA
Reviewed by: weeman68, pasadena
Like many, I had been scared off playing here since it reopened as it sounded like the new name “Sand Canyon” was an unintended piece of anti-marketing, not intended ironically or otherwise. So it was (literally) with some trepidation that I booked a Sunday am round at the rack rate of $90.
As a frequent player here back in the day when it was Robinson Ranch, I didn’t know what to expect based on recent GK reviews and the local word on the street, but upon driving up the long wind to the clubhouse I was pleasantly surprised to see acres of mainly green on what was the old front nine of the Mountain course on the right. The back nine of Mountain to the left has been allowed to go totally to pasture and the native grass and fauna has invaded completely. In fact, you wouldn’t know there was a golf course there until just a few years ago were it not for the cart paths still visible snaking through it.
The Review
Golf Playing Conditions 6.71 GOOD
All that said, my Reader’s Digest review is this: the course is back! While not perfect or pristine, it is clear they have been working on it and some parts are actually better than they used to be when it was Robinson.
As alluded to, the back nine of Mountain was sacrificed no doubt as a cost-saving, water-saving move. That saddens me as I think it was the best nine out of the original four, containing the most unique holes, elevation changes and variety (I am thinking of 11, 13, 15-18 for those that remember the layout). It was also longer than mountain front 9 which is probably why it was calved away. In one sign of favorable maintenance, what they now call the ‘Desert’ 9 (the old back nine of ‘Valley’) was closed for over-seeding! A a result, I played ‘Valley’ (the original Valley Course front nine) followed by ‘Mountain’ (the old Mountain course front nine.)
At only around 6200 yards from the blues, I felt this combo was a bit under-powered than under the old routing – still, this is Robinson Ranch so it’s still plenty challenging!
Mountain vs Valley
Valley was generally much greener and in better overall shape than Mountain. The Valley tees were a bit shaggy with a lot of gouges on par 4’s and 5’s so I am not sure who was skying their drives but the crown of someone’s driver was suffering some abuse. Fairways were generally lush with most of the Bermuda recovered and some in-growth from other grasses here and there. Greens looked very good, but they were nappy in spite of just being cut, very slow (7.5 – 8 optimistically on the stimp) and very bumpy. Putts did not track well. Didn’t visit any sand but it looked reasonable and had been groomed for the most part. Only one or 2 bunkers had some weeds in them and looked a little thin and forlorn.
Mountain was less green overall but still favorable lies in the fairways; here they have cleared out more extensive areas to reduce watering. So it looks pretty rough at times, but none of these sandy areas are really in play. Gone is the water feature to the right of 12 too, replaced with agave and other desert plantings. Had it still been here I would have lost the only ball I played the round with. Otherwise, I could now hack it out back into play. Also, from 12 on (and especially 14 & 15) the mountain greens – which were faster and a bit smoother – had some pretty visible issues. A lot of plugging and some limited aeration was visible. 14 was the worst affected with about 40% of the surface bare or clearly under repair. Tee boxes on Mountain were also dry, shaggy and sometimes crowned. I wondered whether they were being killed off for an over-seed.
I would rate Valley at about a 7-7.5 overall and Mountain around 6-6.5. Highly playable and the most notable improvement over the old management regime was that the rough on both 9’s is now well established at around 1-2 inches on average. Players who frequented the old course would know (and lament) that an integral part of the design were the mounds surrounding many fairways which were supposed to work in tandem with the rough to deflect balls back into play and to keep them out of the numerous native areas lining the course. A testament to this improvement – as noted above – is that I played 18 with the same ball. Unheard of, really, for this place.
Parting Thoughts
Things that still represent deficits? The carts have no GPS which makes a course this tough hard to negotiate. Local knowledge helped me a lot. And, there appears to be no way to book other than through their web utility, so no discounts can be had. I would prefer to pay about 70 max here on a Sunday at prime time, rather than the $90 I did. Also, no marshal which you would expect on a higher end course. While not very busy, pace was still a sluggish 4 hours 20 minutes on what is now a shortish course.
But overall I am happy to report this place is back! If, like me, you were avoiding it due to recent reports, go back out and give it a whirl (and try to get on Valley/Desert combo (the old Valley 18) as it has more length and coherency to it than the 2 nines I played).
ALERT: Aeration
Will be aerating the greens 10/8 & 10/9.
Golf Playing Conditions 7.58 GREAT
* Although Greenskeeper.org researches all alerts before posting, we ask that you please contact the golf course for confirmation.
Played yesterday afternoon, riding with a course “End of Summer” special for $28 after 2:00. It was not crowded until about hole 6 where we started to hit the back end of the groups ahead. Pace was about 2 hours for the front and 2.5 hours for the back. The last four holes became a brutal hit and wait scenario: As many as five groups were on hole 16; a twosome on the green, two twosomes in the fairway, a single on the tee, and our threesome on the tee. Add to that there were so many little flies, landing on and biting us. Gross!
Greens were good. Very soft and rolling medium fast. I fixed many ball marks. The putting surface was soft and bumpy at times, but rolled decently for the most part.
Fairways were soft as well. Good coverage and mostly lush conditions. Despite being so soft, there was great roll on most shots. Occasionally there were some tight lies. I was agreed that the surface was great to hit from.
Rough was also consistently lush from tee to green. No real problems hitting from there either. Outside the mowed areas of rough there was the usual deep kikuyu grass. If you hit there you can pretty much forget about it. The course has reduced the size of those areas over the years, but they are still there and ready to claim errant shots.
Bunkers were nice; well-raked, light-colored sand. I was in one on hole 3 and it was in good shape.
Tee boxes (we played the whites) were mostly level and nice. I think there were a couple areas that were a little uneven, but overall good.
Other than those pesky flies and the pace near the end of the round, it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
Editor’s Note: Be sure to let the Starter and Staff know that you heard about their golf course conditions from Greenskeeper.Org.
Golf Course Review PGA WEST Stadium Course La Quinta, CA
ALERT: Aeration & Overseeding
Greens were aerated 7/23 – 8/2. Course will be closed for overseeding 10/8 – 10/31, reopening 11/1 and cart path only until 11/29.
* Although Greenskeeper.org researches all alerts before posting, we ask that you please contact the golf course for confirmation.
Reviewed by: zeppelin51423, manhattan beach
Golf Playing Conditions 7.93 GREAT
Played Stadium on Saturday & conditions were excellent. During the summer, I always rate courses in desert relative to other desert courses, not to how they are in the winter or peak season. The conditions from tee to green were great. The greens were firm and rolled true. The grain in the Bermuda largely impacts the smoothness and speed. Down grain putts rolled excellent and fairly fast. The fairways were perfect. The only complaint would be the rock hard bunkers. I’d probably avoid many of the desert courses over the next month or so as they close for over-seeding. I’ll be back in November!
All in all, the stadium course is a solid test of golf and I largely enjoy teeing it up there.
ALERT: Aeration & Overseeding
