Checked off another new course in the area yesterday afternoon when I played Wente Vineyards. I’ve heard a lot about this place so I was eager to see if it lived up to its billing. First off, I’l... Continue »

Checked off another new course in the area yesterday afternoon when I played Wente Vineyards. I’ve heard a lot about this place so I was eager to see if it lived up to its billing. First off, I’ll address getting there. Plan your tee time accordingly to traffic. What should have taken me 25 minutes took just under an hour due to Friday traffic. Lessened learned on that one.

As far as the layout, this course is awesome. Plenty of grip it and rip holes with elevation changes and wide landing areas to build up the confidence, but then there are some short par 4’s that require precision off the tee with an iron. It also has a good mixture of par 3’s. As far as layout it concerned it checked all the boxes. The switch back climb from the 9th green to the 10th tee box which was reminiscent of Alpe D’Huez was fun in a cart but all but guarantees that you can’t walk this course (and still enjoy it).

Condition wise the course was fine. Somewhere between above average and top notch. Greens rolled smooth at a medium + pace. Greens were pretty docile as far as challenge goes. Most were single tier with modest slope. Or maybe my putter was just that good (27 putts total). Fairways were excellent, Nice and lush with great coverage throughout. Tee boxes and sand traps were ok. Nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about.

Customer service - Sucked. I gave it 2 stars for customer service and that was due to the bag attendant being great. The pro shop on the other hand was horrible. They were put out by the fact that I needed change (so I could tip the bag attendant) and looked down at me because I didn’t know the exact time of my tee time. I guess it’s too much trouble to look at the computer. Anyway, for that reason alone, I opted not to buy a shirt in the pro shop.

For layout and conditions, the track is worth playing. For price and customer service, I’d skip it. Not sure if I’ll ever play it again, but if I do it’ll likely be because a friend has invited me.