It's been awhile since I last played, but I felt the itch to get out today and a short, inexpensive course sounded more fun. Took advantage of a 12:00 hot deal time here for $26. It's hard to justify ... Continue »

It's been awhile since I last played, but I felt the itch to get out today and a short, inexpensive course sounded more fun. Took advantage of a 12:00 hot deal time here for $26. It's hard to justify full price for a par-3 course, but for this price (cart included) it was well worth it today. The staff was wonderful and the starter was nice letting me know they didn't have anyone to pair with me (even though there was only one spot available on the hot deal booking). He gave me a few options to wait or just go by myself despite the course being busy. I just played by myself behind other groups, so I waited awhile on every tee box. Other groups were behind me eventually, so I couldn't even slow play if I wanted to. Still, the whole round only took 2.5 hours, though it felt slower than that. With the exception of the bunkers, the course was in excellent shape. The overseed has this place lush and beautiful from edge to edge. The tee boxes had the divot damage you would expect after a full morning of play, but I never had too much trouble finding a decent spot. There really aren't fairways here, just different cuts of rough. Nothing too deep, though, so always pretty fluffy chip shot lies if you miss a green. The greens were receptive and rolling pretty smooth at medium speeds. I fixed up a few errant ball marks, but nothing too egregious. I was only in one bunker and I was glad because it sucked. Just kind of muddy/hard-packed sand. Most I looked at elsewhere on the course didn't appear too much better. Too bad the bunkers are weak when the rest of the course is so darn nice. I've only played here once before (almost 6 years ago). I loved it then and I've been wanting to go back ever since I moved out to the desert. In my opinion, this is easily one of the best public par-3 courses in all of California with 18 good holes. It's a legit layout with a wide variety of hole lengths and just enough challenge (water hazards, desert waste areas, big bunkers and undulating greens) to make even the best players work for a good score. At the same time, it's plenty forgiving enough for the average and novice players to play without getting too beat up. Beautiful desert scenery throughout and good visual contours on the course. There aren't too many must-play short courses in SoCal, but this is definitely one of them, especially during peak season conditions/weather and a good hot deal price.