Played 10/18. I did not ask the pro shop but strangest green aerification/maintenance i've ever seen. No warning on Golf... » More

Played 10/18. I did not ask the pro shop but strangest green aerification/maintenance i've ever seen. No warning on Golfnow or Golfzing. Holes 1,2,4,8,11 is punched and sanded. Holes 3,14,15,16,17 no maintenance, greens are fine, smooth with medium speed. Holes 5,6,7,9,10,12,13,18 is punched with needle tines, no sand.
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Played Saturday, Oct 14th. Booked as a 3-some with a 12:20 time. Got to starter and first tee was delayed and didn’t get... » More

Played Saturday, Oct 14th. Booked as a 3-some with a 12:20 time. Got to starter and first tee was delayed and didn’t get to tee off till 12:50. Conditions: fairways were thin to completely dried out in spots...likely due to the course’s use as a parking lot for UCLA games. Rough was pretty much non-existent in most places due to water conservation efforts. Sand traps seemed good...found myself only in one but they looked ok. Greens and tee boxes were in decent shape. Many greens had unrepaired ball marks. PoP was atrocious...just over 6 hours. Favorably, with the golfzing player club...pricing was a more reasonable $24 as opposed to the standard $60 or so. Not worth it at that price.
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Played Hansen Dam on Monday, 10/16 at 7:30am. As was stated in previous reviews, the main issue with this course is the ... » More

Played Hansen Dam on Monday, 10/16 at 7:30am. As was stated in previous reviews, the main issue with this course is the greens. The tee boxes, fairways and rough are in good shape. I was surprised at the lushness of the fairways. There are some areas that are distressed, but for the most part being in the fairway is a pleasure. Nice cushion under your ball. The bunkers contain plenty of firmly packed sand. Decent to hit from. All of the greens on the front 9 and a few of the greens on the back 9 are terrible, worse than if they had punched and sanded them. Not sure how they're going to fix this. Keeping your ball on line is a challenge. Very bumpy and irregular roll, and somewhat slow. For $19 walking it was a fun round, especially when we got on the back nine with the better greens.
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10/18 using GSC $22 voucher with range balls and 10% off food teeing off about 715 for a POP of 345. Fairways are somew... » More

10/18 using GSC $22 voucher with range balls and 10% off food teeing off about 715 for a POP of 345. Fairways are somewhat spotty with some very good lies and then some extra wet or shaggy. Had mostly good lies fortunately. Rough is also varied with some real juicy areas and others that are more on the thin side. Bunkers on the front were quite wet and could use a good churn. Back 9 in better shape. Tees generally ok.
Greens are still recovering--a little bumpy and slower front 9-- getting almost back to usual good quality on the back.
Currently the back 9 is getting some environmental renovation along the riparian areas with the non-native vegetation being removed--so it looks like a construction zone in places--doesn't affect play--just aesthetics.
Golfer friendly staff always with a welcoming attitude.
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Played today in a POP of 4 H. Can't wait for DST to begin, to be able to play earlier and avoid the early morning conges... » More

Played today in a POP of 4 H. Can't wait for DST to begin, to be able to play earlier and avoid the early morning congestion this time of year causes. Course is in very nice shape at present. Tee boxes were all clean and level (hard to believe it has been almost 5 years since they were all redone); fairways had good coverage, providing good lies and were firm, providing good roll; bunkers were in fine shape (I know because I visited several); greens were mowed and chipped and putted very nicely. The condition of the course (IMO) is as good as I have seen it in recent memory, so hats of to Scott and his team. Customer service excellent at all levels.
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Played here for the first time on Monday in a charity golf scramble. if first impressions mean anything, then this place... » More

Played here for the first time on Monday in a charity golf scramble. if first impressions mean anything, then this place looked like a dump. Very old school with paint coming off the clubhouse and wood looking like it needs replacing. Not a country club I would want to join.

I read the reviews of this place and they are pretty right on. very tight, but the course is in good shape.

The greens are fantastic, very receptive, but very fast.. being above the hole is suicide.

Tee boxes are a little shaggy and chewed up, but still playable.

Fairways: are good with good coverage and the ball set-up nicely on them. A little divot damage and can tell the course does not get a lot of play.

Rough: is hit or miss with many different grasses throughout the course. Since this was a scramble , didn't have to play out of it very much.

Bunkers: seem more like dirt than sand. We were in one green side bunker and it played very nice. raked my ball out of a fairway bunker and it seemed like it was firm packed down dirt/sand mixture.

The carts are very basic with no ice chest or GPS on board. Having a good GPS at this course definitely helps. The course plays tight, but you can still play a nice fade or draw off the tee. Slices or hooks are dead. A strong 3-wood player will do good here. Not a long course, but still no push over.

looks like a course that would go public, but with it being so tight, I think it would make for a very slow round if the general public got to play.

I would come back for a charity event again, but its not a course that is a must replay.
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I get the opportunity to play Boulder Creek every year in mid-October and really look forward to it. Tournament weekend... » More

I get the opportunity to play Boulder Creek every year in mid-October and really look forward to it. Tournament weekend and played all three nines on 10/13-10/15. I really love playing here for a lot of reasons. First if not windy, the weather is beautiful this time of year. Second, it is a fun layout. A good mixture of long and short holes with split fairways and bunkers strategically placed. And third, the course is in great condition right now.

The staff in the clubhouse and in the restaurant/bar are great. On our Friday practice round, they gave us the resident, twilight rate. So nice of them to do that. The food in the restaurant is very good and the service is exceptional.

The course was recently re-opened after all of the over seeding. Fairways are super. Not a bad lie out there. The Bermuda rough is starting to brown out providing a nice color contrast with the lush, green fairways. Even though going dormant, some of the rough was thick and you could lose a ball in there. We spent a little time looking for balls in the rough. Bunkers were in good condition. Good, firm sand.

Greens were recovering nicely from the over seeding as well. About medium fast this weekend and rolled true.

Sadly, pace of play was tournament speed, about 5 hours. Our tournament is never real fast for some reason.

I cannot say enough good things about this place. If in the area, you should make it point to play.
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They just opened from overseed and it's in horrible shape. I cannot believe they overseeded the greens. They are not eve... » More

They just opened from overseed and it's in horrible shape. I cannot believe they overseeded the greens. They are not even a year old and they overseeded them. Someone is going to lose their job when they have to replace them all because of this move. They are now patchy and bumpy and hard and slow. Not a good combo. Very poor decision to overseed them.
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I was happy to join GKer itslikeimsayin when he posted a Meet-Play for Oak Valley at 1:52 on Sunday, 10/15/17, as I real... » More

I was happy to join GKer itslikeimsayin when he posted a Meet-Play for Oak Valley at 1:52 on Sunday, 10/15/17, as I really like this track and wish it was a little closer to me so I could play it more often. As I found from my ongoing head-scratching at trying to hit these greens and get putts near the hole, repeated plays here are necessary to better appreciate the correct sides of the fairway from which to approach the greens, and to get more familiar with all the subtle movement on the greens and the best way to approach various pin positions. I generally like Schmidt-Curley designs, as I think their green complexes “make sense”, but there was definitely a lot more movement and green segmentation at OV than I remembered – just because you are “on the green” doesn’t mean you have a putt at the hole. Combined with this is the abundance of uneven lies throughout the course, as it plays out into shallow washes and back – a level lie, even in the middle of the fairway, is pretty rare here, so this also must be factored into shotmaking.

It was hot and windy, but not that crowded as we queued up behind a couple of foursomes. We waited only a little bit on the first few holes, then play stretched out after about hole #5 and we rarely even saw the group in front again, and weren’t pushed from behind. Early on we were concerned about the amount of wind we were seeing around the clubhouse, but once on the course it wasn’t as bad as we feared, and the Santa Ana condition made many of the longer holes play downwind. You had to factor in the wind in club selection, but it wasn’t punishing at all. The humidity was so low that I think the ball was flying better than normal – we had several instances where balls flew much longer than we anticipated.

Greens were in very good shape (subtle movement and all – LOL!); I thought they were smooth and rolled well at medium+ speeds. I did notice some differences in firmness between greens – some were very receptive (Mark’s approach plugged in place on the elevated #4 green), but others were firmer and you could get a stiff bounce. This pattern continued throughout the round, and you were never quite sure what kind of reception approaches would get. Green speeds were fairly consistent, I thought. These greens also have some pretty steep runoffs into collection areas that generally were filled with deep lush grass, making recovery chips challenging. The course uses a red-white-blue flag rotation, but they weren’t slaves to it today – the par-5s into the wind today all had red flags, making landing on those small green-front areas challenging.

Fairways and rough were generally in good shape, and could vary from dry/firm to lush/soft, depending on the vagaries of the irrigation system. We generally got quite a bit of runout in the fairways, especially downwind. Sand looked to be in good shape everywhere. I was in 2 fairway bunkers where the sand was fairly firm, though depth varied. The greenside bunker behind #15 was also pretty firm and could use more playing depth, but anyone who knows my sand game may be skeptical of any comments.

Tees were the most questionable part of the conditioning. We immediately noticed areas of distinct uneveness and/or sloping on the first few holes – they generally got better further into the round. The recent maintenance had left the tees with obvious post-punch patchiness, but finding a good spot was dictated by terrain, not foliage. Many of the par-3 tees had no divot mix boxes, and were pretty torn up, with #14 being especially bad. Some tees with divot mix boxes had no mix in them. And some off the shorter par-4s, where players might use an iron or a hybrid, could also use divot mix boxes. And just to add to the mix, many of the tee box surrounds appear to be the favorite hangouts of the local gopher population.

Carts are basic – no GPS (a yardage book is offered; some sprinklers are marked; and there are colored monuments in the fairways) or ball-washer, but there is a cooler. Restrooms on the course are very basic, and they had capped the sink in the men’s restroom on tee #6. There are no sand refills available at the turn or elsewhere, so many divots went unfilled. Water jugs on tee #6 and tee #8 were empty. The clubhouse was closed when we finished just after 6pm, so no bathroom or water before the trip home.

GKer Andrew1 had made some comments about this being a Dye track – I knew it was Schmidt-Curley, but Mark says he thinks they were both once Dye associates, so the bulkheaded lakes, mounding and deep runoffs, and inscrutable greens at OV make more sense if that’s true and they brought some Dye influence to the ambiance. Sorry to doubt you, Andrew! Thanks to Mark and Wendy for a very enjoyable round, and I definitely need to plan on getting back here sooner rather than later.
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La Purisima is simply one of my favorite courses in Southern California. I wish it were closer, but even being about 20... » More

La Purisima is simply one of my favorite courses in Southern California. I wish it were closer, but even being about 200 miles from home, I still make certain I play there at least once a year. I never have any problem getting out early, which I attribute in large part to Stacey, who is fantastic! Always provides perfect customer service !

I am hesitant to be critical about anything on this course, but the fairways had a lot of bare spots, I mean a lot of them. Those areas which had grass were fine, but there was a 50/50 chance you would not find grass on some holes. Greens were great. Smooth and reasonably quick. Quite a few tee boxes were not level, not even close.

However when you love a course, the scenery, the staff, and just the general ambiance, you finish your round and wish you could go out and play it again. Wonderful time on a fabulous course. Played in 2 hours 40 min, which is a great pace for this. A perfect way to begin the day!
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Teed off as a 3some at 2:15pm on Monday, with the next group a full hole in front. Caught up to them in a few holes, but... » More

Teed off as a 3some at 2:15pm on Monday, with the next group a full hole in front. Caught up to them in a few holes, but never had much of a wait all day. POP ended up right at 4 hours, so looks like it was a good pace all day, with aakes90278 reporting 4 hours with a morning round.

Agree with aakes90278 on the course conditions, but wasn't in any traps. Greens were slightly bumpy, but not bad and had a good putting day. Had one of my better rounds in a long time, and attribute a portion of that to making an effort to leave approach and chip shots, etc., below/short of the hole. Wasn't always successful, but would suggest it as a strategy here when possible, as it made a real difference.

Teeboxes and fairways were all very good, and typical for the course. Got a decent amount of roll today, even though the fairways weren't cut any shorter than normal. Probably the heat of the day helped dry them out from their normal watering.

They punched the two practice greens a week ago, along with Mesa Linda. After seeing the practice greens last Wednesday after their punching, was very impressed to see how far they have come along in 5 days. Probably about 50% healed, but putted reasonably well. Normally, I'd stay away for at least 4 weeks, but am giving Mesa a go next Monday based on what I saw. The greenskeeper here does do a great job in getting the greens to heal fast after punchings. As GK has noted, Lagos will be punched next Monday and Tuesday.
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Played here yesterday for the first time in many years. We paid $33 to walk and had a 9:15 tee time. Check in was easy a... » More

Played here yesterday for the first time in many years. We paid $33 to walk and had a 9:15 tee time. Check in was easy and the course was busy due to a tournament on their other course. The putting green was bumpy and still showing signs of recent punching's and when we got to the first tee their were 3 groups waiting and 3 groups playing the hole. We teed off a little late due to this but once we did we rarely ever waited again and finished our round right at 4 hours!!! The course was green and the weather was near perfect. Overall conditions right now are not bad at all especially the greens....The were smooth, medium fast, and held shots very well. Not at all like the practice putting greens, The sand played great and the tee boxes were level. The fairways and rough were a mixed bag of lush and spotty lies otherwise I would have rated the course about 7-10. The greens were the highlight by far and we would definitely play here again. Long pars threes makes this a good test from the back tees. Very enjoyable rough with generous landing areas.
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