First time out on Mountain since before over seeding. Still CPO for another week+. Mountain course very lush after over ... » More

First time out on Mountain since before over seeding. Still CPO for another week+. Mountain course very lush after over seeding which looks to have taken extremely well this season. Very busy with many snow birds arriving for the high season. 4.5H POP. Right now, before there is alot of play and carts are let loose on the fairways? Every area of the course is in the 9+/10 range. Almost unbelievable how far a ball will creep... and creep on very fast greens. And these greens are currently about as fast and smooth as I have ever played anywhere coming out of being closed for several weeks. Highly recommended.
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Played 11/9/24 10:20 POP 4:20 Course is in good to very good shape. Fairways have dried out a little. Possible from the... » More

Played 11/9/24 10:20 POP 4:20 Course is in good to very good shape. Fairways have dried out a little. Possible from the recent Santa Ana winds. They still played well. Tannish green in color with very good to great coverage. Mostly very tight with good roll out. Good ball striking was required. With the dormant Bermuda cut tight it could cause issues if even a tad fat. Rough caused no issues.
Greens were the best I have seen them play. Since the redesign the greens have always played fast & firm. Today they were fast and receptive. It as always been difficult to stop shots, but today it was like throwing darts and the balls would even back up. The only issue with this was it has caused a lot of divot damage from people not repairing or incorrectly repairing their divots. The scars didn't seem to cause any issues other then visual. And I noticed many foot prints, which I have never seen here. The amazing part was how fast they were and how well they rolled. Even before when firm and fast, they weren't this fast. Down hill putts were extremely tricky on these undulating greens. I loved them.
Most traps were in very good to great shape. Was in three and two had perfect sand and one had very wet sand which made it very hard to get out of. Tees were fine with a couple placed in un even locations. No cart service on this day and it was very busy on the course. Waited on about a third of the holes with #10 stacked two deep. But, pace was back to normal after about 4 holes. The course looks on the dry side visually, but is still playing good with some fantastic greens at this time. Very easy recommend!
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I haven't played Shandin Hills for quite a while because of all the bad reviews, but I used to play it often several yea... » More

I haven't played Shandin Hills for quite a while because of all the bad reviews, but I used to play it often several years ago. In light of the last review that was left, I felt compelled to just comment on Shandin Hills.

All public golfers in SoCal are well aware that there will never, ever, ever be a new public course built in the LA, OC, or the IE areas. We have however, off the top of my head, lost 8 or nine great public courses over the years that were replaced by housing developments.

It really is a terrible thing that public golf is becoming so overlooked here. When a city owned course like Shandin Hills is so neglected that it is almost unplayable, it is such a waste of golfing property that we still thankfully have in our area. I'm not sure how this can happen, unless another development is on the way and this course will soon close as well. It seems that none of them are safe.

I know this is more of a topic for the forum, but I just thought more greenskeeper members might see this here. Maybe, if enough folks ask to see the manager of the course, or contact the city to complain, we can save this place that use to be a really nice, fun course to play.
I'm not a business guy by any means, I'm just a golfer that feels like public golf in California is drying up, just like the fairways and greens at Shandin Hills. Just my opinion.
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My group had not played Mt Woodson for a couple of months due to conditions the last time we were out there. We were ple... » More

My group had not played Mt Woodson for a couple of months due to conditions the last time we were out there. We were pleasantly surprised to find the course in great shape. The fairways and greens are the best we have seen in a long time. The course still suffers from poor tee boxes. We attribute this to the small size and no ability to recover from play. The other weak point is the sand traps. There a a few good ones but generally they are hard-packed dirt. Woodson is a fun course that requires you to put the ball in the right position. It is back in our rotation.
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Played Shandin last Saturday. Me and a buddy decided on last minute golf and usually when its hard to get on somewhere b... » More

Played Shandin last Saturday. Me and a buddy decided on last minute golf and usually when its hard to get on somewhere before noon then we'll go to Shandin Hills. It's a decent track and all we need are good greens , tee boxes & Fairways . its always been favorable golf, scoring about a 6-7 on a scale of 1-10 which scratches my golf itch without question. So here it is... 10AM start time, $64 per golfer... Not bad? Well i'm here to tell you, I'll never play there again. I grew up on Los Serranos golf Course and in my 52 years playing there, i never experienced a bad green. I've played Shandin for about 20 years and all i can say is if i were the owner, I would fire the Superintendent and then fire the clown in the Pro-Shop for telling me its getting better when i asked if they had aerified the greens lately and are they healed up yet? Truthfully, from Tee to Green for 18 Holes this place is an awful mess. Don't play here. it's a waste of time and money. Go get a Real Greenskeeper and we might come back.
SAD,SAD, SAD!!!!!
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Played this morning. Fairways are very dry with many large areas of dead grass? Asked if they were going to aerate them ... » More

Played this morning. Fairways are very dry with many large areas of dead grass? Asked if they were going to aerate them and no one knew anything. So you will find many non green areas throughout the course. But they do give good roll out as firm as they are. They are also fighting an encroachment of kikyu grass into and around the greens. # 12 green looks terrible. Some greens look better than others and not all of them putt as well as they previously did before aeration. They have placed new sand in all the bunkers and they are much more playable now. The course for the most part is playble so I am not degrading it. It just does not appear as lush at it did previously. Tee boxes are all fine but they need cutting. Customer service is still some of the best in the area IMO. And the prices are good as well.
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Unfortunately the member-guest tournament I was supposed to play in yesterday at Yorba Linda CC was canceled due to the ... » More

Unfortunately the member-guest tournament I was supposed to play in yesterday at Yorba Linda CC was canceled due to the high winds, but a group of six of us decided to brave the tempest and played a six-man scramble tournament instead since we'd all gone through the trouble of driving down there.

While the wind was definitely an ever-present factor all day, and we had some significant gusts that wreaked havoc with balls on the greens, it wasn't so bad that they should have canceled the tournament, but of course they were protecting their interests. It's fine. We had a great time anyway and even won the most skins.

The course itself is very fun with tight fairways being the rule rather than the exception, and a lot of significant but not overwhelming elevation shifts between the holes. Very few are simply flat so you always have to adjust shots, but with the high winds that was always going to be the case no matter what. There's only one par 5 on the front nine so it's a par 71, but it's a pretty nice and fun variety of par 4s throughout, while all the par 3s are long and dangerous, with the exception of the short, uphill 17th. But yeah, very fun layout.

Course conditions are quite good as one would expect. They recently re-seeded so the greens were running really great (when the wind wasn't acting up) but very challenging to keep shots on them without the right trajectory, especially with the elevated greens. Teeboxes were in perfect shape, while the bunkers were thin but mostly due to the winds taking off the top layers - they should be fine when things calm down again. Rough was very thick but mostly playable when not deep in autumn leaves. Did I mention there are trees everywhere lining just about every hole on the course?

We didn't get the full compliment of amenities as the course was for all intents and purposes 'closed' with only a handful of players out there ... having a great course all to yourselves is really the coolest experience regardless the conditions. But overall the staff was great, we had a nice time in the men's dining area afterwards with drinks and appetizers and I can't wait to play the course for real when the rescheduled event takes place in the near future.
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This course is a mile from work and I just needed to play a round. For $15 I figured whatever it’s the same as a bucket.... » More

This course is a mile from work and I just needed to play a round. For $15 I figured whatever it’s the same as a bucket. Well it should not be classified as a course. Mostly dirt with patches of grass. However the greens were not that bad. Seems to be the only thing they can keep alive. Not recommended unless you are really jonezing for a round and are close by.
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Played Coyote Hills on 11/5. Fun layout and good customer service. First time getting to use the all-in Senior deal whic... » More

Played Coyote Hills on 11/5. Fun layout and good customer service. First time getting to use the all-in Senior deal which is nice.

Conditions leave me shaking my head though. Greens are pretty good, a little shaggy but still roll pretty well. But with the shaggy, footprints are a problem.

I hate the fairways. Yes, it has grass on it, but they are hard as rocks. It is like hitting off the worst possible range mats. And I still hit 16 GIRs, but maybe only because I practice on awful range mats a lot.

Tee boxes are pretty bad. Just not enough grass at all. Looks like they have done some recent maintenance, so maybe it will improve.

Sand traps look very nice, but I was in 2, and both times there was about 1/2" of nice sand and then it bottomed out

I'll give it a slight recommendation. Fun course to play, but enough issues to make me hesitate.
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Played this morning. Great to have early light to begin playing early. Course is in nice shape at the moment after green... » More

Played this morning. Great to have early light to begin playing early. Course is in nice shape at the moment after green aeration and tee box aeration. Both of them are just fine. The greens are nice and firm and speedy but will accept nice high shots just fine. Fairways are nice and clean and give good roll out and lies. Bunker work has improved the playability of the traps and they all have new sand in them now. But we still need more players to rake them? Great customer service at all levels. Just wish they would open the resaurant on Mondays/Tuesdays for more than just beverage service and premade sandwiches.
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Out walking the blues with my buddy Steve 11/4/24 for his last round before he heads back to the Midwest. Some of the fr... » More

Out walking the blues with my buddy Steve 11/4/24 for his last round before he heads back to the Midwest. Some of the friendliest staff in socal at Olivas. We had windy conditions up to 2 clubs for most of the day which is almost the norm here in the afternoon. Our POP behind the senior men's club was around 4 hrs 20 minutes catching them on hole 6 and waiting on them most of the day. The course for the 1st week in November was in good shape with tighter padded lush fairways with more roll to them7.5/10, level and nicely lush tee boxes 7.5/10, mostly lush fairway rough 7.5/10 and greens about a month coming out of maintenance that rolled decent but we're not as smooth as they usually are rated 7/10. Was in 3 greenside bunkers that were in beautiful shape with nice beach sand. Rated 8/10.

Lakes still full of water, beautiful maintained course that is transitioning into winter golf. Fantastic layout. Huge undulating greens where pin placements can be brutal. Highly recommended!
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Can't believe it has almost been a year since I last played Goat Hill. Every time I play here I am blown away by how muc... » More

Can't believe it has almost been a year since I last played Goat Hill. Every time I play here I am blown away by how much things continue to improve. Nice carts with GPS, expended pro shop, all the holes marked well, to lessen the confusion as to where to go. They punched greens in mid-October, and they rolled very true and had decent pace, quicker than expected. Just everything about this place is an upgrade from just a year ago. But of course, this comes with a price. It is no longer cheap to play here, but at least you can take solace knowing the money is being placed back into the golf course. If you have never played, I strongly recommend it.
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