Played 1/31/2019 Afternoon round started at 1230. Finished in a ittle over 4 1/2. Course was packed solid and we waited a few moments on every shot, but not long waits.
Tees are level in very good sh... Continue »

Played 1/31/2019 Afternoon round started at 1230. Finished in a ittle over 4 1/2. Course was packed solid and we waited a few moments on every shot, but not long waits.
Tees are level in very good shape. Fairways are dormant with patches of green.
Some thin areas but overall quite good. Rough was up and a little thin good overall.
Greens were very good. Slow up hill but screaming fast down hill. They seem like they need to be cut lower. There are some bumpy spots, but a lot better than years gone by.
Bunkers still have little amount of loose something in them. Was in one and they are playable, but they are in poor shape. All of the far off knee high stuff was cut down pretty low too. Fun enjoyable course that looks a lot harder than it plays. Just better have a decent day with the driver and get the spped of the greens down.

Played 8/4 as a foursome off at 6:52. My first time playing Riverlakes in quite some time, and it leaves much to be desired. They overwater in the morning, so the fairways were borderline soggy and th... Continue »

Played 8/4 as a foursome off at 6:52. My first time playing Riverlakes in quite some time, and it leaves much to be desired. They overwater in the morning, so the fairways were borderline soggy and the greens were squishy.

Greens looked like the dark side of the moon. Unrepaired ball marks everywhere, leaving you hoping your line avoids them. Greens were kept very long due to the heat and not wanting to lose them again, so putts that didn't hit bumps were still slow. One of the only courses I know with undulations that actually keep balls from rolling downhill. It's unfortunate that the greens get so beat up.

Fairways were fine to hit from, rough was long and could grab your club at times. Bunkers had same in them, but with the overwatering they were basically mud.

Tee boxes were in decent shape.

Overall, this course always suffers during the summer. It seems that whatever is in the soil was good for growing almond trees, but terrible for grass. The time to play here is early fall to late spring. Hopefully with the raised rates people will start to repair their ball marks on the green.

Played 3/26/19 little after 3pm. $31 to ride. Little high for twilight, but wont break the bank. Course has really come around. Some of the greens still have some small thin spots, but are much better... Continue »

Played 3/26/19 little after 3pm. $31 to ride. Little high for twilight, but wont break the bank. Course has really come around. Some of the greens still have some small thin spots, but are much better. Played late in the day so they were a little long. Had a few bounce around, but thats poa greens in the afternoon. Medium speed not much roll out. Tees and fairways were very good. Rough was pretty thick and a couple of inches long. Thing that makes the rough difficult is the clumps of poa scattered in it. Ball seems to always come up against a clump. The bunkers I were in had enough dirt/sand to explode out of. Most bunkers are deep here. I did not see one bunker that was raked. Again played late afternoon, but they were very untidy. Footprints divots and rocks. Culprit is poor etiquette and lack of maintenance. Also if you have a 30 yard long bunker have more than 2 rakes a lot of people will not take the time to go hunt one down. A very good diversion from the tree lined affairs that are the only public option in Bakersfield if you can handle poorly maintained bunkers. Or do what we were doing and move the ball out of Godzilla's footprint

Played 1/6 as a foursome and the second group off at 7:30am which is very rare. Course was wide open and maybe the rains the night before scared people off. Dealt with some light morning fog but it wa... Continue »

Played 1/6 as a foursome and the second group off at 7:30am which is very rare. Course was wide open and maybe the rains the night before scared people off. Dealt with some light morning fog but it was gone by the 4th hole. POP was right at 4.5 hours, never waiting on a shot and not getting pushed by the group behind us.

The fairways, rough, and tee boxes are all still dormant, but the greens have good color to them. While the greens are in much better shape than they were in the summer they still leave some areas to be desired. The super there has been punching them and filling the holes with a new fertilizer in hopes of bringing up bentgrass instead of poa annua. Some greens have a made a full recovery from the disease and punching while others are taking their time in some areas. They have done a good job in keeping hole locations away from the areas that need the attention and not foot traffic.

Overall, the course is the only public course in the area worth anything, and until then the POP will continue to suffer. They did raise their rates slightly and the greens seem to have less and less unrepaired ball marks and sand traps are raked more frequently as a result.

Played 11/21/2018. POP good at 4 hours. All turf condition a little above average.
No bare spots , but some thin areas. Rough was pretty healthy. Fairways cut real low some very tight lies. Most area... Continue »

Played 11/21/2018. POP good at 4 hours. All turf condition a little above average.
No bare spots , but some thin areas. Rough was pretty healthy. Fairways cut real low some very tight lies. Most areas a little over watered and soggy/muddy. Greens have improved a lot from my last visit. Still some thin areas and very minor damage. Worst problems are
the ball marks and spike marks. The wet soft greens only make this worse. Saw several putts hit things and bounce and go offline. Medium speed. Bunkers have improved the couple I was in had sand! If now people would rake the bunkers when done. I wont wait as long for a return visit. Recommended

Got an email from them for $25 all you can play after 10am. Thought cool. Have not been here for awhile thought I would go out about noon and play at least two rounds. Condition wise I'll keep it shor... Continue »

Got an email from them for $25 all you can play after 10am. Thought cool. Have not been here for awhile thought I would go out about noon and play at least two rounds. Condition wise I'll keep it short. Everything except the tees and greens are very nice. Tees just need to be mowed. Greens ughhhh. Looks like their annual lose the greens is in full bloom. Bare spots, invasive grass and putt like very slow pinball machines just a disaster. Great course except for the greens. Guessing just stay away in the summer. Too bad

Played 6/24 teeing off at 7:30 with only a threesome in front of us all day. Pace of play was great, finishing in just over 4 hours. We were able to take our time and we never felt rushed.

Course i... Continue »

Played 6/24 teeing off at 7:30 with only a threesome in front of us all day. Pace of play was great, finishing in just over 4 hours. We were able to take our time and we never felt rushed.

Course is in good shape right now. Tee boxes are lush, nice to hit from. The white markers are a little beat up with divots, but the others are very nice. Fairways are green and lush, nice to hit from.

Greens have completely healed from their recent aeration, and are rolling very nicely. They held all shots well, and as I mentioned rolled true. As we get into the dog days of summer it'll be interesting to see how they react to the heat.

The sand traps have been completely overhauled around the green. They are playable, with soft to heavy sand. It's not the fluffy stuff you get at high scale courses, but it's way more enjoyable than the hard pan that existed a few months ago.

Played last Sunday the 15th teeing off at 8am. Starter did a good job letting us keep our time even though a group that was supposed to tee off at 7:30am waited for their last person to show up and wa... Continue »

Played last Sunday the 15th teeing off at 8am. Starter did a good job letting us keep our time even though a group that was supposed to tee off at 7:30am waited for their last person to show up and wanted to go off before us.

The course is starting to come out of the dormant season, with green grass starting to poke through the brown. I give it a couple more weeks before the fairways are green again. The rough is still having a tough time coming back, as some of the rough around the greens were patchy, making it tough to play chips.

The greens have healed completely from the aeration, and man are they running smooth. Aside from some unrepaired ball marks, they ran so smooth and quick. Definitely the highlight of the course. Receptive of well struck shots, providing plenty of spin, which can be fun with the undulations.

The sand remodel is still underway, but the majority of the greenside bunkers have sand in them now. The deep bunker on 15 has real good sand in it, allowing you to actually play a shot out of there instead of swinging and praying.

Overall, the course is continuing its upswing in performance and play-ability. If you're in the area, it's worth a check out.

Played on March 10th as a twosome going off at 7:30am. I saw that the greens had been punched courtesy of this website, but I hadn't had a chance to get some swings in in some time so I decided to use... Continue »

Played on March 10th as a twosome going off at 7:30am. I saw that the greens had been punched courtesy of this website, but I hadn't had a chance to get some swings in in some time so I decided to use the time to practice on the course.

Before I teed off I had a chance to talk with the super there, and he told me that the punches are the large ones, and this is due to him trying to get more sand down below the surface to drive out the fungus and poor soil that has derailed the greens in the past. He said depending on how this goes, it may take one more punch this year to fully insure that the roots of the greens are clean of everything that's been killing them each year. He also said that he's starting to turn over the sand traps near the greens, and you can see that some traps have heavier, almost river bottom sand in them. Although not ideal, they're much better than the hard pan that has been the norm here.

As for the rest of the course, the fairways, rough, and tees are still dormant from the winter, making for uneven and tight lies throughout the course. Hopefully this rain and sunshine will begin to bring back the grass.