San Diego County Golf Course Reviews
Meadow Lake Golf Course Review
Escondido, CA
70.3 rating; 126 slope |
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Meadow Lake Golf Course Overview: This course first and foremost is designed on hills. Many of the holes have severely sloped fairways that only receive a certain type of perfectly played shot. Secondly, the course has small greens, which require exacting approaches from usually uneven lies. Overall, it is a tough challenge, but many of the holes are so severe and repetitive, that watching seemingly decent shots rolling into trouble can get a bit old. The most memorable holes are reviewed below: |
Meadow Lake Hole 2: This dogleg right requires a tee shot that avoids the central tree. Going left of it leaves a longer approach, over it offers fairway unless the player goes too far, in which case there is a lake waiting, and the tee shot right leaves the best angle and shorter shot, but also has hazard far right.
Meadow Lake Hole 4: This short, downhill par 3 offers nice views of surrounding area and is all about distance control. The green is wide and relatively flat, so accuracy and putting are not much of an issue.
Meadow Lake Hole 8: This par four feels different than any other on the course as it has a relatively flat landing area but still with elevation change, and is the best hole by far. The player drives through the trees and there is OB right and a hazard left. The green is downhill and it is well contoured and guarded by multiple bunkers.
Meadow Lake Hole 9: At least half of the holes on this course have severely sloped fairways and this one is no exception, other than that the hole seems to better fit the left to right slope that it was built on. Although the OB right is definitely in play, the best shot shape is a fade, which goes with the slope, whereas many holes dogleg back into the sloping angle. This also is reachable with two long shots and there isn't much trouble around the green.
Meadow Lake Hole 12: One of only a half dozen flat holes (including par threes) on the course, this one is a good dogleg to the right. There is trouble all down the right side and big trees to the left for the over-cautious.
Meadow Lake Hole 14: The best par three on the course is strategic as left of the green looks bad, but there is a slope there that will take most shots back onto the green. Right will bound down the hill and leave a tough up and down for most golfers. The views are also nice from one of the high points of the course.
Meadow Lake Hole 17: This hole is mentioned because it is nearly impossible. At over 450 yards, it is another downhill, slight dogleg left with a fairway that slopes heavily from left to right. There is hillside left (penalty stroke) and a huge row of trees right of the fairway, but the shot that rolls right has a chance of going through those and bounding down the hill, completely stymied. Oh...did I mention the tee shot is completely blind over two large boulders and the hole usually plays into the wind. I hit perfect driver down the middle (ended up in the right rough though), perfect 3-wood (still was 30 yards short), chipped to 10 feet and had a putt that broke 2 feet. Good luck to any player that needs a par here to win a match or shoot a career best.
