Orange County Golf Course Reviews
Tijeras Creek Golf Club Review
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
73.4 rating; 136 slope |
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Tijeras Creek Golf Club Overview: Tijeras Creek is a fun golf course
characterized by two very different nine-hole loops. The front is water-filled and weaves its way
through houses. The backside features more hills and has canyons coming into play on most of the holes. The course is kept up well, provides a good
challenge and tests all aspects of the golfer's game. See below for the best golf holes:
Tijeras Creek Hole 4: Wide fairway, but a lake on the right can intimidate the golfer into hitting the drive left, leaving a longer iron in to the angled green, still fronted right and short but the lake. The gutsy drive flirts with the lake, leaving a shorter iron over the lake to the green. Either drives leaves a tough approach shot and the nerves run throughout the entire experience. (not pictured) Tijeras Creek Hole 7: Brutally long, directly over a lake and a bunker to a shallow green, with a hillside behind. The only escape is to the right. Otherwise, the carry is 200 yards and a perfect shot must be hit to give any chance of par. This is a very difficult hole. (not pictured) Tijeras Creek Hole 9: Difficult drive as anything caught thin or pulled is down the canyon and anything right is OB. The approach is uphill all the way to an elevated green with several bunkers. Not an easy ending to the front nine and taste of what's to come on the backside. (not pictured) Tijeras Creek Hole 11: Big, downhill, dogleg right hole with a tee shot where right is down a canyon. The second shot must be either left short or carry where the fairway pinches to an amazingly tiny proportion with canyon on either side, about 100 yards from the green. From there, the approach is slightly uphill to a two-tiered green with bunkers short and long right. (not pictured) Tijeras Creek Hole 12: From an elevated tee, the drive on this short hole is very, very frightening. The fairway is extremely narrow and canyons guard either side, with only a little rough to stop an errant shot. The only downside of the hole is that a shorter, more conservative drive leaves an approach blinded by the crest of the hill about 100 yards out, from which the hole descends sharply to the green below. The aggressive play, if done right, allows the only real good shot at par, as the blind approach from further out is very difficult to manage, for distance and directionally. (not pictured) Tijeras Creek Hole 17: The drive on this dog-leg left is through a shoot of trees and forces a draw to have any real shot at a mid or short iron to the green. The approach is over the creek to a shallow, but wide angled green. Anything short is in the creek, and anything long is up a hill with no real chance of getting up and down. Good challenge, but fair and fun. (not pictured) |
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