Played at 2:10pm as a threesome, POP was pretty good on the front, slowed on the back 9. 4hrs 20mins.

Tees were... » More

Played at 2:10pm as a threesome, POP was pretty good on the front, slowed on the back 9. 4hrs 20mins.

Tees were level and cut well. Fairways were in the process of being cut, and the kikuyu was a bit grabby where it wasn't. Rough was typical of the tract, not too bad. Found too many bunkers, and they varied from crispy to soft on greenside bunkers. One fairway bunker had uneven soft sand.

Greens were the best bit today, nice and smooth, medium speed. Held shots well, and not an excess of ball divots. This fun 18 presents more challenges v. its slope rating than most, imho.

No cart girl today and the marshal was out wandering around the course in his red cart, stopping to talk to no one.
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Played the Blacks (5826/68.3/117) with GDR23 in clear, fairly calm conditions in the 70's. We played 36 holes as a 2some... » More

Played the Blacks (5826/68.3/117) with GDR23 in clear, fairly calm conditions in the 70's. We played 36 holes as a 2some in 7 hours on a "throwback Monday" that reminded me of when Gary/I did this on a regular basis. Also "throwback" because Gary threw out an 11 birdie 67-69 performance that reminded me of some rounds 10+ years ago we played together.

Buena is a easy course to walk, shorter, few hills, no long walks between tee boxes. Fun, shorter course that is tougher than first impressions because of trees, tightness and the usual 1-2 club ocean breeze. No range, they only have a couple of cages to warm up in.

The Bermuda tees were in very good shape with almost all the divot damage already properly maintained.

The fairways were immaculate. Lush with almost complete coverage everywhere.

The Kikuyu rough is mowed down, few lost ball areas which is great for POP. Lusher closer to the fairways/greens, thinner the farther you are from the fairway. Some turf reduction wood chip areas around some of the trees and farther away from the fairways on a few holes.

The sand traps had nice sand and were decently maintained.

The greens were much better than last week. Medium fast, relatively smooth and mostly firm, they held approach shots very well.

The customer service was excellent as always here. No drink cart, no GPS on the basic carts but the sprinklers are well marked. Nice snack stand with good burgers and their drinks are good AD. Recommended.
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Played on an Underpar certificate for $89 with GKer rat-patrol at 1010am on a clear hot Sunday, 8/20/17. The course was ... » More

Played on an Underpar certificate for $89 with GKer rat-patrol at 1010am on a clear hot Sunday, 8/20/17. The course was mildly busy and we went out sandwiched between a number of foursomes, and played thru one group on #3, so pace was relaxed in a little over 4.5 hr, with quite a bit of waiting on the back nine. Staff was friendly and helpful, including engaged starters, and we saw the cart girl a couple times. The course offers complimentary water from the 1st and 10th tee, and the cart girl has free water as well – nice.

The course is in very nice condition. Greens were cut tight and are firm and running at medium-fast speed. We didn’t see too many old ballmarks. Fairway lies were good – we saw only scattered thin/bare areas. Rough was cut short and dry so it was very playable. Tees were level and fine. I was in one bunker greenside on #4 and sand quality was good.
Very nice grass range with comp balls, and a good short game area. Putting green is fairly large and has slopes that look like the on-course greens. Plush carts and quality GPS system. Cooler with water and ice.

There’s a couple holes here that I have issues with. I don’t like the layout of the 9th hole – a solid drive puts you behind a wall of oak trees with nowhere to go, unless you can fit your drive into a narrow hallway between OB right and that big oak. So maybe a hybrid off the tee on a par-5 – ugh! Hole #7 is funky in that there’s about a 30x30-ft area just inside the right bunkers where you can have a reasonable 2nd shot to a severe green. Hole #13 is still shown as the 2-handicap hole, and as a 587-yd par-5 on the card and website, but issues with balls flying into homes along the left side have forced the course to move all the tees up to <500 yards – the white tees we played Sunday were inside a 455-yd marker. The initial right bunker that was a factor from the back tees is now sitting out there pretty moot, and you mainly just have to stay short of the creek crossing. From there it’s 230 (wedge-wedge) in, factoring in the deep narrow green against the creek left. Not really the 2-hcp hole anymore, IMHO.

Always a pleasure to play here, and I enjoyed Jim’s company during the round. Lots of construction going on at the resort with a new room wing and new spa being built, and traffic in Temecula and on the freeway afterward was horrific.
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Paired with Nickesquire and dconnally as part of the GK guru outing on the morning of 8/18. Echoing statements by the ot... » More

Paired with Nickesquire and dconnally as part of the GK guru outing on the morning of 8/18. Echoing statements by the other gurus, an extremely pleasant surprise hidden in the hills of Camp Pendleton. Everything was far above average with the greens and bunkers being the highlight of the show. All(or most) of the traps have been recently renovated and filled with new sand. Greens rolled extremely well at med-fast speed on flat putts with not a lot of divot damage. Fairways had great kikuyu coverage as did much of the rough. The areas around the newly renovated bunkers was nearly all bermuda so that made things a little interesting at times. Tee boxes were good even with a few being on the tilted side. Fun course to play and a definite must to have in the rotation if you live in south OC/ north SD.
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What can I say about Alondra?! You have to know going into it that the course is always beat up, 5somes all over the pla... » More

What can I say about Alondra?! You have to know going into it that the course is always beat up, 5somes all over the place, and 5 hour rounds are the norm. If you experience anything positive, well than you just made out.

I played Monday, August 21st at 2pm. The course was pretty wide open. After getting through a slow 4some at the turn, we had the course wide open for the back nine. We finished at 5:45pm, so POP was great at 3:45.

The course is struggling. Tee boxes are ok. The fairways are a mix of hardpan, GUR, and spotty grass coverage. The rough is about the same. The traps we actually decent and playable.
The greens were HORRIBLE. 3-4 of them were sanded, 10 of them were crazy bumpy and slow, and about 3-4 were just 'ok'.

Again, anything above pretty bad here is a bonus. Today the POP was good, so I guess we made out, hahahaha.
I wish they could get it in the shape it was in around 2014-2015. I remember it being in great shape then.
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Crushingly disappointing experience at SH today. I really don't understand the previous recent reviews, perhaps somethin... » More

Crushingly disappointing experience at SH today. I really don't understand the previous recent reviews, perhaps something has changed here very recently or we aren't playing the same course.

This course is in worse condition than the worst muni course you have ever played.

The fairways are weeds. The rough is knee high weeds or hardpan that hasn't seen water in years. The traps are dirt, the tees boxes are watered, but all torn up. The range mats have holes through them, few have tees and the tee mats and the club racks were all strewn about the range like a tornado had just passed through. Ball washers dry, no benches at the tees, trash cans over full. Bright spot? The greens were quite nice.

Once was a great facility and a great course, now for all practical purposes management has abandon this course.

It is sad. Don't do it.
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Played 8/20 morning with a POP of just under 4 hours. This place is first class and if you haven't been there I highly ... » More

Played 8/20 morning with a POP of just under 4 hours. This place is first class and if you haven't been there I highly would advise you to check it out. 64$ green free with a 15 food voucher and free bag towel? That's niceeeeee.

Tees: Immaculate. Even, tightly mown, hardly a divot in site.
Fairways: Not there usual deep green but more of a light green/yellow. Still also immaculate. Never a bad lie
Rough: Barely there. Cut to about a inch. Ball always sat up which was nice.
Bunkers: Almost as good as it can get, just need a little more depth to the sand.
Greens: Crazy good for this time of year. A slight graininess but rolled a true 10 and if you hit your put on line it was going in.

Overall what more is there to say about this place? It is in my top 10 favorite tracks anywhere although the layout can be a little boring/repetitive at times.
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Played her 8/19 at 230 with a POP around 3 hours. Was excited to get out here as its one of my favorites in the desert ... » More

Played her 8/19 at 230 with a POP around 3 hours. Was excited to get out here as its one of my favorites in the desert and it didn't disappoint.

Tees: Even with good coverage and minimal damage. Still the grass was overgrown (ala Nicklaus course) so hard to tee it up without a 4in tee.
Fairways: Yellow/Brown with great coverage. Ball sat up nicely.
Rough: Around 2 inches, didn't affect play greatly but was around a club. Even coverage.
Bunkers: Can't comment but looked fine.
Greens: Much better than Nicklaus course but still a little grainy. These are normal summer greens for the desert so I was fine with it especially since the putts held there lines here! Just slow as one would expect.

Overall a pleasure to play as always. Even in the crazy summer heat (109 while we played) the course is still great and in good shape. Would recommend.
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Played 8/19 with a POP of 4.5 hours. Love the clubhouse and driving range. Restaurant had great food. The course howev... » More

Played 8/19 with a POP of 4.5 hours. Love the clubhouse and driving range. Restaurant had great food. The course however...

Tees: Overgrown with lots of divot damage. Hard to find good places to tee even on Par 5's.
Fairways: Decent enough. Good coverage, mostly yellow/brown grass but always a good lie.
Rough: It was deep and affected play greatly. I would say 3 inches.
Bunkers: Good depth but a little crusty, had no problems however.
Greens: Really bad. Of the 3 tracks I played this weekend far and away the worst. Grainy, slow, wobbly, any bad adjective would be accurate. They are also repairing the fringe and on some holes its just dirt squares missing in a ring around the green.

Great layout in terrible shape. Would avoid at all costs until they reopen post October. I get that its summer and everything but even the other course I played on the property (Mountain) was far better. Would love to come back and play it in late fall/winter/early spring however.
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Played 8/21 teeing off at 10:50 without a soul on the course all day but my group.

Due to some unfortunate circ... » More

Played 8/21 teeing off at 10:50 without a soul on the course all day but my group.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I was unable to play at Marine Memorial with the other Guru's on Friday 8/18, so the itch to golf was fierce going into the weekend.

Rio Bravo was set to close down this May after not turning a profit for quite some time. In March, some homeowners on the course banded together to purchase the country club in hopes of saving their home value and the course. They have since turned the country club into a semi-private club, where the members get access to the course from daybreak to 10:30 am, and then it's open to the public. Their hope is that it'll drum up interest for people who would want to have a membership there.

Anyways, the heat that Bakersfield has experienced all summer has definitely had an effect on all the courses in the area(we had something like 53 straight days of 100-degree weather). Fairways are drying up, greens are either too watered or not enough, and tee boxes are showing the effects of constant use.

Rio Bravo has always had great greens, and today was no exception. Aside from some minor mold growing on the greens as a result of over watering, they ran smooth and quick.

The tee boxes left a lot to be desired, as they are uneven and don't have much growing on them.

Fairways, like I mentioned, are dry. There are some lush areas near sprinklers, but the majority of them are dry. The rough is spotty at best. 3 yards off the fairway and you're either in hardpan or thick grass.

Bunkers were nice. A little on the hard side but enjoyable to hit out of.

I hope the new owners are able to turn the course around. Maybe once the cooler weather comes they can attempt an overseed in hopes of getting the fairways back to lush, maybe even revamp the tee boxes completely.
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Hosted a small group tournament on 8/19/17. A lot of the players played the course for the first time and they were pret... » More

Hosted a small group tournament on 8/19/17. A lot of the players played the course for the first time and they were pretty happy with the course.

I've played once a week for the last 5 weeks (sorry for not writing a review!). And the course has been in good shape. Fairway and rough is lush, tee boxes are in good condition, and the greens are always smooth and fast. The greens take shots pretty well and reacts according to the shot that you hit. Bunkers are filled with good amount of sand, but maybe a little on the heavy side.

Customer service is always good. Marshall is always driving around to keep up pace. And they also helped me once playing as a single to jump a couple of holes and come back to play the 3 holes that I missed.

Couple of my group players said they were really impressed with the course and condition. With the 75 degree weather, they said that they would like to come back.

For me, this is the go to course for the summer. Beats playing in 100 degree weather in the Valley!
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Played today in a nice time of 3 H. Course was a little over watered today, which slowed things down on fairways/greens.... » More

Played today in a nice time of 3 H. Course was a little over watered today, which slowed things down on fairways/greens. No doubt it was better when things dried out, but an early round was difficult under these conditions. Tee boxes were clean/level; fairways provided good lies but no roll; rough was about 1/2 inch, wet and hard to play out of; bunkers were just fine; greens, while looking good, were wet/slow. Customer service was good. Restaurant was doing brisk "eclipse" business this AM.
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