What a glorious day yesterday!! Bob and I tee’d off just after Noon on what was one of the most perfect golf weather days on the peninsula all year! Sunny and about 72 degrees with hardly a breath of wind. The fog did roll in with about 2 1/2 holes left to play but given a couple of weeks ago it was sweater and vest weather and a couple weeks before that up the road at Poppy Hills we couldn’t see the greens through the thick fog from 100 yards out, this was a big welcome.

Condition wise, I’m happy to report that the course is in fantastic shape. Back in May and June the course was starting to slip a little bit. I was concerned that since they are shutting it down for a makeover in March 2026, that they were going to start letting conditions slide downhill. That is not the case, I can assure you. Greens were excellent, rolling true at a nice medium-fast pace. They did get a little bumpy towards the end but that’s to be expected at 5pm on poa annua grass.
Fairways were near perfect. very lush throughout the entire course. Tee boxes were level with ample coverage. No issues with the sand traps or the rough. Beverage cart was around several times and for those who do take a cart they have GPS in them. POP was about 4 3/4 hours which is to be expected for a weekend tee time here. All in all, Spanish Bay is in fantastic shape with ocean views galore. It’s no surprise that it’s one of my favorite go to courses on the Monterey Peninsula.

DeepSea14 and I met up at the newly redesigned Poppy Ridge. Gone are the three separate 9 hole layouts used in rotation to create 18 holes for the day, and in place is one standard 18 hole layout with a separate Par 3 course. This is obviously my first time playing the new layout, and I will admit that I only played the old course twice, so I didn’t have a huge sample to compare it with.

Before I go into the layout, I will give you the down and dirty only the conditions. Overall, very nice. Nothing below an 8. Greens rolled smooth and fast. Fairways had complete coverage throughout the entire course. Fairways presented tight lies but the trade off is good roll out.

Sand traps were an 8-9 in that they had deep fluffy sand. Only 1 was damp and a little compacted. tee boxes were level and divot free. There isn’t any rough to speak of here. Just lush fairway and dirt. Maybe Peter can recall something different.

Onto the layout. It’s a hilly course with WIDE open fairways. Probably the widest fairways I’ve seen in a long time. Much much issue off the tee. A bombers dream for sure. I struggled with the driver all day, yet I finished with the same ball I started with and didn’t have a single double bogey. Like I said WIDE open. Not a tree in sight. There is now only one water hazard on the entire course. That’s a bummer in my opinion. I’d say it was a water conservation thing but they have a ton of excess grass on tee boxes that are 100+ yards long and tightly mowed
“Fairway” grass from tee to green on a 200 yard par 3. If they needed to conserve water there are plenty of areas they could change that would save water yet not affect the playability of the course.

Greens were very large with modest undulations. Some of the greens rivaled those at Rancho Solano in nearby Fairfield, CA. BTW all flags are blue at Poppy Ridge we walked so we didn’t have access to the GPS in the carts and my golf app hadn’t updated the system to the new layout yet. We were often guessing at the pin location in relation to the overall layout of the green.

As mentioned before, the tee boxes while level and lush were. Huge. Sometimes a 100 yards long. We walked the course and for the most part it’s a fairly walkable course. There were only two real back breakers of a transfer. One was actually on a par 3 from the tee to the green which was across the gully. You had to retrace your path from the tee box back to the cart path and walk around the ditch then either walk all the way around the Side of the hill or hike through the barren land with rocks. A little bridge and path would have been nice.

Overall, I preferred the old layout to the new one. Not sure what the motivation was behind it as they didn’t make it any easier to walk nor did they insert any water conservation measures.

Am I disappointed? No, I’d play here again. The conditions coupled with the (NCGA) price is worth it alone. And it’s not that it’s a bad layout. I just preferred the old one.

Every time I play Cinnabar Hills, I walk away with a smile and say I need to play here more often. I played Wednesday morning with a 9AM tee time in bright sunny weather. Routing was the Mountain/Canyon combination and this is only my second time playing the Canyon 9. Unlike the other nines, the canyon is much more strategic off the tee. It’s a good mix up from the grip it and rip it wide fairways of the other two layouts. Condition wise the course was in fantastic shape. The last time I played here was in May so naturally it was in great shape. Weather has been hot this last week and you wouldn’t know it by the condition of the course.

Fairways were near perfect. Very lush with a nice emerald green glow throughout. Fairways presented a great hitting surface along with a decent amount of roll out. Easily rated a 9 but could be argued they were a 10. Tee boxes were also in that 8+ to 9 rating. Level and lush with ample coverage. I was only in one sand trap and it had a good amount of fluffy sand.

The rough was the “weak” spot. For the most part the rough was lush throughout but there were a handful or two of dead /thin areas. Still rated at a 7 so not horrible.

The greens were nice as well. The greens on the Mountain course were super smooth and rolled at a fast pace. Greens on the Canyon side were noticeably slower but still rolled true. The greens at Cinnabar are a perfect blend of challenging undulations but fair.

POP was 4.5 hrs and the carts have GPS to the pin.

Cinnabar is a public course that has a country club feel to it. Oh, and not a house within miles if you’re looking for a course outside a housing track.

Black Horse was once a favorite track that eventually disappeared from my playlist. Well after playing here on Tuesday, I’m happy to say it’s back. Yes the course is unrecognizable if you haven’t been here in a few years. Gone are the hundreds of Cypress trees that lined the fairways (and blocked views of the ocean). In their place are now dozens of homes. It is what it is. $3m dollar homes bring in more money than $59 Golf Now specials! But on the positive side is both courses remain fully intact with their original routing. Yes some wasteland areas have been added mainly from the tee box to the “new” beginning of the fairway a la Spanish Bay and Del Monte. However, unlike Spanish Bay it doesn’t take a monster drive to just reach the fairway. So kudos to Bayonet/Blackhorse for keeping both courses open and intact.

Conditions have also returned to excellent all around. Greens are firm and fast (but very predictable speed in all directions). We played in early afternoon so by the time we got to the back nine the wind was up a bit so that had more do with holding the green than anything. Down hill, down wind and it was impossible. Uphill, up wind and you could stick it 3’ from the pin.

Fairways were nice and lush side to side with hardly a thin spot to be found on the entire course. Sand traps were just short of a perfect 10. In fact, they probably were a 10 but because I was in 7 of them, I had to knock them down somehow!

POP was 4 hours 15 mins. Which wasn’t bad considering it took us 10-15 minutes to tee off because the idiots in front of us drove their cart into the soft sand / wasteland area and got stuck. Carts now have GPS in them which I don’t believe they did before.

As I mentioned before, they removed a ton of trees. This has opened up numerous views of the bay that weren’t there before. There is still construction going on but it’s traditional contractor stuff and not the heavy earth moving equipment that was here before.

I can finally say that a once favorite peninsula course is now worth playing again. Course conditions and layout now match the entry price.

I played here this morning with a sub 6AM Tee time to see if I could finally beat the 5 hr round that always comes with this place. Unfortunately, NO. In fact it got so bad that I quit after 12 holes and walked across the entire course back to the parking lot. Conditions of the course are pretty identical to my last review. the only real difference is that fairways were in a bit better shape side to side and the tee boxes were a bit uneven.

All in all this is a fun challenging track with solid conditions tee to green. All at an acceptable price point. However, the the dreaded 5 hr round during mid week and early early morning will most likely prevent me from coming back. I couldn’t image what this place is like on a weekend during prime time. Play here if you have a day to kill, otherwise avoid it.

Now that the Tour de France is over, I can get back to Golf! This course has been on and off my play list for some time now. Some people I talk to say it’s really worth playing and others say avoid at all cost. No one seemed to be in the middle… Except ME! Overall it was OK. Nothing that wowed me and nothing that horrified me.

I’ll start with the overall layout of the course. Deadpan flat. As in the wind chop waves in the bay had more elevation! That being said, it’s a super easy walk. It also provided numerous views of the SF bay and the City (San Francisco). That was cool and unexpected. For that I give it a thumbs up. Otherwise the layout was pretty boring. Just a parkland up and back type of routing. No real dog legs. 17 holes were pretty much dead straight. Fairways were generously wide on most holes. Wind can be the real factor here. Today it was average with about a 10-12 mph steady wind.

Conditions was sliding scale. Greens were fine. Rolled smooth at a medium pace with very few pitch marks. Greens were single tier with no real undulations. In fact, the hard part was reading them trying to decide if there was any break at all. Fine for a muni course and it helped the putting stats. From there the fairways were decent enough. Good coverage for the most part but definitely some thin and dead areas throughout the course. Again, well within the acceptable muni range. After that it declined significantly. Bunkers were pretty bad. Mainly hardpan dirt, or the occasional mud pit. Tee boxes were generally horrible. Very little grass, lots of uneven surfaces and hard to get a tee in the ground.

As far as the geese poop. There were only a couple of holes that had it off to the side. Not too bad. Nothing on the green. Pace of play was slow. Just under 5 hrs.

Would I recommend this course? Sure, if you are in the area (like sailed into the adjoining marina) or like I did today and just want to try a new course. Yes it’s worth it.

After having perfect weather the last couple of outing here at Poppy Hills, today was the complete opposite. Dense fog the entire round. To the point where you couldn’t see the green from beyond 77 yards. We had to yell to the groups behind to advise when the greens were clear. But, the upside was no wind and actually it wasn’t all that cold.

The rest of the course was in solid condition tee to green. Greens rolled smooth at a medium pace. I found myself with a lot of uphill putts which were pretty tame. Downhill on the other hand, super fast. Fairways were excellent. very lush throughout. Tee boxes were level and lush. Bunkers were very playable. Sand was a little thin but consistent nonetheless.

POP was 5 hours. It always seems slow here. Customer service has improved greatly this year. Well worth playing .

I finally got around to playing the newly renovated San Juan Oaks. In short not much has changed. But that’s a good thing because I really liked this course before it shut down for 2 years. Condition wise the course was in great shape tee to green. Greens were firm and fast. I’ve said it before, the greens at SJO have the perfect blend of enough undulations to challenge you but nothing ridiculous.

Fairways were lush with good coverage throughout. Some of the areas leading up the greens were tight lies but still had good coverage. Tee boxes and sand traps were all good to go.

As far as the layout is concerned nothing really changed. they swapped the 9’s so you now tee off on what used to be #10 and then head up into the hillside. They used to do that on occasion before so no real change. What has changed is the split fairway on #4 (old #13). It is now a single fairway with just the one on the left. The fairway on the right is completely gone with 3’ weeds now in its place.

Other than that I did not see any changes to the course. There might be a new fairway bunker on #10 (old #1) but it’s been so long since I’ve played here, I can’t fully remember if it was there before or not. In fact the new housing development doesn’t really come into play. There are houses along the right side of the long 1 mile entrance road as you come in but nothing alongside the course. At least not as of yet. In fact you can’t see any of the houses from any part of the course. . I have no idea why they closed this place down for 2 years. The clubhouse / restaurant has been completely remodeled and now features full on dinners (or at least that’s the plan).

The price has gone up to $125 mid week and $175 weekend. That includes a cart and warmup range balls. SJO is a fun and challenging layout with great conditions. POP was a little under 4 hours.

Played Spyglass Hill on Tuesday afternoon on an overcast but warmish day. Being local and knowing the head pro has its benefits. There had been a shotgun tournament earlier in the day and Patrick gave us the option of going off the back nine which was wide up. My buddy and I were joined by a single and the three of us had the entire course to ourselves. By the time we came around the front nine it was cleared out and we finished in about 3 hours. Course is in excellent shape as you would expect. Fairways, tee boxes and sand traps are as close to perfect 10’s as you can get. Rough was thick and penal. I don’t know what it is about the rough at Spyglass but it’s like swinging through Velcro!

Greens were a little on the slow side. My guess is they slowed them down for the earlier outing. My buddy is a caddie at PB/Spy and he said the greens were rolling very fast a few days earlier. The slower (normal speed) greens helped tame the greens.

They are still doing work on the 15th green (short par 3) so that hole is closed. They have now moved the tee boxes Waaay back on 14 and made a temp green just in front of the pond. Then they added a tee box off to the right for a short (120 yard) Par 3 over the pond to the original 14th green which is now the 15th green during the maintenance. They have add some golf carts for walkers to take from the 14/15th green to the 16th tee as it’s now a bit of a hike. You then leave the golf cart off to the side halfway down the 16th fairway so the next group can use them. It’s a nice touch of customer service.

Spyglass is a tough track which is always a pleasure to play.

Played Del Monte this morning with a former co-worker who was in town from Texas. The original plan was to play Poppy Hills but there was a tournament going on so we opted to Del Monte. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We tee’d off at 9:30 with a couple other locals. Course is in great shape Tee to green. Starting with the small greens that for the most part are single tier but they have just enough slope in them to keep you honest. The greens rolled smooth at a very fast pace. I played Spanish Bay last week the greens here were much much faster.

Fairways present a tight lie which is great for roll out. Still plush enough to get good contact and they were green throughout. Tee boxes were level and lush as well. I wasn’t in any sand traps but I did rake a few for my buddy and they were all great. Plenty of nice and fluffy sand. Rough was very manageable.

They have done some reworking of a few of the bunkers. Mainly on holes 9 and 10. They have reshaped them and added some nasty lips and mounds to negotiate. Gone are the church pew style bunker/grass on hole 10 and now it’s just an ugly bunker with mounds of grass. Not sure what the purpose of that was. Maybe easier on maintenance crews?

As far as customer service is concerned. One person (Don A.) who is in the pro shop, is a complete jerk (enter other explicit here). The rest of the team are great. This used to be a “locals” course but they seem to cater towards tourists who I guess are paying the outrageous fees. I used a couple of free vouchers so obviously it was worth it. But for $135 rack rate? No way. $75 would seem like a fair price for this place.

very disappointing conditions. In short avoid this place. I’ve played here dozens of times and the last couple including earlier this week have really been poor conditions. The greens have multiple brown/dead areas on them and the skirt area around the greens are atrocious. Mainly hardpacked dirt with a few patches of grass here and there. Fairways were the only decent part of the course. Fairly lush with a good amount of rollout. Tee boxes were pretty chewed up. Bunkers were a mixture of gravel pits and others were excellent with ample fluffy sand throughout.

Prices at Dragonfly have gone through the roof in the last 5 years. The price and conditions just don’t match up. There are better options when in the area.

Conditions are pretty identical to my review from last year. I played on 5/7 with a 7:50 AM tee time and this time around it was a little busier. Still finished in about 3.5 hrs but had to wait on most shots. The only thing I’d add from my last review. Bring bug spray!! There was a 3-4 hole stretch that was horrible. Other than that. All good. Fun, unique layout that really takes advantage of the mountain slope. A very doable Muni course and the appropriate price point for conditions and layout.