I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more reviews for Kern River since it appears to be the only course open anymore! My foursome made the two-hour drive up to Bakersfield today and were met with a nice little course that is in very good shape and a super value for the money.

We had an 11:52 tee time and the course was very busy, but moved along nicely with a few ex... » More

I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more reviews for Kern River since it appears to be the only course open anymore! My foursome made the two-hour drive up to Bakersfield today and were met with a nice little course that is in very good shape and a super value for the money.

We had an 11:52 tee time and the course was very busy, but moved along nicely with a few exceptions at the par 3s. The range is in good shape and easy to pick up balls right there with tokens from the pro shop. Riding for $45 was a steal. We played from the blues.

It's a bit confusing getting around this course as there are not a lot of signs clearly defining where the next hole is, but if you use the map on the back of the scorecard, you can generally figure it out. There's some criss-cross sections of holes in the middle, but the rest are pretty straightforward with a few caveats.

I don't think I've ever played a course that had not one, but two 230 yard par 3s. Not a lot of room for error there. The fairways are pretty tight on a lot of the holes here and there are a lot of trees, but the main defense seems to be mostly small greens with a few exceptions, and those usually have multiple tiers to contend with. The course plays longer than its 6500 yards from the blues in my opinion.

Conditions were most very good, especially with all the extra traffic this place is getting. Like Alex236 mentioned in his review, you'll mostly get very good lies but then strangely find yourself in a thin one out in the middle of the fairway. But more good than bad. Rough is pretty thick and grabby, but manageable. I was only in one bunker and it seemed a bit thin. Tee boxes were somewhat beat up but lots of tee options to work with here.

The greens were varied throughout the day but I found them to be in good shape and mostly rolling true. There was a good amount of wind today (luckily the rain stayed away) so there was a lot of debris on the greens so that makes it tough to judge. But I found the speed changed a bit depending on the hole ... some slow, some fast, some medium. Tough to gauge.

POP was just over four hours so that was pretty darn good, and the cart girl was very attentive and did a great job. Would I come here again? Well, that's the plan, especially if it's still the only course open next week. Have no issue at all driving back up. It's a nice course at a very good price and I'm thankful they're keeping their doors open for us.
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Played Kern River Golf Course on 4/1/2020 with Kviser for our GK Cup match. Kevin did a great job describing the conditions. Which I would call “average Muni conditions”. Overall everything was ok. Nothing spectacular by any means but nothing horrible either. I thought the greens were slow to medium-slow. It took me a full 9 holes to get the speed of the greens dialed in... » More

Played Kern River Golf Course on 4/1/2020 with Kviser for our GK Cup match. Kevin did a great job describing the conditions. Which I would call “average Muni conditions”. Overall everything was ok. Nothing spectacular by any means but nothing horrible either. I thought the greens were slow to medium-slow. It took me a full 9 holes to get the speed of the greens dialed in. Part of that might have been that I had just rolled my putting green so it’s super fast right now and the two were night and day different on speed. Given that the greens at Kern River rolled smooth for the most part. Greens were medium sized with moderate slope and undulations.

Fairways had decent coverage but had some thin spots mixed in. Like Kevin said it was the luck of the draw on having a great lie or a sketchy one.

Rough wasn’t tall but very very sticky. Deceivingly tough. Sand traps were the weak link of the course for sure. Very thin at best.

Setting was fun without a doubt. Track is set up against the Kern River which was full and flowing nicely. It’s a few miles out of town so you get the away from the hustle and bustle relaxed feeling. Being both of our first times here we got fooled by the routing of holes as far as the doglegs but no big deal (especially since I made birdie on one of them).

My one criticism would be that it’s only a par 70 with three par 5’s and five par 3’s. Yet they had a few 430+ length par 4’s and three Par 3’s in the 200-225 yard range (one was 225 uphill from the whites). I would have thought they could shorten one or two of the long par 3’s and add the length to one of the long par 4’s to turn it into another par 5. Or shorten a par 4 and lengthen a par 3 to turn it into a par 4. At nearly 6300 yards from the whites there should be enough room to make this at least a par 71 course. That’s just my thought is all.

Overall it was an enjoyable day with nice weather, good company and a decent enough course. Staff at check in was very friendly. I don’t know that I will play here again in the future, but that’s only because of the location and distance to get there for me. Certainly for the price it’s worth it if in the area.
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Went out Yesterday 4/4 using club corp $26 and tee'd off an hour earlier than my tee time of 10. Course was moderately busy with groups of 3-4 going out every 15 minuets. I joined up with two guys names John (easy to remember). We zipped around the first 5 holes then caught up to a foursome who ended up letting us pass on the back nine. We played the Black/ combos and it was th... » More

Went out Yesterday 4/4 using club corp $26 and tee'd off an hour earlier than my tee time of 10. Course was moderately busy with groups of 3-4 going out every 15 minuets. I joined up with two guys names John (easy to remember). We zipped around the first 5 holes then caught up to a foursome who ended up letting us pass on the back nine. We played the Black/ combos and it was the perfect length for me.

Course was in fantastic shape today as expected for spring in AZ being the peak time of the year. Fairways were lush almost carpet like throughout the day and cut short to allow roll for days. Greens were almost perfect, they were smooth and very fast all day which was consistent to the practice green. The only reason they didn't get a perfect score was 2 false edges had some growth issues and I found both of them. Rough can only be described by one work "diabolical" It was 3 inches thick and very penal. I had issues on the 600 yard up hill Par 5 13th, It took me an extra 2 strokes to make perfect contact to get out of it. I sure found a lot of rough yesterday and it kicked my a#$. Tee boxes were a little chewed up and should be moved around but it wasn't anything to be mad at. The only thing that disappointed me was the sand traps they were all wet and firm. They need a lot of TLC.

Overall I really enjoyed this course and with the well placed tree's and narrow fairways Accuracy off the tee is a must. Also the greens were very tough to play with lots of false edges and multiple tiers to manage, mix with with speed approaching 12-13 on the stimp made for a fun day. I will be back to play on my trips to AZ as it was a fun track.
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