Played in a Rancho Park Men's Club tournament this weekend and the venue of choice was the always fun Brookside #1 in Pasadena. We played under threatening skies that fortunately never broke, but it was a little cooler and windier than normal, making for an even more challenging round than usual on this tough course.

My group had a 10:50am tee time with two walker and two riders. The carts at Brookside I noticed now have speakers built into the sides, almost like sideview mirrors on your car. We were assigned the red tees (thanks to my currently abysmal handicap), which was still a good challenge at this long course but actually was pretty fun to move up and not stress as much on every tee shot.

Greens were running really nicely and quite speedy, but the pin placements on some holes were absolutely diabolical. There's nothing worse than chipping on past a pin and then seeing it on the downhill side of a harsh slope with no chance to stop it. Everyone suffered. The ball on some greens seemed to pick up pace going uphill! It was pretty crazy, but they're in good shape and rolling nicely.

Fairways were just okay to be honest. There weren't a ton of lush areas, but everything was playably thin. I've seen it much better out there in the past so I trust they will get back to that condition soon enough. Rough was playable and accessible. I did not face any bunkers all afternoon but I watched my playing partners perform admirably and heard no complaints. Tee boxes look to have been recently worked on so they were in nice shape, maybe in some cases a tad bit shaggy but overall quite good.

We had cart service swing by twice which was great and of course the course layout is one of SoCal's best as they routinely host SCGA qualifiers here due to its quality. Never a bad time out in Pasadena at Brookside #1 ...

Walked the white tees yesterday, Sunday, 4/26. Tee off at 6:40am. $53 to walk and POP was fantastic at 4hrs, a little waiting on the first few holes, but then smooth sailing.

1PLUS1 review is spot on! Nothing to add. I would avoid this place for the next 3-5 weeks. The South looked nice from what I could tell driving in and out of the complex. Maybe hit that course if you need to play Admiral Baker in the near future.

Played Course 1 (2,652) on 4/19 and Course 1/2 (5,155/64.9/110) on 4/23/26 from the Green tees after the two nines had come out of green maintenance/aeration the week prior. Not much has changed in the way of conditions here in the 10 months since I resumed playing. Tees are usually good but many on these two nines are somewhat or severely sloping. Fairway bunkers are very firm and greenside bunkers lack sand and are difficult to play from and control your shots. [Shop said an extensive bunker renovation program is planned soon - we'll see.] Fairway lies are tight but usually good with pretty good runout (for kikuyu), while rough is highly variable and you can get the ball in a grass clump, sitting down in an uneven area, bare dirt, and who-knows-what. Greens are consistent in term of speed and firmness, with more exposed greens being firmer/faster in the late afternoon. The recent aeration left some limited areas on greens with visible sand fill and softer landing conditions, but those should clear up quickly.

No cart girl or ranger at any time. The course is generally pretty busy as the membership here is large. Many walkers and personal carts but play usually moves OK – we finished 4/23 in just over 4 hours.

Played 4/26/26 8 am. Very busy course even in the morning rain. Fairways had mostly good to great coverage with a few thin areas mixed around. Rain made everything soggy with little to no roll. Greens had good coverage. Very soft and bumpy. A few had not completely recovered from areation. Traps very firm from rain. Over all the course was in decent to good shape. The home to long rounds but worth try if not in a hurry.

Played on Saturday before the rain. Course was in good shape except for the usual spots in the fairway where it seems difficult to grow grass year in and year out. Looks like a truckload of sod was used to cover up most of the spots but more work needs to be done imo. Strange that they used the same fairway sod to fix surround areas (fringes of the greens). Completely different grass. Don't know why they just didn't use putting green sod from their turf farm. Greens haven't fully healed from aeration 4+ weeks ago. Golf ball still wobbles down the line, but soon should be back to normal. Green speeds were quicker than they looked. Rough is knarly. Member-Guest in a month so expecting significant improvement.

Saw that there wasn't a review of this course for almost 3 years, I got there and I found out why... Even with the Golf Moose coupon, I don't think I would play here again. I don't like bad mouthing any golf course because many of them are being taken away here in Southern California, but this course should completely shut down and revamp. Everyone that works here has a great attitude though- oh yeah, the cart girl is IG famous. She's very friendly and modest, but drop dead gorgeous... But back to the review- Tee boxes bushy and very uneven. Fairways had several different types of grass with clovers and daisies mixed in everywhere. Sand traps are all over the place and they are terrible- just dirt and mud for the most part. The course is a Pete Dye design and there's the telltale railroad ties and bunkering on most of the holes. Greens were the best part of the course and they had shelves and big undulations on them. They rolled smooth for the most part and should be fully healed in a week or two. If they would put some money into this course, it would really be a fun track. The employees are exceptional and are genuinely glad to be there- that's what stood out the most...

Played palms with 3 very nice gentlemen and that was by far best part of the day. Course has good coverage for most part so lies are good tee to green. Greens a week or two from being back in shape after punching, greens also have good coverage and when healed will be a positive for course. Green side bunkers are fine, fairway bunkers just hard dirt. Course seems to be very well liked by locals and gets plenty of play, as a course you would drive a good distance to play strong NO if quality of course is important to you, if you are interested in playing a somewhat interesting set up YES. Maybe a little hard for women and very high handicap players.

Played this morning around 8:00 am, joining three regulars, walking from the blue tees. They had a barbecue going for burgers and hot dogs when I finished and the restaurant was packed with locals. Nice to see. The snack shack at the 2nd and 14th greens was closed, from what I was told probably permanently. No drink cart. We played in 4:20, falling a shot behind at the end.

The conditions were very good. Green and lush fairways for the most part. Some barer areas but I was not in any. The rough was generally cut down but was on occasion a factor. The sand traps did not have much sand in them. There was enough, but barely. The greens were very nice, running fast and true. I had three three-putt bogeys, twice when it ran out more than expected (front left pin position on #1 is always bad when putting from above the hole) and once when I left a lengthy putt woefully short. I really like the greens here when they are running like this.

Overall, a great experience. Recommended.

I played Biltmore yesterday morning joining two locals and another single. This course is marketed as one of the highlight courses in Miami so I was curious to see if it lived up to its billing. Things didn’t start off very well regarding customer service. First off the service in the restaurant was some of the worse I’ve had in years. The food was average at best. Oh well, on to the pro shop. Not much better there. She couldn’t find my reservation even after I showed her a screenshot of my booking confirmation. We got through that but there were a couple of other issues. One, you have to pay for parking in the parking lot. However, you can scan a code in the pro shop and they will comp you the parking. But not if you have already paid for your parking. This information would have been helpful to have on the website and in the parking lot. Two, the online price indicates that a cart is included. Negative, carts are extra. I’m all for a walking price and a cart price, just be clear about it. Next came range balls. I inquired about range balls and she said there was a ball dispenser on the back side of the shack near the range. She was correct, except you have to have a code which you get when you pay for range balls in the pro shop.

On to the actual course itself. Overall, not a bad layout. They have a few creative holes in what is a mainly a parkland setting. Fairways are generously wide on most holes with some well placed trees and plenty of fairway bunkers to keep you honest. For the most part the fairway bunkers weren’t an issue. I was in a few of them and no problem getting out and reaching the green. The fairways at Biltmore were very nice. Lush and green and easily the best I’ve played since being here in Florida. I’d rate the fairways at a strong 7 or weak 8.

Greens were a different story. One of the members said the greens were in horrible shape and needed a complete overhaul. At first I thought wow this guy has high standards as the greens weren’t bad at all. Then we ran into some that had some bad patches but the pin was kept away from those areas. As the day progressed I started realizing all of the greens had some serious disease, brown spots and general ugliness. I will say that the grounds crew did a good job staying away from the bad areas with the pin placements. The greens rolled at a medium pace.

Tee boxes were in bad shape. Obviously a different grass was used for the tee boxes and it is struggling to survive. A lot of the tee boxes had recently been filled with sand to try and get them back into shape. There was enough good coverage on the par 3’s to find a good clean hitting surface.

There was one water hazard in the form of a man made canal that runs through about 6-7 of the holes. There was about 2 forced carries over the water with the rest being lateral hazards. Not the most creative use of water hazards but not the worst either.

Overall, this was a decent course that at the walking resident rate (they will check for ID) it’s worth it. The extra fees for cart, parking and range balls make it a so so and the rack rate for visitors takes it off my “recommendation” list for sure.

Was able to get out early this AM. Walked for $18 Sr rate. POP 3H.

Course is in really nice shape at the moment.

No tee box issues.

Fairways clean and giving good lies and roll out on all holes.

Rough was not very high nor very penal easily able to advance ones ball.

Traps were all clean, playable and heard no complaints.

Greens were clean and chipped/putted just fine all round. Not very big or undualting but had good speed and I did not see nor repair any ball marks (wow).

Good customer service from all I came in contact with.

Nice course to play that does not wear you out if you like to walk and have a good POP.

April 2026 played after aeration two weeks ago. Greens were extremely bumpy and slow. If you enjoy (Golf) as much as I do and appreciate good putting I would stay away from here for at least a month and give them a chance to get the greens in shape.

Played ‘AB’-North Thursday afternoon on a perfect day, weather-wise, despite having to deal with a steady two-club wind that, more often than not, was not in our favor. Also took a full five hours (teed off @ 1:06PM) to complete the round due to periodic waiting on the front side and a snail’s pace back nine where we waited on every single tee box.

Condition-wise, course is in overall decent shape but I strongly recommend staying away until next week’s aeration process has been completed and the greens have sufficient time to heal. I’d give them at least three weeks but that may depend on what type of weather kicks off the month of May.

While I didn’t have any issue with how the greens rolled yesterday…although I felt they were a touch slower than usual…the number of unrepaired ball marks was eye-opening. There were some areas on certain greens that looked like someone hit a shag bag of balls during a practice session yet didn’t bother to repair the resulting damage.

I’m not sure if it’s due to the heavy amount of play the course gets, the Member-Member/Member-Guest that was held on Tuesday, or the ABWC that played earlier Thursday, but it was so irritating to see this level of imperfection on the putting surfaces. Knowing the greens are going to be done next week, do people think fixing their ball marks a few days ahead of the process simply doesn’t matter?

Also want to mention that quite a few front aprons have already been punched and sanded while other greens were being heavily watered in preparation for the same. Needless to say, it served as a bit of a surprise since some of these areas can’t be seen from the fairway. And then there’s the problem of having to deal with above-ground hoses and sprinklers strewn around the fronts of the greens.

Tee boxes were in good shape although a few could use a light sanding in order to level them out. I found myself having to search for a spot where either my ball and/or driver weren’t sitting in a slight depression.

Fairways were healthy with full coverage outside of a few isolated spots that were turfed yet a bit thin in density. Still, nothing a well-executed swing couldn’t handle. And with the exception of the aprons I mentioned, other fringe areas were in very good shape. As always, the rough is thick and brutal to play out of.

Traps were good although the sand played a little ‘heavier’ than I would prefer. As I recall, the texture used to be a bit firmer a year or two ago but may have lost that characteristic as time goes on. Just conjecture on my part.

So, if you decide to get a round in this weekend, you’ve been forewarned. Another thing to note is that, in the future, I will refrain from playing the week before any scheduled maintenance due to the work that takes place in advance of the green aeration. I understand it’s a necessity but now that I’m aware of the preliminary process, I’ll think better of it.