Coyote Creek has two 18 hole courses on site. The premier “Tournament” course and the original “Valley” course. In the past the conditions between the two have been night and day but I had heard th... Continue »

Coyote Creek has two 18 hole courses on site. The premier “Tournament” course and the original “Valley” course. In the past the conditions between the two have been night and day but I had heard they have changed that in the last year and brought the conditions of the valley course up close to the excellent conditions of its big brother track.

We played the Valley course with a 1:30 tee time. This place is always packed on the weekends so I was prepared for the 5 hour journey that awaited. Because of Covid single rider cart restrictions, all power carts are being used for the hilly tournament course and the Valley is walking only. Easily a walking course as it’s completely flat though there are some longish transfers. The routing really is odd, but I suppose with a cart it’s not noticeable.

A couple of COVID things. Masks in public areas, outdoor dining available at restaurant, pro shop closed off except for check in counter and then the biggest thing. Coyote Creek invested in the neat little pin contraptions that have a lever about 12-18” up the flagstick that you can pull with your putter and it lifts the ball out of the cup. Except they DON’T work. I’m sure in the lab it’s a great design. But in the elements with golfers banging them around and dirt being blown into them. They just didn’t work. At best they would come up but you would have to force the plate back down. Unfortunately most golfers just left them up so they were in the way. Also, half would get stuck halfway up when pulling up on the lever and the entire flagstick would pull out often times damaging the hole. We stopped using them before the halfway point.

As far as conditions go, I was pleased with the overall state of the track. Greens were in really nice shape, holding well struck approach shots and rolling true at a medium fast pace. Greens are average size with a decent amount of undulations. Actually the perfect amount. Enough undulations that you could easily read the break, but not so much it was a rollercoaster. Only one green had some disease on the edges. There were a number of unrepaired ball marks but after 12 hours of play by the end of the day that’s not a surprise.

Fairways had good coverage throughout. A few brown areas here and there but with the 90+ degree heat of the summer that this area gets, that’s to be expected. Tee boxes ranged from 2-3 that were ok, most were nice, and 2-3 were excellent. Again, I played from the red tee’s so they aren’t seeing as much action.

The layout of the Valley course is nothing to write home about. Most holes are “been there, done that”. Only one (slight) dog leg par 4 and one nice dog leg par 5. The rest of the holes are dead straight. Two lakes on the course. One in play in front and left of the green on a par 3 the other way off to the side and out of play. Why? I don’t get that.

Fun factor: 4-5 out of 10. The overall nice conditions are worth the admissions price but don’t expect to be wowed by the layout. Side note: The course is directly next to Highway 101 so access is easy if traveling from afar.