Thanks to a friend who is a member at Rolling Hills CC (currently closed during remodel), I got to play Brentwood CC last Friday under perfect twilight skies. I had long dreamed of playing this course... Continue »

Thanks to a friend who is a member at Rolling Hills CC (currently closed during remodel), I got to play Brentwood CC last Friday under perfect twilight skies. I had long dreamed of playing this course so close to my place yet so out of reach, and I was quite excited when it all came together. We played the black tees and were required to take a caddie, who, sad to say, was pretty poor all around, but no need to get into that too much. I'm not sure exactly how much the round cost for a visitor as it was won during the match - no need to get into that either. Brentwood is pretty much what you would expect from a private LA course right in the heart of the west side. Pretty perfectly manicured fairways, excellent greens and bunkers, and tremendously well kept tee boxes. What was not so great? Some of the rough is absolutely pointless and bonkers. Sure, don't hit it in there - I get it. I do. But it's frustrating to simply mis-hit a drive short and left and it be gone into a thicket of I don't know what. Gone. Yes. Hit a better tee shot. Noted. And yet as stunningly kept as BCC is, for me at least, it wasn't very inspiring or endearing. The layout doesn't feel like anything too special. You go around the outside of the property. You go around the inside of the property. There are definitely some fun holes - don't misunderstand me. You're not going to be miserable. But it just doesn't emit that panache that some other high end courses ooze. And not through any fault of its own - they're doing everything right. But the land you got is the land you got. It's pretty flat, for the most part. The green complexes are just that - complex. Lots of breaks, lots of tough reads. They are also very well protected by bunkers, strategically placed mounds, and later in the round, ravines and hilly drop-offs surrounding them. It's tough without a doubt. Some real monster par 3s and one crazy narrow and very long par 5 on the back. One very cool thing though was at the right fairway bunker on #10 there was an actual bald eagle chomping down on the carcass of a crow. He was situated atop the grass berm as my buddy was forced to hit out the bunker above said eagle. Never moved a muscle. He got sanded and simply shook it off, then went back to eating crow. I took a few pictures of the course but the 'meh' nature of it makes me wonder if all of them will stand out enough for me to give accurate descriptions of where exactly on the course they are, but I'll do my best. Maybe it was the lousy round I had, too. That never helps, but even if I had shot 80 I would have felt the same way about the course layout. Look, if you can go, you must. Duh. It's a no-brainer. And I would even go again, if anything just to better that awful scorecard I took home. But as my friends and I kept commenting throughout the round - it's a good course to play a few times, but wouldn't want to be a member and have to play it every day.