I played a number of short courses on Saturday. Not all were relevant, but I thought Monterey Park should be repped on GK. This was my first time here and it was a better experience than I thought it ... Continue »

I played a number of short courses on Saturday. Not all were relevant, but I thought Monterey Park should be repped on GK. This was my first time here and it was a better experience than I thought it would be. I booked a 6:18 tee time on GN. The price felt a bit too steep for 9 holes at $19. That was one negative. It was still dark out when my tee time rolled around, so the starter (a very nice guy) had me wait until closer to 6:30. They do have lights on this course for night play, but they don't use them in the early morning apparently. I was paired with two other singles and we had a good pace as the lead group. This course went through a major renovation last year. They redid the irrigation system, updated the driving range and made some slight design alterations to the course itself. Having not played here in the past, I don't know the difference it made, but everyone I talked to seemed to be very happy with the improvements. I can say the course was in relatively nice shape. Mostly lush and green throughout. Far from pristine, but as good as you could hope for at a course of this caliber. The greens were soft and rolling well at medium speeds. I wasn't in a bunker, but they looked nice. My only other issue with the course is they use mats on the tees. The mats are supposedly a material that allows you to put in your own tee, but it still barely goes in. On the two par-4s, I actually used a normal short tee for my driver height and then just hit off the deck with irons on the rest of the holes. Fortunately, the mats are new and nice to hit from now, so hopefully they replace them regularly. Otherwise, the course itself is pretty fun. Nothing too exciting with just two short par-4s and the rest short-ish par-3s, but there are some slight elevation changes to mix things up and keep it more interesting than I expected.