Played today. Greens are not bad for being done last week, other than being slow they putted fine. By next week they should be back to normal. Traps need work and it appears no one wants to rake them either. Fairways need mowing as they are a little long at the moment. Tee boxes all fine. Rough is not a factor. Always excellent customer service from Jasmine and her team. By far... » More

Played today. Greens are not bad for being done last week, other than being slow they putted fine. By next week they should be back to normal. Traps need work and it appears no one wants to rake them either. Fairways need mowing as they are a little long at the moment. Tee boxes all fine. Rough is not a factor. Always excellent customer service from Jasmine and her team. By far the most reasonable course in price in S CA at the moment IMO. POP at 3 hours.
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Walked the oranges Monday 4/22/2024 with my buddy Matt under a cold, misty/foggy 60 degree day with up to 2 clubs wind at times. Very weird weather for Ojai. Joined by a very nice twosome Tyrell and Paul. Our POP was horrendous at 5 hrs 20 minutes behind a packed tee sheet but our group enjoyed the round immensely even waiting sometimes 10/15 minutes per tee box at times. Super... » More

Walked the oranges Monday 4/22/2024 with my buddy Matt under a cold, misty/foggy 60 degree day with up to 2 clubs wind at times. Very weird weather for Ojai. Joined by a very nice twosome Tyrell and Paul. Our POP was horrendous at 5 hrs 20 minutes behind a packed tee sheet but our group enjoyed the round immensely even waiting sometimes 10/15 minutes per tee box at times. Super friendly staff at Soule Park.

Couple notes before I get into the conditions. They are redoing the back tee on 2 as well as resodding the landing area just over the gorge. Nice touch! They also have the entire tee box on 10 closed where they are completely leveling and resodding all 5 tees. Current teeing grounds on hole 10 are down below the hill. Can't wait to see the new box there.

The greens were in very good shape coming out of maintenance last month. Pin positions can be tough on these huge Gil hanse greens. Rolling medium pace, holding shots well and chipping very firm. Rated 8/10

Biggest change we saw was the rough around the Fairways and greens is thick! 4 inches plus in most sections, wet and grabby. Puts more premium on hitting Fairways and greens here. Rated 8/10

All tee boxes we played were level and lush and in good shape. Rated 8/10

Fairways are in really nice shape and a pleasure to hit from. Rated 8.5/10

Was in front greenside bunker on 14 that was well stocked with sand. The bunkers here are really penal at Soule. Rated 8/10

Highly recommend this track. Conditions will only improve with the warmer weather coming up.
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Played today (4/22/24) only a few days after it finally REOPENED after years of being closed for renovations. As you'd hope and expect, it's in pretty good shape, as good of shape as I've ever seen it.

Tee boxes were fair, with good coverage. My only complaint would be that they were a bit firm in spots, i.e., difficult to stick your tee in the ground at the desired hei... » More

Played today (4/22/24) only a few days after it finally REOPENED after years of being closed for renovations. As you'd hope and expect, it's in pretty good shape, as good of shape as I've ever seen it.

Tee boxes were fair, with good coverage. My only complaint would be that they were a bit firm in spots, i.e., difficult to stick your tee in the ground at the desired height.

Fairways were great, very lush, with few unfilled divots and even fewer bare spots.

Rough was a little rough (pun intended). It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't great. It was short, which is nice, but the coverage/lushness was spotty. I feel like that is in part due to the type of grass they use (which I don't know what that is). Of all the areas on the course, this was the weakest.

On the other hand, the greens were the best part of the course. They were a little on the slow side--despite also being fairly firm--but I reckon that's because of how new they are. They did appear like they'd been punched in the recent past--which I'm not sure why that'd be necessary, if they're brand new--so perhaps that was part of it, too. But they rolled fairly true, and the surfaces looked new, which is a cool sight to see.

Lastly, the bunkers. All things considered, they were good. I say it that way because they were difficult to hit out of with the type and/or consistency of the sand. Usually, you think hard pack/dirt/concrete when you hear about difficult bunkers. This was the opposite. The sand was heavy, yet very soft and light. Kinda like beach sand. It was also super white. If you ask me, this is all because it's brand new, and over time, it'll settle and compact. But for now, you need to hit close enough to the ball and with enough speed, if you hope to get it out, let alone hit a good shot (though I'm also a very weak bunker player, so maybe that shouldn't mean much coming from me, haha).
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Snuck out to Nado yesterday as a single, Sunday, April 21. Called the starter around 2:30 and he said come on out and I got right out when I arrived at 3:15. Got paired up with three really nice guys, as usual. $36 to walk twilight rate, non-resident. $30 resident rate.

Blue Tees were all pretty nice, no complaints. Fairly level and not too much divot damage. » More

Snuck out to Nado yesterday as a single, Sunday, April 21. Called the starter around 2:30 and he said come on out and I got right out when I arrived at 3:15. Got paired up with three really nice guys, as usual. $36 to walk twilight rate, non-resident. $30 resident rate.

Blue Tees were all pretty nice, no complaints. Fairly level and not too much divot damage.

Fairways were in great shape. Never had a bad lie all day and they provided good cushion with proper roll out on drives.

Rough wasn't very long, but it was "patchy", some low bare/thin areas next to some higher clumps of grass that could cause some issues.

Traps were in good shape, found one greenside bunker and it had nice fluffy sand. Found one fairway bunker and it was just fine. No problems.

Greens were about as slow as I've ever seen them. They're still recovering from aeration a couple weeks ago, so they were slow and bumpy. They did hold shots well, but putting was difficult.

POP wasn't too bad, finished 18 just in time before darkness set in. Total POP was 4.5hrs, which is acceptable at this course. (often times it can go 5 - 5.5 hrs). Customer service is always good. The starters are always great. Didn't see the beverage cart for some reason, but not a big deal, didn't need anything. Always recommend.
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Played Simi Hills this weekend for an SCGA tournament through Rancho Park Golf Club and was not disappointed in anything other than my driving and putting! In days past it used to be quite easy to get tee times at this little gem of a course, but that's not been the case recently, so I was thrilled to sign up for this event when I saw it on the calendar months ago.

I ... » More

Played Simi Hills this weekend for an SCGA tournament through Rancho Park Golf Club and was not disappointed in anything other than my driving and putting! In days past it used to be quite easy to get tee times at this little gem of a course, but that's not been the case recently, so I was thrilled to sign up for this event when I saw it on the calendar months ago.

I played from the gold tees and my group had a noon starting time under hazy skies that soon gave way to a beautiful blue and one of the best early days of the spring. The fairways are in very nice shape right now and you'll get very good roll on your ball on tight fairways. The rough was very playable and not too thick at all. Bunkers were in quite good shape and I had no problem getting the club underneath the ball, while the tee boxes were all in very nice condition.

The greens were super challenging for me on this day and I'm not exactly sure why, but they were quite fast and very difficult to read, but rolled true, held shots and their lines well. For the life of me I can't understand how I just could not get the pace down all day, but that's golf sometimes. But overall they are in excellent shape.

The layout at Simi Hills is very fun and engaging with each hole presenting its own unique set of challenges. And the usually dormant creek that runs through holes at the start of the back nine was an actual river - something I don't think I'd ever seen here before, so that was quite stunning and cool to see and listen to throughout the round.

Facilities at Simi Hills are very good but must admit that the driving range is very small with only probably about 18-20 stalls max. Strange with so much land around, but I'm sure there is a reason for it. I'm sure on normal days that's fine but with a large SCGA tournament it was difficult to find a spot to warm up.

POP was pretty solid throughout the day despite the tournament conditions, meaning we finished in about four and a half hours, and there was cart service throughout the day providing everything we needed. No GPS on the carts though in case you're wondering.

Always love coming out to Simi Hills and can't wait for the next tournament here again.
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