I recently played the Mountain Course at Robinson Ranch in heavy winds. Normally tough, it became pretty unbearable as even seemingly decent shots would end up in trouble. Added some pictures to my review as well. Still like the course even though it doesn't much like me.
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For the second time, I have played the Ike (Eisenhower) Course at Industry Hills and for the second time it bested me, although at least this time I had positive moments, such as a birdie at the 10th hole pictured here. Overall, this course requires the golfer to take advantage of the shorter / quirkier holes and survive the long, brutal ones. I enjoy both this one and the Babe course and find this to be one of the better 36 hole complexes for a full day of golf in SoCal.
As I begin to emerge from the perennially rough part of my working year, I look forward to more days like the one I had this weekend. I had the chance to play 36 holes at Sterling Hills Golf Club with my good buddies. Although the first round was a little rough (nobody played particularly well), the second round showed some improvement and it was just great to get out in the warm California sun and enjoy some spirited competition and camaraderie.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of freezing cold Canadians who come south seeking sun and golf for the winter months. I did my patriotic duty by playing with my long-time friend from the frozen tundra of Alberta. He was so disappointed to be wearing shorts and playing golf in 80+ degrees (that's 26+ for you Celsius lovin' folks) I can't even begin to tell you how tough it was for him. I introduced him to Westridge Golf Club (see my updated and improved review), which I think is under new management. It was in the best shape I've seen it in my nearly dozen attempts at playing it, so kudos to the new management team. However, I think they're toying with switching the nines, but if my opinion means anything, I say leave them alone. Having the last three holes stay as they are makes a much more interesting finish to the round. Ay, caramba!! Ok...enough of my very poor Spanish, although I will take some credit for good alliteration in a foreign language for my effort in the title. Anyway, I made my second trip in three years to the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, CA as part of a romantic Valentine's getaway. You understand, of course, romantic is defined as my wife and I spent a day and night away from the children together, but spent most of the time doing our own thing: me golfing, her relaxing at the spa. Ahhh, romance!!
Anyway, since our last visit, La Costa spent a good deal of money renovating the hotel, spa and, most importantly, its North Course, which is now the Champions Course (I refer to it as both in my review). The redesign gets positive reviews from me, even though my score would not agree. The South Course also benefited from some changes, and I think more are supposedly on the way on that easier, but equally enjoyable track. See pictures here for an example of the change on number 8 on the North / Champions Course (never mind the color differences at that is a very simple phenomenon (the unusually wet SoCal weather in Jan 2011 above versus the horrible 75 degree temperatures and light breeze I had to endure in Feb 2013 below. This is one of the earliest pictures of me holding a golf club. My formative golfing years were spent at Saticoy Country Club, which is a great golf course, but I never felt like a snobby golfer or person, especially since there were plenty of those to go around at the course and my father as an oilfield worker was far from one of those. When my father eventually sold his membership, I started finally playing lots and lots of other golf courses, hence this website. Now, as GolfTop18 approaches 200 golf courses I have reviewed officially, I think I'm becoming more and more of a golf snob. Let me be clear, I'm far from snooty when it comes to interactions with most golfers, clothes (i don't specifically buy golf clothes), clubs (i buy them rarely), a golfer's skill or anything like that. However, a recent round at a less than savory golf course where I actually walked off in the middle, let me to come to the conclusion that I can no longer stomach playing golf courses that are mundane, poorly manicured or otherwise just bad. I'd rather spend more money or drive farther to find a course that inspires me, and there are many of those. They say the first step to address a problem is admission, and I'm there. However, I don't really feel like I want a cure. Thanks to the help of several GolfTop18 users, we've hit 25 courses that have been rated / ranked by the readers of this website. We've also added some recently played courses to the list of those that you the reader can rank. Thank you for all your input. Also, I played golf last weekend in crazy wind and my playing partner and I were wondering if the pros would have to endure those 50mph wind conditions. Upon watching the golf tournament at the Plantation Course at Kapalua get delayed multiple times this week, I guess we got our answer. Other than conditions where somebody gets hurt, I think they should play and we should get to watch to see what they do and how they do. I know how I do, but if those pros can shoot near par in brutal conditions, that would be awesome to watch. My best score from the back tees at Kapalua is a respectable 75, but that was with only 1 club of wind. When I played in 3-4 clubs of wind, I shot about 85. Speaking of windy rounds, check out my updated review of the Sky Course at Lost Canyons and my new review of Lost Canyons - Shadow Course. I can tell you my buddy and I played 36 holes in crazy windy conditions. Of course, we hit many more shots than the pros and had a couple of generous gimmies. I now enter into the busy time of year for my day job, so my golf (and postings) usually slow down until April. I hope I can scratch together a few rounds between now and then, but we'll have to see... This was the frustrating question I had to ask myself throughout the first three holes at Oak Quarry Golf Club when I recently played it for the first time. Although the course is fantastic, I had the misfortune of playing on a day when they were swapping out old carts for new ones. Thus, the GPS was being re-installed on the new carts. When I asked the pro shop attendant, golf cart guy and starter, they all said that the course was well marked but they would bring me a cart quickly that had GPS. It turns out neither were true as I literally saw ZERO sprinklers, painted stripes, poles or anything else giving any indication of distance at all, and no rescue cart was showing up. Fortunately, the 4th hole is near the 1st, so I high tailed it back to the clubhouse and took a new cart right off the "assembly line" and was the hero of the day for our group. So, my recommendation for golfers is to play this course, but make sure their GPS is up and running as otherwise, you won't know where the heck you are.
Courtesy of my 2012 Red Dot book, I was able to find a good deal on the day before Thanksgiving, so I played the Crossings at Carlsbad and updated my review. Since I've played here before and scored well I decided to be "Mr. Aggressive" and challenge the front nine, going for greens and hitting a lot of drivers. After my 3rd penalty stroke through 8 holes, I abandoned my quest, started thinking straight (and hitting straight) and turned my game around, finishing at sunset with a 5 stroke improvement on the back nine. This is the 3rd time I've played the course and I continually find the back nine to be much more difficult, but I consistently score better on it. So, I guess my lesson for anybody wanting to play this course is to pay attention to the front nine, which must be harder than it looks, and don't be afraid of the back nine, as its bark must be worse than its bite.
Here's GolfTop18 member Matt A. collecting on his free round of golf after winning the Labor Day drawing for submitting golf course reviews. Get your reviews in now to enter for a chance to win the free 2013 round. It was a perfect day for golf at Glen Annie Golf Club, so check out my review.
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