Played Los Verdes this past weekend with Mattias and played a really decent round in somewhat gloomy coastal weather on a course that's about as good as it's going to get right now. We had a 12:10 tee... Continue »

Played Los Verdes this past weekend with Mattias and played a really decent round in somewhat gloomy coastal weather on a course that's about as good as it's going to get right now. We had a 12:10 tee time and played from the white tees as this course still gives you all that you can handle from that yardage.

As the previous review mentions, the course is in really fine shape right now from tee to green. No, it's not Riviera or anything, but if you've played here often, you know it can sometimes get rough around the edges from all the traffic, but right now the fairways and rough are well kept and producing many good lies, while the bunkers and tee boxes are mostly in good shape, and the greens are their usual devilish selves. They're running fast, true and holding shots well while simultaneously being tricky and challenging.

POP has not been a big issue here thankfully the last few times I've played Los Verdes, but for some reason on this particular day a slow round regrettably reared its ugly head again. We moved fine for the first two holes, then got caught up with two groups waiting at the par 3 3rd hole, but things loosened up later and we coasted nicely until the back nine. That's when the older, slower group in front of us decided to have lunch or something and when we got to the 10th tee box, they were just teeing off and an entire hole behind. This frustrating pattern continued until they apparently got the message and more or less skipped the green on the 13th hole. In the end the round played at around five hours.

Other than that though, it was a tremendous day despite the fog and cold rolling in later in the afternoon. The greens fee at Los Verdes is always a bargain for the nice course you get, and this day was no exception. They were also kind enough to change the online cart price for us as were both walking to get some steps in.

So basically, it's about as good a time as you'll ever get to play this legendary local course.